Albums of the week: Damon Albarn’s mournful ode to Brexit Britain

The Good, The Bad & The Queen - Merrie Land

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Earlier this year, Damon Albarn took to the stage at the Brit Awards to accept the British Group prize for another of his bands, Gorillaz. He has since admitted that he was “refreshed”. “I’ve got one thing to say and it’s about this country,” he slurred. “It’s a lovely place and it’s part of a beautiful world. Don’t let it become isolated.”

Consider the revival after 12 years of The Good, The Bad & The Queen — his collaboration with Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, Clash bassist Paul Simonon and The Verve’s Simon Tong — to be a far more articulate extension of that speech. It’s his Brexit album, in a nutshell.

Albarn has been putting an idea of Britishness to music since Blur’s second album, Modern Life is Rubbish, arrived as a reaction to American grunge in 1993. Merrie Land features a slightly queasy seaside organ in its sound palette, alongside medieval pipes, a quote from Chaucer and dubby basslines from Simonon that serve as a reminder that Britain is no monoculture. Unlike the ideas dump of Gorillaz, the mood here is consistently melancholy — a steady drizzle but not without beauty, as on the gorgeous ballad Lady Boston.

As with the recent Arctic Monkeys album, the loose, downbeat musical feel allows for greater focus on the lyrics, which mourn a country that is changing for the worse. “Are we green, are we pleasant?/We are not either of those, Father,” Albarn sings on the title track. “We are a shaking wreck where nothing grows/Lost in the sky-coloured oils of Merrie Land.”

(Studio 13)

Little Mix - LM5

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The fifth album from 2011 X Factor winners Little Mix arrives in auspicious circumstances. Last week, Jade, Perrie, Jesy and Leigh-Anne announced they were parting ways with Simon Cowell’s Syco label. It seems there were disagreements over LM5’s themes: “Man, I feel like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Queen of Hearts,” the quartet croon on Joan of Arc. “Oh you on that feminist tip? Hell yeah, I am!” Presumably Simon doesn’t like that sort of attitude.

But while it would be wonderful to report that LM5 is an incendiary feminist pop classic — actually, it still sounds like an X Factor challenge designed to cash in on a trend. It’s Female Empowerment Week, girls! With lush harmonies, expensive hooks and Cardi B-esque beats, the band sing of body positivity, self-care and admitting imperfections.

It’s a little by-numbers, but Strip is characteristically smart: a minimalist rap that likens removing make-up to a striptease. “Take off all my make-up cos I love what’s under it / Rub off all your words don’t give a f*** I’m over it.”

(Syco)

The Smashing Pumpkins - Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun

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For the first time in more than 18 years, founding members Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin appear on The Smashing Pumpkins’ new album, alongside long-term guitarist Jeff Schroeder. There are songs here nodding to the Pumpkins of old, with Solara, With Sympathy and Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts) feeling like the welcome return of an old grungey friend.

Yet there is new territory for the band, too, as they venture more into the synth and the orchestral — a style that suits well their propensity for the grandiose. It’s the sound of a band finding their feet once more, renewed and hopeful.

(Napalm Records)

Mumford & Sons - Delta

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Just a few songs into Mumford & Sons’ new album there’s a reassuring presence. After the band went electric on their last record, the banjo is back. Combined with Marcus Mumford’s familiar religious references, it might feel like business as usual. The opening track, 42, is one of several stomping folk-rock tunes that should fit seamlessly into their arena show. But there’s also evolution on Guiding Light, Picture You and Darkness Visible, for which producer Paul Epworth encouraged them to explore synths and beats.

As they mark a decade since their debut, Mumford & Sons are growing into their big themes and earnest lyrics. Delta has the songs to secure their status as one of the biggest bands in the world.

(Island)

Oi Va Voi​ - Memory Drop

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Combining their Jewish heritage with indie songwriting and production, Oi Va Voi released their breakthrough album Laughter Through Tears in 2003. One of its best songs, Refugee, with vocalist KT Tunstall, sounds even more apposite today than it did then. With some key founder members, but after several changes of line-up, Oi Va Voi’s fourth album, Memory Drop, features new vocalist Zohara. One of the record’s concerns, in songs such as Vanished World, is that the last witnesses to the Holocaust are now dying.

The Oi Va Voi vitality and sound is still there — thanks to the clarinet of Steve Levi and violin of Anna Phoebe — but comes with an urgent new twist. They play Islington Town Hall on December 3.

(V2 Records)​

Omar Sosa & Yilian Cañizares ​- Aguas

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Omar Sosa is an established Cuban pianist whose eloquent, otherworldly playing is informed by respect for tradition, a hankering for new forms and a belief in Santeria, his country’s Afro-Cuban religion. Yilian Cañizares is a younger Cuban singer and violinist making her mark with a sound that combines hypnotic vocals and spirited technique. Together, supplemented by electronic brushstrokes and the percussion flourishes of Inor Sotolongo, these two Europe-based Cubanos use their shared roots as a base from which to explore new avenues, on a spare, elegant work that is fittingly dedicated to Oshun - the deity of sensuality and sweet waters. They play the Barbican, EC2, on Friday 23 November as part of the EFG London Jazz festival.

(Ota records)