Listen: Damon Albarn releases title track from 'Everyday Robots'

By Mikael Wood

Damon Albarn announced Monday that this spring he'll release a new studio album, one the wide-ranging British musician is calling his first solo record.

Due April 29 from Warner Bros. Records, "Everyday Robots" was recorded last year with Richard Russell, the XL Recordings chief with whom Albarn worked previously on Bobby Womack's acclaimed 2012 disc "The Bravest Man in the Universe." Additional collaborators on the 12-track set include Brian Eno and Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes.

In a statement, Albarn's representative said the songs on "Everyday Robots" "are the most soul-searching and autobiographical since his musical journey began," with lyrics "inspired by Albarn's experiences from early childhood to now."

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The album's title track, which appeared on YouTube on Monday, finds Albarn pondering the dehumanizing effects of technology over a drowsy beat embroidered with lush but eerie strings.

"We are everyday robots on our phones," he sings with his trademark lilt, "in the process of getting home."

Although Albarn is presenting "Everyday Robots" as his solo debut, it's not the first record to appear under his own name. In 2003, the frontman of Blur released "Democrazy," a collection of song sketches he'd recorded while on Blur's final tour before that band went on hiatus following its album "Think Tank." (Blur reunited in 2008 and played Coachella last year.)

And in 2012, Albarn issued an album with music from his opera "Dr Dee," which explored the life and work of the Elizabethan polymath John Dee.

Beyond those projects, Albarn has recorded and toured lately with Gorillaz; the Good, the Bad & the Queen and Rocket Juice & the Moon.

Albarn played songs from his upcoming album during two shows Sunday night at the Sundance Film Festival, according to Deadline, and he's to peform in June at New York's Governors Ball Music Festival.

Listen to "Everyday Robots" below.

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Twitter: @mikaelwood

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