#All gorillaz albums series#
A web series of music video “episodes” and accompanying songs were released throughout 2020, culminating in this record: SONG MACHINE, SEASON ONE: STRANGE TIMEZ. The “Song Machine” project is the Gorillaz’ latest fun approach to music release and promotion. #5 - SONG MACHINE, SEASON ONE: STRANGE TIMEZ (2020) But that doesn’t mean it’s not a dance-y experience with a little more to say. For all its extensive production, songwriting chops, and musical influences, HUMANZ wasn’t quite the return that I was hoping for, as a Gorillaz fan. It feels like a chaotic fever dream, but an upbeat one, and fittingly, no other track “ascends” past this early song (it only follows the intro).
#All gorillaz albums full#
Also like PLASTIC BEACH, HUMANZ is full of guest artists, from De La Soul to Vince Staples the latter appears on “Ascension,” the record’s best track. Like PLASTIC BEACH, HUMANZ is a commentary on the world as Albarn and Hewlett see it, filtered through fun (for the most part) dance music. But the album isn’t exactly a pointed political statement against one person alone. Released after the largest hiatus between the group’s releases (seven years) and a period of time where it looked like the Gorillaz might never come back, HUMANZ was an ambitious, wide-ranging album commenting on the state of a post-Trump world…although it was mostly recorded before the guy won. That being said, THE NOW NOW’s predecessor also isn’t in the upper echelon of Gorillaz records. They were all listened to, however, to gain a fuller appreciation for the Gorillaz’ entire body of work. This piece, which ranks those seven albums, won’t include the compilation albums G-SIDES (2001) or D-SIDES (2007), or the remix album LAIKA COME HOME (2002, created by the group Spacemonkeyz, which formed expressly for this purpose and have not released music under that moniker since), or the impetus for this piece, the EP MEANWHILE (2021). His curation of guest talent and embrace of pop, hip hop, reggae, electronic and “world” music have resulted in seven eclectic and exciting albums so far, over the 19 years from 2001 to 2020. Indeed, Albarn’s freewheeling musical tastes, inclinations, and writing abilities spun off from Blur in a tremendous way. became an official member of the band in 2015) didn’t just rest on some gimmick. The Gorillaz, at least in their early years, toured with a giant screen to showcase the “band.” But the duo turned trio (producer and voice of “Noodle” Remi Kabaka Jr. Albarn wrote the music behind Hewlett’s designs, and together they built a fictional band with its own history, supported by an impressive amount of music videos over the years. The novel project (note: not novel ty) formed in 1998, and Blur frontman Damon Albarn and comic artist and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett tackled multimedia ideas that came to define a millennial approach to music. I remember the Gorillaz being pretty cool in elementary and middle school.