Damon Albarn sounds off on Taylor Swift, Rolling Stones

As the lead singer (and the pretty face) of Blur, Damon Albarn became a star writing songs about England — witty, tuneful, stylistically omnivorous character studies like “Parklife” and “Country House” that along with Oasis’ blunter-edged anthems helped define the rowdy Britpop scene of the 1990s.

But Albarn’s latest solo album addresses a different place: Iceland, where he became a citizen last year, decades after his first visit in 1997. Full of slow-mo ballads that set Albarn’s tender croon amid shimmering instrumental textures, “The Nearer the Mountain, More Pure the Stream Flows” began when he convened a group of orchestral musicians at his…