The Morning News

Listening • Monkey: Journey to the West

For those of us practically dying of anticipation for whatever Damon Albarn releases next, our desperate longing since The Good, the Bad & the Queen (less than two years, really) is nearing its end as Monkey: Journey to the West will be made available for digital download on Aug. 18. The album is adapted from the opera of the same title that Albarn, Gorillaz-collaborator Jamie Hewlett, and Chinese opera director Chen Shi-Zheng developed for the Manchester International Festival last summer. Based on an ancient legend, the opera employs the traditional Chinese pentatonic scale and is performed entirely in Mandarin. Though it’s not the successor to Demon Days we may be hoping for, it’ll have to tide us over until the next Gorillaz album. Please let there be one. —Erik Bryan, Aug. 13, 2008

» Listen to “Heavenly Peach Banquet” at the album’s site

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Chen Shi-Zheng, Damon Albarn, Gorillaz, Jamie Hewlett, The Good, the Bad & the Queen, The Manchester International Festival

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