Music

Monkey: Journey to the West by Damon Albarn
"The album is a natural development of art and music based on the opera of the same name which Albarn and Jamie Hewlett created with director Chen Shi-Zheng." It's an unusual piece of work, a mix of beautiful pieces, cool pieces, and the odd splash of drivel. It's easy to see why some -- mainly those who foolishly expected this to be Gorillaz's third album -- were disappointed. For those with a more open mind, however, it's definitely worth a listen. Track 21, Monkey Bee, is allegedly the theme for the BBC's Beijing Olympics coverage, but I think you'd be relatively hard pushed to recognise it in there.