15. Everyday Robots / Damon Albarn

Blur.  Gorillaz.  You know this guy.  The uber-talented Brit's solo album, Everyday Robots, is a down-tempo pop record musing on our isolation and interconnection via technology. Though he touches on some themes of alienation, this is not a screed.  Albarn is a brilliant modernist and boundary-pushing musician.  He fronts a band of cartoon apes, after all, and he demonstrates his futurism here by using his own iPad to shoot the videos for "Lonely Press Play" and "Heavy Seas of Love."

We are everyday robots on our phone, he sings on the title track.  His downcast voice deepens the album's themes and reveals the nature of his personal reflections; he is concerned, self-aware, but very much plugged-in.  Backed by strings and muted percussion, "Lonely Press Play" expresses his desire to connect emotionally, but he only finds solace in hitting the play button.  When I'm lonely, I press play / Because you're not resolved in your heart / You're waiting for me to improve.

Albarn handled the singing, piano, and guitar parts.  Co-producer and XL Recordings boss Richard Russell programmed the drums, and his occasional live percussion comes from a metal and plastic instrument that he picked up in the Congo.  Although there is a loose concept and consistent feel to the record, Albarn cannot help but meander, an eclecticist at heart.  Backed by the Leytonstone City Mission Choir, he sings over jaunty world rhythms about a little orphan elephant he met in Tanzania, "Mr. Tembo."  The choir's presence on the record, including on the optimistic closing track "Heavy Seas of Love," was a nostalgic addition for Albarn, who would often hear the choir singing from the Pentecostal Church at the end of his boyhood road.

Brian Eno contributes synthesizers and backing vocals on "You & Me/Heavy Seas of Love" and Natasha Kahn (Bat for Lashes) appears on "The Selfish Giant."  Unlike Albarn's recent efforts with Gorillaz, however, this is very much a solo record, allowing him to explore his love for soulful singing in an often minimalist context.  The spare environment suits him just fine, as Everyday Robots debuted at #2 on the UK album charts (proving the country's oft-superior taste) and was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize.