The Good, The Bad & The Queen – “Gun To The Head”

Pennie Smith

The Good, The Bad & The Queen – “Gun To The Head”

Pennie Smith

In a couple of weeks, The Good, The Bad And The Queen will be back with their second album. Blur/Gorillaz leader Damon Albarn founded the band alongside the Clash’s Paul Simonon, the Verve’s Simon Tong, and the legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen more than a decade ago. They released their self-titled debut in 2007, and then they went dormant. But last month, the band announced that they would soon return with their sophomore effort Merrie Land, and they shared the album’s title track. Today, they’ve shared another new one from the LP.

Like “Merrie Land,” the brand new “Gun To The Head” is a gloomy fog of a song that nods back to the past of British pop music while attempting to encapsulate the country’s current dismal post-Brexit atmosphere. “Gun To The Head” is a slow and ungainly lope of a song, full of orchestral flourishes and music-hall melodic touches. It’s nakedly Beatlesque in a way that few Albarn songs are.

David Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti, who co-produced Merrie Land with the band, sings backup on “Gun To The Head,” while Albarn himself plays lowery organ, piano, and recorder. Give it a listen below.

Merrie Land is out 11/16 on Studio 13.

more from New Music