SXSW Reviews

The Good, the Bad & the Queen

(Virgin)

No one in their right mind could've predicted that some 12 years after the great war betwixt the anthemic Gallagher Chav Corps and the strategically squidgy Albarn/Coxon Alliance, that it'd be Blur's bonnie, scrawny lead lad Damon A. that triumphed. All macaque-rocking monkeys aside, this is an utterly on-target wartime opine, a masterful musical guerrilla action that finds the Clash's Paul Simonon, Verve guitarist Simon Tong, and Afrobeat godhead Tony Allen breaking ranks to create a near-perfect sonic snapshot of London under Blair's blowback blitz. The former Blur heartbeat may "drink all day coz the country is at war," but then, too, he'll "keep singing – it's not too late for you," grimly hopeful sentiments bobbing atop a melancholy river of blood, sweat, and fears like charred blossoms of English roses straining past the pall of Armageddon toward the tenuous light of life. Only pop music can save us now. (Friday, March 16, Stubb's, 12:45am)