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| Pitchfork. |
 Happy birthday, Gorillaz; you have been a complete failure. Only by the terms of your original premise, mind you, which promised to be the sort of multimedia, multi-platform, multi-everything project that seemed like a real good idea circa Y2K. The novelty of the core Gorillaz gimmick-- an edgy, anime Banana Splits that gave interviews in character and played high-tech projection live shows in place of their creators, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett-- wore off sometime around the group's third video. But in a surprise upset, Gorillaz have evolved into something more than a cartoon prank or a circus-of-stars side-project, instead becoming the most effective achievement of Albarn's post-Blur career.Though a singles collection in 2011 is as anachronistic as the DVD-ROMs in the early Gorillaz back catalog, this one makes an excellent case for the substance behind the expired high concept of the "virtual band." The decade covered here marked a mercurial time for Albarn, who celebrated the hiatus of Blur by eagerly shooting off in a dozen different directions. It was almost as though he set out to tick off every clichéd solo career path simultaneously: jamming melodica with musicians in Mali and the Congo, creating a remixer persona, putting together his fantasy-dub supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen, and exploring opera and film scoring. Gorillaz is far and away the most successful of these projects at the cash register, selling millions of records worldwide, headlining Glastonbury and Coachella, and holographically sharing a Grammys stage with Madonna. The group's artistic success has also kept pace with its commercial success, giving Albarn a way to combine most of his musical distractions into an oddly cohesive whole. In retrospect, the key to the project may have been enabling Albarn to abandon the frontman role and become the man behind the curtain, both figuratively and (up until recent live shows) literally. If you don't think that hiding place isn't therapeutic for Albarn, consider that Think Tank, the 2003 Blur album that essentially became an Albarn solo joint, also attempted to blend all of these interests, to less satisfying results....full text |
| Idolator |
| There have been rumors and reports of Gorillaz finally throwing in the towel, with mastermind Damon Albarn moving onto other projects, and it appears a mysterious tweet from cartoon bandmate Murdoc may have confirmed it: “Gorillaz are TEN. Ten years old, eh? T.E.N. What’s that stand for? The End is Nigh…!” (He later followed it up with a similar tweet, tweaking his acronym to mean “This Era’s New!”) We may need to prepare ourselves to say goodbye to our animated friends, and there’s no better way to do that then to bask in Gorillaz – The Singles Collection: 2001-2011, available November 29. Track list below. The Singles Collection will be released as a standard CD, CD and DVD and 140 gram vinyl. A special edition import-only 7” box set will also be made available. Songs from the group’s first three albums — Gorillaz, Demon Days and Plastic Beach (which we named one of the best albums to come out of 2010) — will be featured on the compilation. (Their 2010 “iPad album” The Fall remains MIA.) There are also two remixes, and the CD/DVD edition of the album comes with the band’s beautifully animated music videos....full text |
| Bbc |
| Think of Blur’s Damon Albarn and one thinks of Britpop, which is rather unfair, given that he’s spent the last 15 years working on projects associated with Mali (Mali Music), Iceland (the 101 Reykjavik soundtrack), China (Monkey: Journey To The West), the Democratic Republic Of Congo (Kinshasa One Two) and more. But while his former rival Liam Gallagher reduced himself to a comic parody, Albarn found inspiration in comic art, teaming up with Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett to form the ‘animated pop group’, Gorillaz, in 1998. This summary of their career proves they were no joke. Perhaps the most striking thing about the music on offer here is how stripped down it is. The influence of dub and hip hop looms large, especially on tracks featured from their first two albums, their self-titled debut of 2001 and its 2005 follow-up, Demon Days. These see simple instrumentation bedded down over programmed drumbeats that sounded nostalgic even at the time of release. (Once upon a time they’d even have been described as ‘baggy’.) But Albarn’s alter ego seems to allow him to shake off concepts of indie credibility that he may otherwise have clung to, aiming instead for the pop jugular with the simple melodies of Feel Good Inc and Clint Eastwood, whose loping gait does nothing to diminish that chorus: "I’ve got sunshine in a bag", a sly reference to the actor’s classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (also the inspiration for the name of another Albarn side project, The Good, the Bad & the Queen). Eastwood’s there again on the brilliant Dirty Harry, another shuffling beat underpinning an uplifting children’s choir until Bootie Brown takes the mike. Albarn’s social conscience is also in evidence here, the kids singing "I need a gun to keep myself from harm", an idea echoed (obviously) in Kids With Guns. 2010’s Plastic Beach birthed four further singles, but they made less of an impact, despite the fact that they see Albarn pursue a more commercially pop route: Superfast Jellyfish demonstrates an attractive lightness of touch, while On Melancholy Hill reflects its name perfectly, Albarn sounding glum over a candyfloss minor-key pop classic that deserved to peak far higher than 78 in the British charts....full text |
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