I didn’t care for ~half the album, but the half that I did care for (this song especially) I really liked. Overall, I think the album is kinda mediocre? And I disagree with StingrayJake GS// who liked Hallelujah Money, I thought the song was boring. The album takes too long, the last three songs felt like they went nowhere. It feels disjointed and like there was no direction that they were going in. Albarn had nothing to tell with the album, so he brought other people in to tell stories and in doing so Gorillaz (the virtual band) feels largely absent from their own album. I know that’s kinda been the Gorillaz thing for a while, what with Plastic Beach being built around these guest appearances from people like Snoop Dogg and Little Dragon, but this just dived too hard into that. Albarn and Hewlett have said they asked collaborators to imagine a world where Trump became president (they started really producing early 2016) and then when he did win they kinda had to scramble and edit tracks and change things to make the allusion slightly less apparent. I think that Albarn’s prescience hurt the album in the process.
I don’t care for some of the featured artists like Popcaan. the little Interludes were nonsensical and uninteresting, Busted and Blue felt like a B-side to Albarn’s solo album. Moments w/ De La Soul was grating to listen to, same with Sex Murder Party. She’s My Collar has overt tones of sexism, Albarn does nothing but detract from the message of anything he sings on, Hallelujah Money would have been better off if it didn’t feel like two different styles shoved forcefully together (I like Clementine’s own stuff) & if it did anything with the concept besides tell people what they already know.
Andromeda, The Apprentice, We Got The Power, Let Me Out, Charger, Submission, Ascension, and Strobelite are all pretty good. Carnival was okay, some with Halfway to the Halfway House.
Anyways, it manages to make the Albarn and the Gorillaz irrelevant on their own album.
DISCUSSION
I didn’t care for ~half the album, but the half that I did care for (this song especially) I really liked. Overall, I think the album is kinda mediocre? And I disagree with StingrayJake GS// who liked Hallelujah Money, I thought the song was boring. The album takes too long, the last three songs felt like they went nowhere. It feels disjointed and like there was no direction that they were going in. Albarn had nothing to tell with the album, so he brought other people in to tell stories and in doing so Gorillaz (the virtual band) feels largely absent from their own album. I know that’s kinda been the Gorillaz thing for a while, what with Plastic Beach being built around these guest appearances from people like Snoop Dogg and Little Dragon, but this just dived too hard into that. Albarn and Hewlett have said they asked collaborators to imagine a world where Trump became president (they started really producing early 2016) and then when he did win they kinda had to scramble and edit tracks and change things to make the allusion slightly less apparent. I think that Albarn’s prescience hurt the album in the process.
I don’t care for some of the featured artists like Popcaan. the little Interludes were nonsensical and uninteresting, Busted and Blue felt like a B-side to Albarn’s solo album. Moments w/ De La Soul was grating to listen to, same with Sex Murder Party. She’s My Collar has overt tones of sexism, Albarn does nothing but detract from the message of anything he sings on, Hallelujah Money would have been better off if it didn’t feel like two different styles shoved forcefully together (I like Clementine’s own stuff) & if it did anything with the concept besides tell people what they already know.
Andromeda, The Apprentice, We Got The Power, Let Me Out, Charger, Submission, Ascension, and Strobelite are all pretty good. Carnival was okay, some with Halfway to the Halfway House.
Anyways, it manages to make the Albarn and the Gorillaz irrelevant on their own album.