Gorillaz flies through space in a rocket-powered caravan facing the moon, which is the singing head of Robert Smith of The Cure. His giant face is then traversed by an animated quartet through terrain lightways. Thus begins the visual for the title song of the current album, which suggests that 52-year-old Damon Albarn can afford everything his imagination allows in the mainstream.
–
The song Strange Timez, with its agitated claustrophobic sound and relentless dance tempo, hits the derailment of 2020. When Damon Albarn launched the single Song Machine in January with the words “I have no idea which way this is going”, he could hardly imagine how uncertain the contours were. the end of the tens of years fades. “It’s a weird time we live in,” Smith repeats in the euphoric finale of the title song.
–
Damon Albarn has been composing music for Gorillaz on the iPad for at least ten years. He even recorded the album The Fall from 2010 in the “pocket studio” for the most part, and digital technologies then permeated the world of music a bit more. While waiting at the airports and on the tour bus, the following albums Humanz and The Now Now were also released.
–
White cover
Photo: Parlophone Records
But the feelings of listening were as fleeting as the sight of the landscape disappearing beneath the plane. But with 2020, Albarn stopped again and opened the door to his studio. Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, it was as if he knew what awaited us.
–
He pledged to release at least one guest song each month, which will bring time. The singles have now been released in a comprehensive collection, although the recording had to adapt to the situation, but the best album since The Plastic Beach was created in partial isolation.
–
The novelty is reminiscent of the state between dreaming and waking, from which one does not want to wake up to reality. “It’s such a great feeling to have a perfect song / It’s such a great feeling to have absolute control,” Gorillaz and Beck offer music in response to the crunch of times in the second song, which soon turns the album into an impressive collage of genres and feelings. .
–
Chalk Tablet Towers is a synthpop and elegant memory of carefree parties, Airees with Peter Hook with bass is again a tribute to the euphoric sound of New Order, and the song unfolds beautifully from machine minimalism to fullness. The undeniable highlight of the album remains Momentary Bliss, which features Slaves and Slowthai, one of Britain’s greatest rap talents. The song aspires to the single of the year with its punk energy.
–
Although it may have seemed from previous recordings that the Gorillaz concept has run out after twenty years, the Song Machine project shows that Damon Albarn has much more to say. The musical universe on the Strange Times is not meant to be an escape from the burdensome reality of the world, it is to set to music all the moods that a “strange time” can evoke. And despite all the melancholy, he can convey the warm feeling that one day he will be better again.
–
| Gorillaz: Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez |
| Parlophone Records, 42:53 |
—
