The comebacks have obtained euphoric opinions, however they’re occurring at a starkly completely different second for British pop music, in contrast with the ’90s. Though Britpop by no means reached the identical heights of recognition in america that it did in Australia, Canada, Japan and continental Europe, it coincided with a excessive level for British smooth energy. In 1996 Newsweek declared London the world’s coolest metropolis. In 1997, Vainness Truthful devoted 25 pages to the bands, artists, cooks and designers making Britain “the place we should all look to.” The identical 12 months, The New Yorker referred to as Britain’s music scene “a scary paradise.”

At this time, nonetheless, neither British nor world information media are portraying Britain because the musical place to be — regardless of it giving the world present stars like Ed Sheeran, Adele and Harry Types. As a substitute, information articles in regards to the nation’s music scene usually tend to contact on venues shuttering — at a price of 1 every week this 12 months, in response to the nonprofit Music Venue Belief — or the nation’s bands, DJs and rappers struggling to tour overseas after Brexit introduced in a tangle of purple tape. Native information retailers have additionally lamented the British authorities’s cuts to arts funding, and warned in regards to the decline of music educating in faculties.

Sitting in his West London recording studio not too long ago, Albarn mentioned some issues hadn’t modified since Britpop’s heyday. He was nonetheless “utterly obsessive about this nation,” he mentioned, and writing songs with lyrics that had been “chipped out of that blue stone of Stonehenge.”

However there have been additionally huge variations, he added. He was now 55, and wore knee helps onstage. And the challenges going through the nation’s pipeline of musical stars had been clear: “The soul of the nation is in peril, if you wish to get dramatic about it,” he mentioned, including that music was “pivotal to our worldwide place.”

Chuva, the Portuguese music fan, mentioned he felt a change, too — not simply in Britain’s music, however within the nationwide temper. “The climate right here’s all the time been grey,” he mentioned. “Now all the things is.”