Off The Record #9 - "The Now Now" by Gorillaz
9th Edition
July 17th 2018
Gorillaz
"The Now Now"
I know what you’re thinking, Gorillaz as a Hip Hop album is questionable, but with the watered-down albums or lack of releases this month, I’m going to add this in. It was featured on hiphopdx.com after all, so here we go!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the past twenty years, Gorillaz is the brain of child Damon Albarn, the of former front man of the British Rock band, Blur and of artist Jamie Hewlett (creator of Tank Girl). The band was originally supposed to be making fun of popular music and it’s lack of substance, which they noticed one night while watching MTV. They figured, if music was so artificial, then they should make a completely fictional band to blur the lines between fiction and reality. So Gorillaz was born.
The virtual characters of the band consists of 2-D (lead vocals and keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar and keyboards) and Russel Hobbs (drums and percussion). Del the Funky Homosapien possesses Russel to create his rap persona, Del Tha Ghost Rapper in the music video for ‘Clint Eastwood’. But let’s be real. All music besides the feature artists are created by Damon Albarn, while the animation of these characters are made by Jamie Hewlett. Gorillaz have since released six studio albums since 2001, ranging from Rock, Hip Hop, Experimental, and genres blending in between. I’ve recently learned that if you watch all (but one) of their music videos in chronological order, they tell a story.
Gorillaz timeline in chronological order
Gorillaz’ latest offering, ‘The Now Now’ has eleven tracks which adds to 40-minutes. The single, ‘Humility’ featuring legendary guitarist, singer, and songwriter, George Benson was released on 31 May 2018, and it opens the album up with synths, bass lines, and guitar strums to give it an all-round Disco feel.
Music video for their first single, ‘Humility’
The second track, ‘Tranz’ brings back an 80’s post-funk vibe, while their second single, ‘Hollywood’ featuring Snoop Dogg and Jamie Principle brings it back a decade before to the Funk with futuristic bass. The rest of the album alternates with more Synth Pop, Disco, Funk, Soul and a few slow tracks.
Music video for their second single, ‘Hollywood’
One last thing I want to note which I noticed is the final track, ‘Souk Eye’ has the same percussion hits as the first track, ‘Humility’, but instead of Disco, this song has an almost tropical feel to it, while building up to something grand. This has been an enjoyable album all the way through. I didn’t mind giving it a few listens over again. It’s an intelligent album without being too pretentious. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! One Love!
Stay tuned for the next edition and be sure to follow me at @stickykeys! Also if there are any albums you would like me to review, drop a comment below.
