You can’t say that Damon Albarn has gone off the deep end, because he’s seldom been far from there all along. But even by his standards, this album is a conceptual stretch: A genuine opera (no rock involved) based on the life of 16th century alchemist John Dee. The musical forms he chooses are all appropriate to the tale: Church music of the period, courtly dances, madrigals and mystical folk-tinged pop; some of it falls under the goth umbrella if it falls anywhere. Fortunately, Albarn always brings his melodic gifts to his experimental projects, and the handful of tracks he sings — notably “Saturn” and “The Marvelous Dream” — have a touch of Roy Harper or Nick Drake, and raise hopes that Albarn will do his Brit-folk album someday. What Dr. Dee lacks — and that all good operas need — is a dramatic centerpiece; “Watching the Fire That Waltzed Away” gives a glimpse of mad release but it’s over too soon and the mood turns stately again. Seems that Albarn wanted to avoid doing anything cheap or vulgar; but despite its overall quality, his opera could have used a little more of that.
