Assisted by longtime collaborators Mike Smith and Simon Tong, Albarn transformed the music into his second solo album—11 unhurried reflections on loss and fragility. “The fragility is the humans’ place within nature,” he says. “And the loss is the transferal of everything. Nothing’s lost. The thing changes, it doesn’t actually disappear—it just has a different state or form.”

With its vivid sense of place and transformation, the record recalls two of Albarn’s recent projects: Gorillaz’s Meanwhile EP and The Good, the Bad & the Queen’s Merrie Land. “The older you get, depending on your circumstance, the more acutely you feel these things,” he says. “I’m making music for young people at a rather advanced age for someone making music for young people. People of my own age, it’s kind of, ‘Yeah, well, that’s how I feel as well.’ Whereas for younger people, it’s like, ‘Well, that’s a strong flavor,’ but it’s not a bad thing.” Here, he takes us through the album, track by track.

A1. The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows
A2. The Cormorant
A3. Royal Morning Blue
A4. Combustion
A5. Daft Wader
A6. Darkness To Light
B7. Esja
B8. The Tower Of Montevideo
B9. Giraffe Trumpet Sea
B10. Polaris
B11. Particles