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. When talking about people comparing The Rolling Stones and The Beatles to the rivalry between Oasis and Blur, the Gallaghers are reported to have said in an interview with CMJ: "The fact of the matter is, we're the Beatles and the Stones, and they're the fucking Monkees.As soon as the record begins, the cartoon façade fades. Some fans believe the origins of the Gorillaz name can be found in a dig from Albarn's former Britpop rivals.
Various sources suggest that their simian name was inspired by the fact the pair were born a few weeks apart in 1968, which is in the year of the monkey. Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn's birth year
“Even now I think, during the gigs, I’m going to be able to go off, go backstage and make myself a drink and a hologram will take my place for a couple of songs.” 2. “People weren’t meant to know it was me,” Albarn told The Guardian back in 2017. Damon Albarn is now of course almost as synonymous with the hugely successful animated band as he is with Blur, but it wasn't meant to be that way.
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