EVERYDAY Robots is the first solo album from Blur polymath Damon Albarn, although he has long been a lone voice.

On the 20th anniversary of the birth of Britpop, Oasis are tarting up debut album Definitely Maybe for a triple-disc deluxe and super-deluxe reissue, but restless old southern rival Albarn is as busy as ever making new music.

Only Elvis Costello has rivalled Albarn for constant experimentation and unpredictable career twists, but Costello has invariably stripped his soul bare, whereas Albarn has never been averse to masks (most notably the cartoon Gorillaz) or left-field specialist themes (the dark psyche of Elizabeth superbrain Dr John Dee on Dr Dee). Sometimes he could be as much of a blur as his band name.

The mask slips on Everyday Robots, albeit that the advance notice of Everyday Robots being the “most soul-searching and autobiographical” record of his 24 years in the limelight is too narrow in its definition.

Yes, he takes a personal journey from Leytonstone and Colchester childhood to London’s Westway, but his gaze is still on modern life around him too, hence the album title of Everyday Robots, as he surveys over-reliance on computers, mobile phones and hi-tech’s false gods.

He once said modern life is rubbish; now he is looking beyond its ubiquitous electronic grasp to life beyond, to things longer lasting, but to uncertainties too. On the one hand, he celebrates a baby elephant in Mr Tembo; on the other, a nuclear submarine stalksThe Selfish Giant.

Recorded last year at Albarn’s West London studio around keyboards and sound effects rather than a guitar template, Everyday Robots’ dozen tracks were produced by XL’s Richard Russell and take on board Albarn’s love of African music, a big gospel choir, lazy-as-a-Sunday-afternoon hip-hop, and lonesome brass on Hollow Ponds.

Albarn has a sense of place to rival The Kinks’ Ray Davies and a sense of England not heard since XTC’s Skylarking, and increasingly you can find echoes of Peter Gabriel’s elegant mature perspective.

Damon still writes a lovely love song too, the robots long out of view on Heavy Seas Of Love.