FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Gorillaz – Gorillaz
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I don’t think I have featured…
too many albums from the first few years of the twenty-first century for Vinyl Corner. On 26th March, it will be twenty years since Gorillaz launched their eponymous album. Gorillaz reached number-three in the U.K. and number-fourteen in the U.S.. It has sold over seven-million copies worldwide. I think that Gorillaz is an album that you should grab on vinyl, as it sounds terrific and contains some of the band’s best material. I am not sure whether there are plans for a twentieth anniversary vinyl release, so keep your eyes open for that! I will bring in a couple of reviews for Gorillaz in a minute but, before then, a little history regarding the formation of the group. Here is some background about a group who, twenty years later, are still going strong:
“Musician Damon Albarn and comic book creator Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon, a fan of Hewlett's work, asked him to interview Blur, a band Albarn and Coxon had recently formed. The interview was published in Deadline magazine, home of Hewlett's comic strip, Tank Girl. Hewlett initially thought Albarn was "arsey, a wanker"; despite becoming acquaintances with the band, they often did not get on, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxon's ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997. Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica.
The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV. Hewlett said, "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that." The band originally identified themselves as "Gorilla" and the first song they recorded was "Ghost Train" which was later released as a B-side on their single "Rock the House" and the B-side compilation G Sides. The musicians behind Gorillaz' first incarnation included Albarn, Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator and Kid Koala, who had previously worked together on the track "Time Keeps on Slipping" for Deltron 3030's eponymous debut album”.
I love how the singles are sprinkled through Gorillaz so that you get these well-known tracks and then a deeper cut next to it. With Re-Hash, 5/4, and Tomorrow Comes Today opening the album, Gorillaz begins with a mighty punch and awesome trio! Damon Albarn wrote most of the album tracks alone (that would change for future albums), and he made sure that he was not just repeating what he did with Blur. Clint Eastwood, I feel, is their defining track - and it is one of the fines from the first decade of the twenty-first century. I can listen to Gorillaz from start to finish and, not only does it bring back great memories; there is also this this sense of reveal as tracks and moments that you may have missed years ago blossom and bloom. Although I think their follow-up album, 2005’s Demon Days, is a more solid and memorable album, I really love 2001’s Gorillaz.
I am going to finish soon, but I wanted to bring in a couple of positive reviews before then. This is what AllMusic noted in their review:
“It's tempting to judge Gorillaz -- Damon Albarn, Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett, and Dan "The Automator" Nakamura's virtual band -- just by their brilliantly animated videos and write the project off as another triumph of style over substance. Admittedly, Hewlett's edgy-cute characterizations of 2-D, Gorillaz' pretty boy singer (who looks a cross between the Charlatans' Tim Burgess and Sonic the Hedgehog), sinister bassist Murdoc, whiz-kid guitarist Noodle, and b-boy drummer Russel are so arresting that they almost detract from Gorillaz' music. The amazing "Thriller"-meets-Planet of the Apes clip for "Clint Eastwood" is so visually clever that it's easy to take the song's equally clever, hip-hop-tinged update of the Specials' "Ghost Town" for granted. And initially, Gorillaz' self-titled debut feels incomplete when Hewlett's imagery is removed; the concept of Gorillaz as a virtual band doesn't hold up as well when you can't see the virtual bandmembers. It's too bad that there isn't a DVD version of Gorillaz, with videos for every song, à la the DVD version of Super Furry Animals' Rings Around the World. Musically, however, Gorillaz is a cutely caricatured blend of Albarn's eclectic Brit-pop and Nakamura's equally wide-ranging hip-hop, and it sounds almost as good as the band looks. Albarn has fun sending up Blur's cheeky pop on songs like "5/4" and "Re-Hash," their trip-hop experiments on "New Genious" and "Sound Check," and "Song 2"-like thrash-pop on "Punk" and "M1 A1." Despite the similarities between Albarn's main gig and his contributions here, Gorillaz isn't an Albarn solo album in disguise; Nakamura's bass- and beat-oriented production gives the album an authentically dub and hip-hop-inspired feel, particularly on "Rock the House" and "Tomorrow Comes Today." Likewise, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Miho Hatori, and Ibrahim Ferrer's vocals ensure that it sounds like a diverse collaboration rather than an insular side project. Instead, it feels like a musical vacation for all parties involved -- a little self-indulgent, but filled with enough fun ideas and good songs to make this virtual band's debut a genuinely enjoyable album”.
I want to introduce SLANT’s review, because they make some interesting points:
“Re-Hash,” like much of the album, is reminiscent of Beck’s unique casserole of styles, mixing acoustic guitars, drum machines and turntables. The track cascades into a peculiar harmony between Hatori and Albarn. Snapshot memories are tainted with hi-tech new-millenium paranoia on “Tomorrow Comes Today,” one of the most radio-friendly tracks on the album: “The verdict doesn’t love our soul/The digital won’t let me go.” The garage guitar-driven “5/4” features fuzzy bass and bizarrely lovelorn lyrics: “She made me kill myself…She turned my dad on!” “M1 A1” is infused with the brilliant synth-heavy score of the ‘80s B-flick Day of the Dead and is, like “5/4,” a rocking reminder of what Blur’s 13 could have been.
Del brings his old-school rap meets quasi-spiritual rhymes to the horny hip-pop number “Rock the House” and the lead single, “Clint Eastwood.” (A flashy two-step remix of the latter track can be found at the end of the album as well). Most of Gorillaz comes off as a beautiful sonic experiment, deftly blending dub, hip-hop, and good ol’ fashioned rock n’ roll. “Sound Check (Gravity)” lays bulky hip-hop beats and Albarn’s distorted (and often incomprehensible) vocals over subtle strings and haunting keyboards, while “Punk” is a faithful ode to Clash-era punk rock. “19-2000” is the perfect summer song from a near-perfect summer album, with balmy lyrics to suit: “Keep a mild groove on…Get the cool shoeshine.” Not bad for a band that doesn’t even exist”.
Ahead of its twentieth anniversary in March, go and grab a copy of Gorillaz on vinyl, as it is a phenomenal album that introduced the world to a legendary band. I worried that the birth of Gorillaz signalled the end of Blur but, happily, they are still together and there is desire in the camp to record new material in the future. It just goes to show that, when it comes to Damon Albarn, there are…
NO limits to his talent!