The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, the eagerly anticipated second solo album from Damon Albarn follows his critically acclaimed debut solo LP, 2014's Mercury Music Prize-nominated Everyday Robots. Though the record was originally intended as an orchestral piece inspired by the landscapes of Iceland, the last year saw Albarn return to the music in lockdown and develop the work to 11 tracks which further explore themes of fragility, loss, emergence and rebirth. The result is a panoramic collection of songs with the Blur and Gorillaz frontman as storyteller, resulting in one of his most beautiful, beguiling and focussed efforts to date.