Music has been known to evoke certain emotions. In my case, this normally has something to do with a memory I think of when I hear a particular song.
However, when I think about this album from Gorillaz, all I seem to get is anger and disappointment. Disappointment because this album sucks so much, when their self-titled debut was pretty damn funky.
Mostly it’s just anger though. Anger at myself because I bought this as an impulse. Anger at Dan The Automator for leaving the band. Anger at Damon Albarn for making this record anyway.
Gorillaz are an animated band comprising of four members – Noodle, 2D, Murdoc and Russell. The men behind the music on the first album were Blur frontman Damon Albarn, and producer Dan The Automator, with a variety of guests. The first Gorillaz album was released in 2001, and it was a very funky little record. Seeing as Gorillaz didn’t really exist, I didn’t think they’d be back for a second album.
I wish they hadn’t come back.
The second Gorillaz album Demon Days was released in the middle of the year, and seeing as I enjoyed the first album, and the first single released from Demon Days, I figured this should be pretty good.
That was before I’d listened to it, or done my research.
I knew Dan The Automator had been working on a new project, and released an album under the band name Head Automatica. What I didn’t know was that this meant Dan hadn’t leant his talents to the new Gorillaz album.
Without Dan, it seems the overall music from Gorillaz suffers. This is most evident as soon as you hit play on the very first track. "Intro" is a perfect example of most of what is to come. What we have here is a bunch of completely random sound effects, and a weird high-pitched voice speaking something unintelligible, followed by a very deep voice doing the exact same thing.
At first I was prepared to let this go. There’s a lot of albums out there these days that have completely pointless intros, so what’s one more to add to the bunch?
Then I heard "Last Living Souls" and "Kids With Guns". Along with the first single "Feel Good Inc", these tracks are most akin to the kind of music found on the debut. These tracks are catchy with a great beat, and unlike many other tracks on this album, don’t drown out the vocals with the instruments.
"Feel Good Inc." (which you’ve already heard a million times this year if you listen to the right radio stations) also features a fantastic rap from De La Soul, and is easily the CD’s one true highlight.
"Dirty Harry", the latest single, is one of the album’s more listenable tracks, mainly for it’s general uptempo beat, and vocals and overall sound that can only be described as "cheery".
Unfortunately, the rest of the album is pretty much downhill from there. "O Green World" is actually sandwiched between four good tracks, with "Last Living Souls" and "Kids With Guns" coming directly before, and "Dirty Harry" and "Feel Good Inc." directly after. This is where the album starts to sound like one of the sound effect discs we had at my radio course – the ones we used when we needed a sound for ads. There was heaps of stuff on those discs, from city ambience to bodies falling from buildings to demonic laughter. A lot of the production on this album sounds like someone’s taken one of those discs, run it through Adobe Audition, and gone nuts with the "Effects" menu. I don’t know how to describe the result, but it sure ain’t music.
"O Green World" may be the first track where this is particularly noticeable, but the second half of the album is jam-packed with this kind of noise. Songs like "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" and "November Has Come" are both seriously guilty culprits on this offence, and this isn’t all such tracks are guilty of. What the hell happened to vocalist 2D during this section of the album? He used to be able to rap, but those skills aren’t being showcased here.
Whether or not this is 2D’s fault is another question entirely. Listening through the second half of this disc, it’s hard to tell whether or not the raps are actually absent, or whether they’ve just been buried by the awful production. Not only that, but the vocals we’re left with are extremely childish, and don’t even bother looking for meaningful lyrics.
The highlight of the second half is undoubtedly "Dare", which brings back the much-missed funk. The dance beat behind this track almost gives it an electronica feel, and while the vocals are nothing all that special, they’re a lot better than some of the other vocals on the album. "Dare" also features some comparatively outstanding production, which actually manages to enhance 2D instead of drowning him out.
Purely because I’d love to hear a radio announcer intro it for the first time, I’d really like to see "Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head" released as a single. It starts off promisingly enough, with a nice beat in the background while a narrator starts the song off with a little bit of a story, which gives some insight into how the song got it’s title. Once the narrator is finished, 2D gives a pretty good verse, which is the way the song should continue. Instead, the narrator comes back, and has now officially worn out his welcome. The song rapidly goes downhill from there, and becomes just another monotonous track filled with noise, which is the perfect way to describe the final two tracks, "Don’t Get Lost In Heaven" and title track "Demon Days".
"Don’t Get Lost In Heaven" has a nice little piano beat scattered through, but that’s the only good thing about it. Well, that and the fact it’s over pretty quickly. "Demon Days" is even worse, embodying everything I’ve already discussed that’s wrong with this album. As well as that, it appears 2D is completely absent on this track, and the vocals from the guest choir are highlighted by this track’s production. They’re a poor stand-in for 2D, and why his vocals can’t be highlighted in such a manner more often is beyond me.
If Dan The Automator had worked on Demon Days, I have no doubt the album could have turned out a lot differently. The fact that this album has gone on to sell so well and Gorillaz are now Grammy-nominated means a third album is quite likely.
The 15-track Demon Days is the follow-up to Gorillaz s worldwide smash self-titled debut and was co-produced by Albarn and Danger Mouse. The London Co...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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![Demon Days [PA] by Gorillaz](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/2c/05/d3/2006741549-177x150-0-0.jpg)
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