There was also a clear narrative in Chen Shi-Zheng visually engrossing production that meshed live action with video in apparently seamless fashion. Some critics were begrudging in their praise – I thought the whole show utterly mesmerising. Minus the theatrical experience, though, Albarn's opera comes across as no more than a febrile concoction of pentatonic scales and echoes of works already heard.

If the production had been recorded for DVD then I would be unstinting in my praise but when you take away the narrative, visuals and stage action what you're left with is Monkey: The Soundtrack – disappointing on every conceivable level. Having listened to it over the course of two evenings (yes, even at 50 minutes it was too much for one sitting) I am still unable to fathom who thought it was a good idea to release it at all. The stage version comes in at just under 1hr 50mins, but the CD is a mere 50 minutes in length containing 22 tracks with no conceivable link between each, so the listener is made to endure a series of 'numbers' that make no logical sense whatsoever. Whilst some tracks make the listener hanker after the staged production, some are almost unlistenable to because of their sheer awfulness.

That Albarn is a serious musician there can be no doubt and he has obviously listened hard to such composers as Shostakovich, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, as the Russian composer's ghost is evident in the March of the Volunteers whilst there are plenty of ostinato repetitive chords a la Glass and Reich in such numbers as Confessions of a Pig and Battle in Heaven. The only instantly recognisable tune appears in the Heavenly Peach Banquet, but it's trite in the extreme.

Add the fact that when there are sung numbers, they're sung in Mandarin and the obfuscation of the listener is complete. True Albarn does achieve a sense of ambience in the score but the use of pentatonic scales is overdone, so there's a danger of the whole enterprise sinking into pastiche.

I was so looking forward to hearing Monkey: Journey to the West, as I'd totally succumbed to its charm in the theatre, but I'd advise anyone approaching this CD to do so with caution, especially if you've not seen it in its glory in the theatre where it belongs.

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