A-Z: Damon Albarn - Hostiles

Rewind/Fast Forward's A-Z series continues with a solo track from the legendary Damon Albarn. While looking at all the 'tags' used on our posts, it emerged that Blur have featured on this site more than any other band or artist. Add to that the posts that feature Gorillaz, The Good The Bad and The Queen, and other Albarn projects, and it seems that his prolific workrate has paid off. The beautifully sombre 'Hostiles' was featured on 'Everyday Robots' his debut solo studio album, described by Albarn as his "most personal record". Released in April 2014, it features guest contributions from Brian Eno, Natasha Khan and the Leytonstone City Mission Choir. It was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize and debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart.

In an interview with NME, Albarn explained that "The lyrics were the hardest part. The music… leans towards my more melancholic, introspective soulful side, which is where I love to sing, but lyrically it took me a long time. I wanted it to be about my life, in a way, and I went right back to... it sort of starts in 1976... every line on this record happened".

'Hostiles' was "partly to do with the way so many people watch films where characters with no back story are just being annihilated. Look at video games – 'hostiles' is the name given to the enemy. They're given no back story. There's no humanity. Yet they're given human shape.... It's also about those days where you're so fucking hungover, you can't do anything. You just sit there and stare into the middle distance".