Gorillaz

[NorthernSoul52]

There's been a handful of genuinely terrific singles from them in recent years, but would argue it's been a while since they've had an album that felt harmonious. 

[charlierc]

On 30/08/2025 at 22:46, charlierc said:

Interesting. So far it's only B-sides as an encore for the first two shows they've done in this residency. Guess we'll wait and see what happens with Monday's mystery.

Turns out the mystery show is on Wednesday and not today like I thought. Looks like I screwed that thought process up. 

[Ben7amin_]

I think of the post Plastic Beach albums,  The Now Now is my favourite - always felt like it went under the radar a bit 

[matrainertje]

10 hours ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

There's been a handful of genuinely terrific singles from them in recent years, but would argue it's been a while since they've had an album that felt harmonious. 

That Song Machine project was excellent. Great song after great song after great song, with some of their best work ever (Désolé, Pac Man, Momentary Bliss, Aries). But I agree that this is more of a collection of singles (hence its title) than a proper album. 

[NorthernSoul52]

34 minutes ago, matrainertje said:

That Song Machine project was excellent. Great song after great song after great song, with some of their best work ever (Désolé, Pac Man, Momentary Bliss, Aries). But I agree that this is more of a collection of singles (hence its title) than a proper album. 

Hit the nail on the head. I'd be very curious to see what a quote-unquote Greatest Hits package looks like these days for them.

[Ben7amin_]

Song Machine was also labeled as a Season 1 -  so you have to assume its gonna be repeated at some point

 

I think if you were to try and put together a 20 track Gorillaz Greatest hits album it would be full of heavy hitters. 

[NorthernSoul52]

Just have On Melancholy Hill twelve times and be done with it. 

[craigcharles420]

2 hours ago, matrainertje said:

That Song Machine project was excellent. Great song after great song after great song, with some of their best work ever (Désolé, Pac Man, Momentary Bliss, Aries). But I agree that this is more of a collection of singles (hence its title) than a proper album. 

It was literally just a collection of singles. Most if not all of the songs were released already as singles in the months leading up to release. Although I do think it is one of their best albums honestly. Only Demon Days and Plastic Beach are clearly better than it. It gives the self titled some serious competition imo

Edited September 1, 2025 by craigcharles420

[NorthernSoul52]

Never did quite groove to the debut - understand it was a touchstone for many, but it's not a patch on the next two.

[Johndenis]

Heading along tomorrow night for Plastic Beach.  Demon Days is probably their best album but I would see Plastic Beach as a close second and I couldn't get to London at the weekend. 

 

Regarding Song Machine, Adam Alpert (Chainsmokers manager) on the Bob Lefsetz podcast (in an episode from 2019) describes how they started putting out a song per month and adding it to a Spotify list as an "album".  When the list hit 10 songs that playlist becomes an album.  I think this was what Song Machine was based on.  I don't know how they managed to pay for so many videos but it was a great effort.  Picks of the project were Momentary Bliss (Slowthai is on that so it might not be heard again), Aries, Desole, Pac Man, Pink Phantom.

 

Cracker Island was the first time it looked like they deliberately collaborated with several "contemporary" artists (Tame Impala, Bad Bunny, Thundercat, Beck) with a "name" producer (Greg Kurstin) to try and go up a tier from arena to stadium in US.  It was imo a decent album and a UK #1.  They put on sale 4 stadium shows in the US then pulled them as presumably demand wasn't quite there.  Ambitious though.

Edited September 1, 2025 by Johndenis

[NorthernSoul52]

I'd forgotten about the stadium show debacle. Obviously read the room wrong there.

 

Don't think they're really a stadium-level outfit anywhere, unless I've missed a South American blindspot. You'd wager sales for an arena run would be solid enough though.

 

The Pink Phantom was an absolute delight, loved that one.

[Ben7amin_]

Sorry if its already been posted but it seems that sleuths have figured out a new song will feature Joe Talbot from IDLES on the guest vocals 

[modefan]

3 minutes ago, Ben7amin_ said:

Sorry if its already been posted but it seems that sleuths have figured out a new song will feature Joe Talbot from IDLES on the guest vocals 

And Sparks 

[NorthernSoul52]

10 minutes ago, modefan said:

And Sparks 

Everybody loves Sparks. The Number One Song in Heaven is a pop masterpiece.

