Gorillaz are always a bit tricky to talk about, as none of the band members are real. 2-D, Murdoc, Russell, and Noodle are all characters created by animator Jamie Hewitt and producer Damon Albarn. Their albums usually have had this extensive narrative behind them where the characters go on adventures like learning that the 10 year old guitarist, Noodle, was actually a part of a superhuman experiment and fighting off pirates that are taking over their studio. But this project doesn’t have that much of a story behind it.
Song Machine originally started in January of 2020 when they released the first single and video, “Momentary Bliss” with Slowthai and Slaves. It’s an accessible punk rock track with these fast paced guitars and quality vocals from both features. It was a great track as a single, but more importantly, it also kicked off the year long release that this project had. They released seven of the eleven songs before the album officially came out last month, and one from the deluxe version as well to honor iconic drummer Tony Allen.
So in a way, this project is almost like a collection of singles rather than a full album. The days of the heavy concept albums by Gorillaz are gone. There’s no demon infested studio that was the essence of Demon Dayz, or an album about how plastic and material goods are ruining Earth like they do on Plastic Beach. Song Machine is just that, a “machine” that the characters are using to create a bunch of songs. Musician Damon Albarn also already said there will be a season two of the Song Machine series, so it looks like this won’t be the end of this idea.
Each song on this project contains at least one feature, and many contain more than one. They have some smaller artists as features on here, including Leee John of the soul band Imagination, rappers JPEGMAFIA and Octavian, and singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara. But they also bring many large and iconic artists into the mix on here. Robert Smith, the lead singer of The Cure, lends his vocals to the opener. Beck makes his appearance on the lighthearted “The Valley of Pagans”. Peter Hook from Joy Division and New Order lends his bass and vocal talents to the incredible “Aries”. Damon even brings Elton John and 6lack together for the beautiful ballad “The Pink Phantom”.
“The Pink Phantom” helps show the best trait of Gorillaz, which is their ability to combine seemingly random features into one great song. Elton John and 6lack are of two completely different generations, so much so that they even have a 45 year age difference between them. There aren’t many more famous or iconic singers than Elton John, everyone knows who he is and what he does. 6lack, on the other hand, has a substantial following with the new generation, but older people might not understand his brand of hip hop inspired, dark, love-stricken R&B ballads. Their sounds don’t even seem like they would be that comparable, but Damon is somehow able to combine them into this track and even have them sing back and forth with each other.
“Pac-Man” is another example of how they combine genres, this time because it has an incredible feature from California rapper ScHoolboy Q. Compared to most of their other songs that feature rappers, ScHoolboy is a lot grimier and less accessible on this feature verse. Instead of lighthearted flexing that is on “Clint Eastwood”, ScHoolboy turns more introspective by creating a portrait of himself that shows his pessimistic attitude and fearing for his life as a Black man. The song’s production is immediately hard hitting and contains the classic Gorillaz electronic, almost cartoony sound. The song also transitions perfectly throughout the 3 minute runtime, which allows it to not get stale.
The project also has six deluxe tracks outside of the eleven songs on the original version. While the deluxe version does feel like a step down overall, and they don’t contain a lot of vocals from 2-D himself, these are still worth a listen overall. “Opium” with Earthgang is a seven minute long dance track with both 2-D and Earthgang reflecting on the effects of the pandemic. Olu and WowGr8’s eccentricity fit in perfectly with the wacky world of Gorillaz. “MLS” is another highlight on the deluxe version with Chai having these childlike sounding vocals and JPEGMAFIA providing yet another quality verse and chorus, adding to his fantastic feature run during the past couple years.
Season One of the Song Machine series is packed with entertaining, catchy, and unique songs that have the quintessential Gorillaz sound. It’s not without its flaws though, as the subject matter on most of these songs is pretty inoffensive and surface level, which will help it appeal to the largest number of people, but also makes it feel a bit stale. A couple songs are a bit simple, but even the simple songs are still pretty entertaining. “Chalk Tablet Towers” with St. Vincent and “Dead Butterflies” with Kano and Roxani Arias are both simple and a bit repetitive, but the choruses are still some of the catchiest on the album. Hopefully we get to hear more installments of the Song Machine series going forward because this is easily the best Gorillaz project of the past decade and one of the most easily enjoyable projects this year.
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