"I can't be bothered anymore about giving songs titles"

Damon Albarn’s remark, “I can’t be bothered anymore about giving songs titles,” gives insight into both the creative process and the evolving philosophy of an artist with decades of experience. For a songwriter known for his contributions to bands like Blur and Gorillaz, where titles have spanned from the playfully cryptic to the sharply evocative, it may at first seem surprising that the act of naming songs has become tedious or even irrelevant.

There are suggestions of creative exhaustion in his words, an accumulation of years spent trying to encapsulate emotions, stories, and aesthetics within the restrictive format of a title. Historically, song titles serve a functional role: to identify, intrigue, and sometimes market a piece of music. But as Albarn grows as a musician, he perhaps feels confined by the traditional importance placed on names, finding it less essential to assign a unique moniker to each work. He may see the title as a label that inevitably narrows interpretation, funneling the listener toward a specific reading. As music consumption habits have shifted, with digital playlists, shuffle modes, and algorithmic feeds, listeners sometimes experience tracks out of context, rarely focusing on titles unless searching or cataloguing. The title’s status as a gateway to meaning is less significant when the experience of the song takes precedence.

Albarn’s statement could also reflect a broader artistic restlessness, a desire for immediacy, or a challenge to conventions. If the act of titling a song becomes a chore, it suggests a wish to prioritize the music itself, sonic textures, emotional resonance, and direct expression, over semiotic trappings. Perhaps it is also a subtle critique of how commodification affects music, making each song a product with a name, instead of a fluid, expressive work. Ultimately, the comment speaks to both fatigue and liberation: the artist discarding an old rule in pursuit of something more authentic and unconstrained.