Who would have thought that the twentysomething bloke jumping around a London street in a trackie top and floppy hairdo would turn out to be such a musical chameleon? You've got to hand it to Damon Albarn; when he first dipped his toe into the world music pool with 2002's 'Mali Music' project, people were understandably wary of the cliches that abounded. The now-40-year-old has since proven adept at adapting his talents, however, with the likes of Gorillaz, The Good, the Bad & the Queen, and now this unique project under his belt.
Monkey: Journey to the West is an opera conceived by Albarn (score) and Gorillaz cartoonist Jamie Hewlett (costumes and set) that's based on the 16th century Chinese novel 'Journey to the West'. As with all scores, Albarn's needed to be good to work without the visuals, but he succeeds in admirable fashion - especially considering that these compositions were apparently created using just the five-note scale synonymous with Chinese folk music (as well as an abundance of Western instruments - mostly brass and strings, to often swoonsome effect).
The occasional lyrics being whispered, squeaked and growled in Cantonese should also have posed a barrier (although translations are supplied in the sleeve notes), but contrarily, it makes tracks like The Living Sea and Heavenly Peach Banquet all the more evocative as they twinkle, glisten and sweep from the speakers like a living incarnation of a Studio Ghibli character.
Undoubtedly, there are moments of beauty on Monkey: Journey to the West that outstrip anything Albarn's written with Gorillaz or Blur (Battle In Heaven is especially effective, as is the genuinely creepy Whisper and the almost-poppy March of the Volunteers). He may have been accused of pilfering from other artists and genres in his former guise - but Albarn has outdone himself with this beautiful album.
