Damon Albarn has discussed his views on guitar bands, saying he believes the sound to have gone "sterile" following the boom in popularity for the Arctic Monkeys in the mid noughties.
However, the Blur frontman also points out that he thinks there's renewed "excitement" for guitar bands, and praises a handful of artists who he believes to have "a huge amount of potential".
Speaking on the Broken Record podcast to promote Blur's new album The Ballad Of Darren, which is set to arrive on July 21, the Britpop star says: “I feel like there’s a bit more excitement about guitar music again, that can’t be a bad thing because it got so sterile. For me, the last great guitar band would have been Arctic Monkeys and I don’t really know if there’s anything as good as that since.
“But now there are bands with a huge amount of potential. It’s really dismantled itself guitar music and put itself back together again in a different form. You’ve got some fantastic new mutations of the genius of it."
Offering praise to the guitar bands that he thinks is inspiring this new rejuvenation, he continues: “I really like the band Wu-Lu, they seem to be really cool. There’s one I picked up on somewhere in the American countryside but I can’t remember his name, that’s narrowing it down isn’t it.
“Then you’ve got bands like Yard Act who seem to be getting better and better. Obviously they are not new, but I still see them as emerging are bands like Sleaford Mods, brilliant. There’s lots of great language being used again, not this generic rock shit – I hate that, I like poets and guitars."
Listen to the podcast episode below:
