"Hollow Ponds" is the third single by Damon Albarn from his debut solo album, ''

Everyday Robots ''Everyday Robots'' is the debut solo studio album by British musician Damon Albarn, best known as the frontman of Blur and Gorillaz. Described by Albarn as his "most personal record", the album was co-produced by Richard Russell and relea ...

''. It was released as a single in digital formats on 19 April 2014, via

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

in the US. Hollow Ponds is the name of a lake in

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, ...

, east London, where Albarn grew up, and the song references several events from his life. The song contains a sample of a Central line train leaving Leytonstone station on the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

Background

"Hollow Ponds" references key dates in Albarn's life, including the 1976 heat wave. "Read into that what you will," he said, when quizzed about its lyrical content. "And let's not talk about Australia." He also references Blur's ''

Modern Life Is Rubbish ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' is the second album by English alternative rock band Blur, released in May 1993. Although their debut album ''Leisure'' (1991) had been commercially successful, Blur faced a severe media backlash soon after its releas ...

'' name origin, which is from a piece of

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

Albarn saw spray-painted on a wall in London in 1993. There are a number of years mentioned in the song, including 1976, 1979, 1991 & 1993. Also referenced in the song are the construction of the M11 link road and the former Green Man pub in Leytonstone. The song "Hollow Ponds" was played in its full form on XFM on Thursday 20 March 2014. Albarn gave an interview with

Danielle Perry Danielle Perry (born 4 June 1980) is an English radio presenter and musician. Perry studied for her BA (Hons) Music degree at Southampton University. After graduating, she started doing her apprenticeship / making the tea at various local radio ...

where he talked about the track, and said: "1976 is a long time ago really, there's that realisation that a lot of things have been quite interesting in the way I turned out. They seemed to be worthy of some kind of meditation.That's what I'm trying to do in Hollow Ponds: go back and then realise that it's now. In a way, how do we know that we exist other than that beam of light that's our history?" Albarn also revealed that the song samples a train leaving

on the Central line on the

and also the playground of Albarn's old school.

Release

The track was confirmed to be an official single via Albarn's official website and becomes a free download on 19 April with pre-ordering the album. The live performance of the track live from

Fox Studios 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

is included as a bonus track from the Special Edition of the album along with "

", "Hostiles" & "

Lonely Press Play "Lonely Press Play" is the second single by Damon Albarn, from his solo debut album ''Everyday Robots''. It was released as a single in digital format on 27 February 2014. The song was made available to all who had pre-ordered Albarn's album fro ...

". Albarn released "

" and "Hollow Ponds", on 7' vinyl for

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

. Albarn was the subject of a half-hour episode of

The Culture Show ''The Culture Show'' is a British magazine programme about books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. The show was broadcast weekly on BBC Two between 2004 and 2015. Early history Launched in November 2004, t ...

broadcast on BBC Two in February 2014, which focused on his previous bands and his current work. In the programme he returned to his former homes in

, east London, and

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

, Essex. Speaking in the programme, he revealed that he found his first solo LP tough, saying: "I've spent so long in bands, playing to large groups of people, that doing a solo album is quite a difficult thing for me to do. That's why I put it off for so long." Speaking about being raised in London, he said: "Growing up in multi-cultural London in the 1970s played a big part of who I am." The documentary included clips of songs from his album as well, including 'Hollow Ponds', 'Hostiles' and 'Mr. Tembo'. It also featured a clip of Albarn's father, artist Keith Albarn, showcasing an interactive installation on a 1960s episode of ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...

''.

Official remix

An official remix for the song was released on Wednesday 16 April 2014, and was recorded by

Remi Kabaka Remi Kabaka (born 27 March 1945) is an Afro-rock avant-garde drummer. He worked with John Martyn, Hugh Masekela, on '' Rhythm of the Saints'' by Paul Simon, and '' Short Cut Draw Blood'' by Jim Capaldi. He was also an important figure in the 1970 ...

of the Gorillaz Soundsystem. The remix was released under the name " Hollow Ponds (Gorillaz Soundsystem Remix)". The remix itself was packaged with the single on Record Store Day 2014.

Critical reception

In his track-by-track review for

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

, Matthew Horton said: "One for the Blur fans perhaps – " Modern life was sprayed onto a wall in 1993" – but 'Hollow Ponds' is broader than that, building from witchy Radiohead acoustic guitar to a grand peak with a glum trumpet solo and taking in the drought of 1976 and the 21st century "dreams we share on LCDs". That's a call back to 'Everyday Robots', the dehumanising effects of technology, and the song itself finally resolves into a drone and eerie electronic excursion." Dan Cains of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'' wrote: "The albums’s key song, this saunter back through the mists of time opens at the eponymous ponds that mark the southwestern edge of

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

(near Albarn’s childhood home), in the 1976 heatwave. Like someone sticking pins in a map, Albarn revisits several staging posts, all of them full of magic, romance, loss and dislocation, blankly concluding each section with the relevant date on as a beautiful and haunting a song as he’s ever written."

Track listing

Personnel

* Damon Albarn - main vocals, sampling, backing vocals * Seye - guitar *

Jeff Wootton Jeffrey Wootton (born 12 May 1987) is an English musician, guitarist and songwriter from Manchester. He has been the lead guitarist in the Gorillaz since 2010. A long time collaborator with Damon Albarn, he has also collaborated with Brian Eno, ...

- six string bass guitar * Mike Smith - keyboards *Nicholas Hougham -

french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

* Richard Russell - production, drum programming, drums * Stephen Sedgwick –

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, mixing

References

External links

* {{authority control Damon Albarn songs 2014 songs 2014 singles Parlophone singles Warner Records singles Songs written by Damon Albarn