The Gorillaz are a virtual band of four cartoon characters called Murdoc, 2D, Russell and Noodle. As this is a virtual band fronted by cartoon characters there is confusion as to who is actually behind each of the four virtual characters as many names have been mentioned and linked to each of them. After a little bit of reading up on the subject I can safely say that there are only two who are always involved in the Gorillaz project and they are Damon Albarn (The 'Blur' frontman) and Jamie Hewlett (The creator of 'Tank Girl'). The Gorillaz is really a project that has these two famous names leading it and many dozens of people working behind the scenes or adding musically to the tracks.
~The Album~ First of all the CD album comes with the four cartoon characters printed on the front. Inside the cover there is very little to tell you anything about the 'band' or what they are. I do like the artwork as I am a big fan of Hewlett's 'Tank Girl' artwork and have numerous volume of his cartoons. I know 'tis sad for a 32 year old it admit, but lets move on to the music! The first track on the album is unsurprisingly called 'Intro' and is a bit of a hash up of siren sounds, chants, groans and a dubbed voice-over from a film. It is not really an awesome start for the album and it is best to hit the skip button and move on. Thankfully it only lasts about a minute, but it if lasted any longer I might have stopped playing the whole album! Yes, it really is that bad! Track two is a little better, although this is a slow start to the album. Called 'Last Living Souls', it starts with a drum beat and brings in an electronic keyboard. Musically it is a mixture of electronic
beats, keyboards and a violin sound. Lyrically it is pretty poor with the words 'We are the last living souls' repeated too many times for this reviewer to count on his hands and feet. Overall it is a slow paced electronic based tune with a few lyrics patched over the top of it. Again not a track to heap on loads of praise, but I have to admit I was slowly beginning to like the feel of the track. Next up is 'Kids With Guns', which is a more guitar based song and has a few more lyrics to listen out for. It is a low to medium paced track with good guitar riffs, a keyboard background and nice drum beats. In short I liked this track and had high hopes for the rest of the album. 'O Green World' is a mixed up electronic drum and guitar fusion, the lyrics feel like a lament as they sound distant and distorted. The keyboard tune during the choral stages is very good and generally I liked the song. The lyrics are not easy to follow as they are more a background part of the song, but I did like this track.
Track five is 'Dirty Harry' and is one of the tracks to have been released into the single charts. It starts with a keyboard and brings in a drum beat. It continues on building nicely and finally gets to a chorus part sung by 'San Fernandez Youth Chorus'. Once again the track has a very good keyboard section and I was really liking the track until the rap part! This rap is spat out by 'Bootie Brown' and is detrimental to the track, it doesn't quite fit in, it really ruins a good track and makes it below average. Thankfully 'Feel good Inc' turns up next with a more traditional guitar/drum beat and picks up the pace a little. The lyrics are again distorted, but the chorus is sung a little more clearly. I think that this track is good and the rap by 'De La Soul' in the middle of the song for once fits in nicely. This is effectively the track that grabbed my attention long enough to buy this album. As such I like the track it is funky without having too much rap input. 'El Manana' drops the album back to a lower gear with a low key guitar based song. The lyrics are whispered so quietly that is hard to work out what is being sung. Not one of the best songs on the album lyrically and musically it is easy to ignore. The eighth track on the album is 'Every Planet we Reach is Dead' and is another low slow electronic guitar based track. The lyrics are no more clearer than the previous track and it comes across as a depressing lament. I liked the guitar sounds on this track, but overall they are not enough to lift the track above average. Number nine starts with a slow rap by 'MF Doom' and degenerates into another slow depressing track called 'November has Come'. Musically it has little content to it and lyrically I could only understand the chorus sung by Albarn. I'd put this track down as one to scrub from the MP3 player.
After the last three slow and turgid tracks we reach my favourite part of the album. There are three tracks here in quick succession that I liked and enjoyed. First up is 'All Alone' an electronic track with a good keyboard start and a solid drum beat. This track quickly moves into another rap, but this part I thought was well done. 'Bounce, wiggle, bounce,' chants 'Roots Manuva', which does have you jigging along to the track. As a track I thought it was well put together and worked brilliantly! Track eleven on the album is called 'White Light'. This rock track induces more jumping up and down, but for a different reason. It starts with lots of guitars and then drops into a gentle drifting guitar solo, before hitting the rock high again. As a guitar based track following on from an electronic track it exposes the albums two different sides, namely a guitar edge with electronic rapping interludes. This high octane but short little number is my favourite track of the album. 'Dare' slips effortlessly back to electronic beats and good clear lyrics. As one of the tracks to be realised into the singles charts I like it for it's good medium pacing and electronic beats. The next three tracks almost could have been one song as they all drift musically from one track to the next. The first is 'Fire Coming Out of The Monkey's Head', which is a lyric based track spoken by 'Dennis Hopper'. Hopper's clear lyrics have a guitar and keyboard as an accompaniment. The track is effectively a story told with a song behind it. As such it is a slow track, however it makes you listen a little closer to find out what the message is in the track. The next track is 'Don't Get Lost in Heaven' and follows onto the back of the previous track. It is a slow gentle song with little input from on the lyric front. Somewhere along here 'Demon Days' starts, but even when I listen to the songs concurrently I cannot work out where the previous track ends and the next starts. This not a complaint more of an observation, however I feel that ending the album on this slow track is not the best.
Overall I thought that the 'Demon Days' album is an average 3 stars, which is a shame. There are some excellent tracks here, but the are too many tracks that are too weird and too mixed up. This album is a 'Jack of all Trades, but Master of None', what do I mean? Well, Albarn thinks that musically he is brilliant at everything but in reality he is only above average. As an album 'Demon Days' fits into this 'Jack of all Trades' niche as well, it has many angles to it, funky electronica, guitar rock and rap. It just doesn't do them well all of the time. I would recommend this album for people who are interested in a mixture of musical styles and don't mind too much rap music inserted into what would have a decent electronic track. I would not recommend this album to people who do not like rap at all, as it rears ugly head quite regularly.
~MP3 playlist~ So you have an MP3 player and you only want the best tracks on it! Here is I what I would recommend: Track 3 Kids With Guns Track 4 O Green World Track 7 Feel Good Inc Track 10 All Alone Track 11 White Light Track 12 Dare
Thanks for reading, rating and commenting.
Martin
Related Websites www.gorillaz.com www.fans.gorillaz.com
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Intro @@us/euwm2/614/6590614_1_01.asx?obj=v50527@@ Last Living Souls ... more
@@us/euwm2/614/6590614_1_02.asx?obj=v50527@@ Kids With Guns @@us/euwm2/614/6590614_1_03.asx?obj=v50527@@ O Green World @@us/euwm2/614/6590614_1_04.asx?obj=v50527@@ Dirty Harry @@...
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Advantages: Jenny Lewis; the musical guests and production; it's a good record Disadvantages: It's the weakest album she's made so far; Elvis Costello; slight lyrics
Seresecros 13.10.2008 (13.10.2008)
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