That was pretty much all I knew about them and, in actuality, they seemed like a cool band, but I never listened to them. It sounds confusing, but think about for a few minutes and it’ll make sense.
I knew that they were an alternative band who, with the help of an animator, made another band within their own band (conveniently named “Gorillaz”), who were a band from space. I had known of Gorillaz existence before.
Albarn may occasionally succeed on non-Blur outings, but as with Coxon and Alex James' solo affairs, they only further prove that Blur is equal to much more than the sum of its parts.Hello, I’m MusiCommentator, and this review was requested by DumCheese from Riley’s Backpack, so go check out that website. Gorillaz is the definitive side-project: Even at its best, it's never more than a divergent one-off stint. But in actuality, it's a sign of the record's short-lasting, faddish appeal. That Gorillaz's closing number- Ed Case's two-step-meets-raga remix of "Clint Eastwood"- doesn't feel out of place could be taken as testament to how successfully eclectic the album is. The Wire reject, "Punk", suffers from an asinine formula (play a sloppy riff, clap three times, add cockney vocals, repeat) that makes each of the track's 90 seconds harrowing. The appropriately titled "Re-Hash" is such a generic marriage of acoustic pop and stock hip-hop beats that, were Albarn to come in chanting, "Come, m'lady, come, come m'lady," it would hardly strike as surprising. The small-scale experimentation, though, falls flat on the record's few rock tracks. A light, Latin-tinged piano playfully slides over a sunny groove while Albarn exhibits "Tender"-like plaintiveness with lines like, "I can't stand your loneliness." Despite the fact that this track is unfamiliar territory for both Nakamura and Albarn, their charismatic playfulness makes for undeniable fun. The album's foray into dub-lite, "Slow Country", is Gorillaz's charming peak. And curiously, I can think of few other samples that would compliment Del's urgent delivery as effectively as Albarn's laconic vocal haze. On "Clint Eastwood", Del tha Funkee Homosapien handles the song's verses, allowing Damon a small cameo in the looped chorus. "New Genious (Brother)" is gloomy trip-hop with orchestral flourishes that wrap around the flux of Albarn's falsetto. On "Man Research (Clapper)", Damon wails hysterically over Dan's relentless, echoing thump. Gorillaz's best tracks exploit the unlikely, but successful dynamic between Albarn and Nakamura. As a result, this record reveals itself as far less disposable than its cartoon cover art suggests.
No, what we've got here is the same brooding backpacker hip-hop that elevated the similar Deltron 3030 LP to unforeseen heights. Nakamura's refreshing production doesn't rely on today's hip-hop skitters and squiggles for its futurism. And that, friends, is why Gorillaz is a conceptual failure.īut maybe this is for the best. There's no band (animated or otherwise) making this music it's the Automator throwing down beats, manipulating samples, and letting Kid Koala's scratches interrupt his flow. Dan "The Automator" Nakamura is similarly recognizable. Early reports suggested that Albarn contributed to only a few songs, but he could rightfully be called the band's frontman his croon can be heard on all but 4 of the album's 16 tracks. Even people who only know Blur as "that band who did 'Woo-Hoo'" will immediately detect Albarn's ever-so-Brit pipes. As soon as the record begins, the cartoon façade fades.
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