Photographs (You Are Taking Now)

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"Photographs (You Are Taking Now)"
XL
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Damon Albarn
  • Richard Russell

"Photographs (You Are Taking Now)" is a song recorded by English recording artist and songwriter and frontman of both

studio album Everyday Robots (2014). The song was featured in a number of promotional teaser trailers for the album, featured on Albarn's official YouTube account in late 2013. The song contains a sample of late writer, Timothy Leary
.

Background

Timothy Leary, (Center), is sampled on "Photographs (You Are Taking Now)".

On 18 January 2014, the

Fox Studios in Los Angeles. The DVD was filmed on 3 December 2013. On the next day, the album's information was removed from the website, which made many believe it was not supposed to have leaked so soon.[2]

A series of trailers also appeared on Albarn's YouTube account as a way of promoting the album. The trailers featured a lot of images, mainly from Albarn's past and his previous projects. As well as a 21-second clip which featured Albarn at the piano and, before showing the title: Damon Albarn. First Solo Album. Coming Soon. A further trailer appeared on Albarn's YouTube channel, which featured footage of Albarn and Russell in Albarn's Studio 13 in West London recording the album itself, showing many instruments and song lyrics written onto pieces of paper.[3]

"Photographs (You Are Taking Now)" contains a sample of writer Timothy Leary from the audiobook The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The sample itself is Leary talking the listener through a trip on LSD.[4]

The use of samples is something that

Richard Russell, the song's producer is well known for. Russell was the executive producer for Gil Scott-Heron's 2010 comeback album "I'm New Here", in which multiple samples were used on the album, Bobby Womack's "The Bravest Man in the Universe", features a sample of Gil Scott-Heron as well. Russell is an out-spoken advocate of sampling and has used the technique on the remix version of "I'm New Here" with Jamie xx of The xx.[5]

Live performances

Although the record will be released under his name, he said he wanted himself and his backing band to be known as The Heavy Seas. The band's first performance was at

Mr. Tembo", Albarn also played "Tomorrow Comes Today" from Gorillaz eponymous debut album and The Good, the Bad & the Queen single "Kingdom of Doom" as well as "El Mañana" from Demon Days and the Blur B-Side "All Your Life".[7]

The song was also played by Albarn and his live band at the

SXSW Festival, where he performed the song in its entirety in front of an American audience. The track featured the sample as a looped backing vocal as well and appears to be a very prominent feature on the song itself.[7]

Critical reception

In his track-by-track review for

TV voice before resounding bass with almost techno depth takes us from the "patent courts of nature" to "the church of John Coltrane". A fairly circuitous route, sure, that sees time pass from the taking to the taking down of photographs. But the melancholy starts to give way to John Barry-esque strings – and suddenly our hero's sipping Martinis in a tux. More of an Alex James (Albarn's Blur bandmate) image, really."[8]

Personnel

  • Damon Albarn – main vocals, piano, backing vocals
  • strings
  • Timothy Leary – voice sample
  • Richard Russell
    – production, sampling, drum programming, drums
  • Stephen Sedgwick –
    engineering, mixing

References

  1. ^ ""Everyday Robots" – 7" vinyl % HD bundle". store.damonalbarnmusic.com. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  2. Consequence of Sound
    . Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  3. ^ "Damon Albarn". YouTube. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  4. ^ "Schedule | sxsw.com". Schedule.sxsw.com. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  5. ^ Tim Noakes (18 June 2014). "X-Men: Jamie Smith & Richard Russell | Dazed". Dazeddigital.com. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  6. ^ Youngs, Ian (1 March 2014). "BBC News - Damon Albarn unveils new songs at BBC 6 Music Festival". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  7. ^ a b Geslani, Michelle (1 March 2014). "Here's the incredible setlist for Damon Albarn's first solo performance, plus watch it in full". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  8. ^ "Damon Albarn, 'Everyday Robots' – First Listen | The latest music blogs, free MP3s, best new bands, music videos, movie trailers and news analysis". Nme.com. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.

External links

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