[modefan]

New album confirmed onstage by Maseo of De La Soul at the end of his DJ set

[NorthernSoul52]

Nice, nice.

[Jacksamthompson]

On 02/09/2025 at 07:52, Ben7amin_ said:

Sorry if its already been posted but it seems that sleuths have figured out a new song will feature Joe Talbot from IDLES on the guest vocals 

Love this. Going tonight will report back. 

[NorthernSoul52]

Know the sound has been spoken about, but I will be interested to hear what the hook-to-song ratio is. They do sometimes miss the mark for me.

[NorthernSoul52]

Did Sparks come out then? More importantly, did Ron do his The Number One Song in Heaven dance?

[modefan]

1 hour ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Did Sparks come out then? More importantly, did Ron do his The Number One Song in Heaven dance?

Yes they did! And sadly, no he didn’t. 
 

Brilliant night. I hope someone uploads the set, at least to list all who came on! 

[NorthernSoul52]

All new material?

[ilovelanegan]

Yep, entirely new and no encore - was brilliant though. Sparks, Gruff Rhys, Idles, Johnny F Marr, Yasiin Bey etc, Damon on playful form - was loads of fun. 

[NorthernSoul52]

7 hours ago, ilovelanegan said:

Yep, entirely new and no encore - was brilliant though. Sparks, Gruff Rhys, Idles, Johnny F Marr, Yasiin Bey etc, Damon on playful form - was loads of fun. 

Stacked cast of collaborators, that. 

[K2SO]

Went to the show last night. I personally think the album is likely going to be divisive. Whilst it was a good show, neither the songs nor the album really hit the spot for me. At parts, it was unmistakeably Gorillaz. There's one song with a rapper that I believe was rapping in Spanish (apologies, I don't know who he was) that had a real party vibe to it.

Sparks' song was a little weird to me, though probably one of the better songs on the night. I remember the main part of the song being "Oh what a wonderful world we live in."

Joe Talbot of IDLES also had a song, wich was my personal favourite of the night. I don't remember a great deal about the song, and maybe I was just excited because I'm an IDLES fa, but I really enjoyed that.

 

For the rest of the album, if you're going in looking for a Clint Eastwood, a Feel Good Inc or a Stylo, you are going to be severely disappointed. The album as a whole is very Asian-inspired, and had a lot of Indian imagery on the screens. The running theme, lyrically in the lyrics is The Mountain, and dealing with loss of loved ones. One song had a repeating lyric "The hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love." There's also multiple instances of re-used vocal tracks from previous Gorillaz songs. The two key ones I remember are Mark E. Smith's vocals from Glitter Freeze, as well as Tony Allen's vocals in How Far?

[northernangel]

30 minutes ago, K2SO said:

Went to the show last night. I personally think the album is likely going to be divisive. Whilst it was a good show, neither the songs nor the album really hit the spot for me. At parts, it was unmistakeably Gorillaz. There's one song with a rapper that I believe was rapping in Spanish (apologies, I don't know who he was) that had a real party vibe to it.

Sparks' song was a little weird to me, though probably one of the better songs on the night. I remember the main part of the song being "Oh what a wonderful world we live in."

Joe Talbot of IDLES also had a song, wich was my personal favourite of the night. I don't remember a great deal about the song, and maybe I was just excited because I'm an IDLES fa, but I really enjoyed that.

 

For the rest of the album, if you're going in looking for a Clint Eastwood, a Feel Good Inc or a Stylo, you are going to be severely disappointed. The album as a whole is very Asian-inspired, and had a lot of Indian imagery on the screens. The running theme, lyrically in the lyrics is The Mountain, and dealing with loss of loved ones. One song had a repeating lyric "The hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love." There's also multiple instances of re-used vocal tracks from previous Gorillaz songs. The two key ones I remember are Mark E. Smith's vocals from Glitter Freeze, as well as Tony Allen's vocals in How Far?

I've probably never been less interested to find out haha.