Music Reviews

I’m a bit late with this one but that’s because I really wanted to give this review the attention that it deserves – Gorillaz are historically a band I hold in high regard and have a good ammount of expactation for their musical output. This album in particular had a really promising build up towards it, even though basically the majority of the album was released before it even came out. The majority of the songs the band put out during this era were however genuinely great in my eyes, which even escalated my already really high expactations for this upcoming project. Which is why it’s really disapointing to say that this album was overall rather… Well, disapointing. Like it seems the band released all the good song they had prepared for this project beforehand and just decided to fill the rest of the album with just filler passable tracks and called it a day.

To start off, the album opens up with the title track „Cracker Island“ which is probably as good of an opener as this album could have – already when this was released as a single I was absolutely in shock of how much this song goes. The heavy infectious synths start the song off and from there it’s a non-stop energetic ride. Thundercat’s contribution to the song is also really pleasant, the guitar licks and voice ad-libs he adds really elevate the song to new heights. This may just be my favorite song on the album and honestly, even Gorillaz songs period, I can’t get enough of it from the day it came out. Following that we have the first non-single song „Oil“ with Steve Nicks who I would have no idea is even on the track if it wasn’t specifically said in the title. However the song is one of the more decent non-singles – the keys are really what save this one, they are really colorful and catchy, I can’t get enough of those. And the somewhat of a grand finnish is a nice touch too, this song is fine to be honest, just not the best Gorillaz have to offer. Speaking off the next song „The Tired influencer“ I legitemately forgot is even on this album before starting to write this review. It definetly has it’s moments, some of the guitar licks and sound effects in the verses really hit in the right spot, but overall the song just lacks anything that would really make it stand out among the sea of others on this album. This one would honestly fit right in with some of the tracks from „The Now Now“ which isn’t a bad thing per se, it just kinda kills the momentum of the album a bit, but besides that it isn’t like unlistenable. Things do pick up substantially after this point though with the song „Silent Running“ featuring Adeleye Omotayo, another single and this one in particular struck a chord with me – the synths and main melody on this one are just gorgeous. The song does get a bit repetetive after a while but that honestly didn’t lower my enjoyment of the song in any way, because the repeated melody is just so infectious and 2Ds vocals sound super heartfelt to me here, I don’t know, this song just does something to my brain, I can’t help but love every second of it. Now for the next song „New Gold“ with Tame Impala… This one’s a weird one. On one hand OH MY GOSH it’s a Gorillaz song with Tame Impala this is a dream come true right??? And yes, for the most part it is – Kevin Parker’s chorus gets stuck in my head multiple times a day, it’s just such a jam, I can’t get enough of it. No, the problem I have with this song doesn’t lie in that – my issue is with the verses. You see this song also features Bootie Brown who doesn’t do terrible on his verses but man do they pale in comparison to the potential this song had. Like they aren’t bad but just so forgetable that it almost kills the song. And I obviously can’t just rate the song for the chorus part alone so… But yeah, besides that kinda major dud, the good elements of the song still out-weights the bad. The next song is „Baby Queen“, another single, and this song I really enjoyed on release however with some time the song really shrunk on me – it’s still okay, but I just don’t care about it all that much anymore, the story going on throughout the song just isn’t intresting enough nor is the accompanying instrumental. And honestly the same goes for the next song „Tarantula“ – this was surprisingly enough one of my favorites from this album on my couple of first listens but this one just has some really weird production choices that I’m not that crazy about the more I listen to it. However probably the worst offender on this album has to be the big hit from this album „Tormenta“ with Bad Bunny because it’s essetially just a Bad Bunny song featuring Gorillaz and not even a really good one at that, feels like a weak Bad Bunny B-side. And the song doesn’t even go anywhere, all this song has going for it is literally just the Bad Bunny and he doesn’t even do THAT well. Fortunately the second to last song „Skinny Ape“ does pick things up pretty substantially as it provides what’s in my eyes the musical climax of this album – as basically all the songs on this very synth-based album it kicks of with a strong synth-line that slowly evolves into what’s essentially the chorus of the song before going back to said synth-line as a sort of bait-chorus, before finally the song just explodes in sound and color and makes for one of the most musically rewarding musical experiences this album has to offer. Seriously, this song take a bit of patience but when it hits, it really hits. The final leg of this song is just beyond euphoric, I really like what the band did here. And I gotta say, I kinda wish that THIS was the closing track, as it wraps things up almost perectly – the actual ending song we got „Possesion Island“ is fine, but just nothing to write home about. It’s essentially just a guitar-paino ballad that feels really out of place with the rest of the album even though the tune itself is as I said just fine. Though I’ll say the outro of the song has this nice trumpet section that ranks it up a few points, but it’s so short-lived that it honestly barely even counts.

So through and through, this album was a complete mess and a mixbag of songs that range from exceptional and genuinely some of the most ear-grabbing in the band’s catalogue to literally can’t recall how they sound at all. At the end of the day I really expected more from this record but still got some banger tunes with it so it isn’t all bad… Just kinda underwhelming for Gorillaz standarts.

-favorite tracks: Cracker Island, Oil, Silent Running, parts of New Gold, parts of The Tired Influencer, Skinny Ape

-least favorite tracks: Tormenta, Tarantula

Strong 6/10