Damon Albarn is the grand conceptualist of the Britpop era, the musician who spearheaded its blend of knowingly retro aesthetics and modernist verve through his work with Blur in the mid-'90s. Blur brought Albarn stardom when Parklife became a pop phenomenon in 1994, but after its 1995 sequel, The Great Escape, the band steered in a noisier, artier course. Such shifts in direction became a signature of Albarn's career. Once Blur began to fray at the dawn of the 2000s, he founded Gorillaz, a virtual pop group whose international fame soon eclipsed that of Blur. Gorillaz gave Al...