Im glad everyone is enjoying this. I wish I felt the same way. It kind of sounds like a snoozefest, guess i need to listen more.
There’s definitely some of the mid tempo same-y stuff that has plagued their last few albums, but overall I think it feels pretty inspired.
I think the textures are beautiful. it's not an album of bangers, but there's a lot of passion behind it. that said, The Manifesto and Damascus are rippers
Humanz was last album for me that had bangers. Kind of lost interest in the project after that album.
Don’t care if this is a hot take: Song Machine is the best album released by this project in the last 10 years. Regarding this record: Been casually listening to this one, I wish there were more tracks like the manifesto on here. Moon Cave and Orange County feel like tracks that would be on a true sequel record to plastic beach.
Song Machine, Cracker Island and The Mountain have all been a serious hot streak for me with each one being a big jump up from the last
I didn't like Cracker Island immediately, but it is good and did grow on me. I just think the last three albums before it clicked better on a first listen.
Very happy with how this album turned out. Is it what I personally want from Gorillaz? Not really, I would have loved something more energetic and weird in the back half but that's just my preference. This is by far the most cohesive album they've had in a long time. A return to the days when they set out on a specific vision and completed it in full. It feels like a journey. I was able to see the documentary of this album and the short film at an Alamo Drafthouse and while I don't think it's necessary to enjoy the album, they're definitely great context for it. Damon and Jamie have had their ebbs and flows in their relationships over the decades but they both feel incredibly present here. Both of them having lost their father's can certainly be felt on this record. The ending of the album did make me emotional as someone who has also lost a lot of people close to me. The idea that Damon and Jamie are so much older now and dealing with such personal grief and moving forward hits me. Talking about the next life, the short film where Noodle mouths "I love you" and jumps into the water, it's well done. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if this was the last Gorillaz album but Damon likes to write and this gives him a lot of freedom so who knows. He's also talked about Gorillaz being more than him moving forward. Either way, if this were to be their last album it would be a good one to end on. My standouts on the album are: The Moon Cave, The Happy Dictator, The Shadowy Light, The Sad God.
Sweepstakes is… fine - I think the problem with it is it doesn’t really meet expectations until horns come in halfway through the track I think it’s easy to understand why it was included on plastic beach over Damascus at a surface album level critique of human race consumerism. Damascus is certainly the better track though.
I respect the ambition/experimentation of it, I just find it borderline unlistenable lmao. feels like it goes for 20 minutes Damascus is almost on par with Stylo for me
Hmm, it's hard to pin down, maybe I just don't enjoy this style of music so maybe I need to give it more time, but I didn't like the "new arrival, fresh survival" part and the Starbucks stuff
I'll keep the album on rotation and see how I feel about it in a few weeks. A lot of albums have stuff that takes a bit of settling to get into for me.
Only asking because you’d mentioned wanting more energetic, weird stuff and that song seems to be both. I felt it ws one of my favs from the album.
shared it awhile back, sharing again. everyone check out Asha Puthli's 1976 iconic space-rock/disco-funk album. she's featured on The Moon Cave