Gorillaz leader Damon Albarn has a solo album, The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, coming out later this year. After sharing the title track last month, he returns today with another cut, “Polaris,” which is more upbeat than its predecessor and is carried by a bossa nova rhythm.
In addition to the song, he also shared a live performance of it from that concert film he teased yesterday.
Albarn previously said of the album, “I organized musicians, string players, three bass trombones, some percussion, and keyboards into an interesting arrangement. […] I took some of these real-time, extreme elemental experiences [of Iceland] and then tried to develop more formal pop songs with that as my source. I wanted to see where that would take me. Sometimes it took me down to Uruguay and Montevideo. Other times I went to Iran, Iceland, or Devon. With travel being curtailed, it was kind of nice to be able to make a record that put me strangely in those places for a moment or two.”
Check out both the studio and live versions of “Polaris” above. Albarn also guests on a new episode of Mark Ronson’s Fader Uncovered podcast, so check that out below.
The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is out 11/12 via Transgressive Records. Pre-order it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.