Blur's Damon Albarn pins Arctic Monkeys as "the last great guitar band", says no band has been as good as them since

Damon Albarn and Alex Turner — (Image credit: Jim Dyson/Getty Images, Samir Hussein/WireImage)

Damon Albarn has discussed his views on guitar bands, saying he believes the sound to have gone "sterile" following the boom in popularity for the Arctic Monkeys in the mid noughties.

However, the Blur frontman also points out that he thinks there's renewed "excitement" for guitar bands, and praises a handful of artists who he believes to have "a huge amount of potential".

Speaking on the Broken Record podcast to promote Blur's new album The Ballad Of Darren, which is set to arrive on July 21, the Britpop star says: “I feel like there’s a bit more excitement about guitar music again, that can’t be a bad thing because it got so sterile. For me, the last great guitar band would have been Arctic Monkeys and I don’t really know if there’s anything as good as that since.

“But now there are bands with a huge amount of potential. It’s really dismantled itself guitar music and put itself back together again in a different form. You’ve got some fantastic new mutations of the genius of it."

Offering praise to the guitar bands that he thinks is inspiring this new rejuvenation, he continues: “I really like the band Wu-Lu, they seem to be really cool. There’s one I picked up on somewhere in the American countryside but I can’t remember his name, that’s narrowing it down isn’t it.

“Then you’ve got bands like Yard Act who seem to be getting better and better. Obviously they are not new, but I still see them as emerging are bands like Sleaford Mods, brilliant. There’s lots of great language being used again, not this generic rock shit – I hate that, I like poets and guitars."

Listen to the podcast episode below:

Liz manages Louder's social media channels and works on keeping the sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.