Gorillaz - Humanz REVIEW
Gorillaz’s last two albums (excluding fan club gift The Fall) have begun with atmospheric intro tracks that have set the mood well for the albums to come. Demon Days introduced itself with walls of strange noise and almost chilling horns, while Plastic Beach chose to start with an almost emotional orchestral intro. Humanz begins with somebody saying “I switched my robot off.” To be fair, it is sadly indicative of the album to come – it’s not particularly eventful in any way and doesn’t lead to any particular atmosphere.
Humanz is the fourth/fifth (depending on who you ask) studio album by virtual band Gorillaz, aka the musical playground of 21st century renaissance man Damon Albarn and his many friends, among them animator Jamie Hewlett, responsible for the group’s visuals. Originally conceived as a piss-take of MTV and celebrity culture, with critically acclaimed sophomore effort Demon Days the project turned into one of the most interesting and popular alternative pop/hip hop “bands” in the world. Humanz calls back to Demon Days on the (digital) album cover, using the same four-square format Demon Days displayed on its sleeve – which in turn was a parody of Let It Be – but the music does not follow suit. While this is definitely still alternative hip hop, it definitely swings more in the favour of the modern pop-rap scene than the creepy alt-rock fusion Gorillaz was previously known for. Tracks like Let Me Out wouldn’t seem completely out of place on the new Drake album…mixtape…playlist…thing, and while this isn’t a bad thing by default it does make the record seem less like Gorillaz and more like anybody else.
It also doesn’t help that the entire album seems somewhat digitised. You may think this is ironic considering this is a virtual band we’re talking about, but the instrumentation seems much less organic than previous records. Momentz seems cheap and dated, a shame considering it’s the album’s obligatory De La Soul feature; they are absolutely wasted here. A lot of the actual songs are compositionally adequate and this style works with some of them: lead single Saturnz Barz seems almost lo-fi in parts, and the deep synth bass and kick drum lend well to the dirty and dark vibe. Popcaan’s vocals, while buried under unnecessary vocal effects at times, are mostly fitting, and Albarn’s half of the song is a strong contender for the best moment on the entire album, with its haunting choral background vocals contributing more to that creepy vibe. Strobelite’s synthesised funkiness is catchy and danceable, with great (if slightly over the top at times) vocals by Peven Everett, and the Grace Jones (!!) featuring Charger is aggressive, snarky and urgent. For the negativity that has been in this review so far, it’s important to mention that Albarn is still an extremely capable songwriter and a lot of the songs here are catchy and memorable. It’s just a shame that he’s barely on the album.
Watch “Saturnz Barz (Spirit House)”:
While previous albums have predominantly featured Albarn on vocals, Humanz shifts focus onto the army of collaborators that have formed around him. Sometimes it works (the aforementioned Strobelite and Saturnz Barz, Ascension) and sometimes it really doesn’t. Sex Murder Party, with the whispers of the song’s titles over the half-baked instrumental, is almost embarrassing. Hallelujah Money’s lyrics and instrumental are good, but Benjamin Clementine’s vocals flow horribly – they don’t fit the song at all, and one can’t help but think that the song would’ve been much improved if Albarn had taken the helm, like on Andromeda, which calls back much more to previous albums than the rest of Humanz. This storm of collaborators and all their different styles has contributed to a variance of different styles on the album, and while this may seem like a good thing on paper, combined with the pointless and sometimes cringeworthy (most notably The Non-conformist Oath) interludes, the album lacks cohesion and flow. Humanz has been out for three days at the time of writing and the twelve year old Demon Days sounds more fresh and modern. As the album closes on the abysmal Noel Gallagher featuring We’ve Got The Power, you can’t help but think “That’s it?” and still feel like the album’s outstayed its welcome at 20 tracks.
There’s no denying that there are fantastic moments on Humanz, but at a lot of points in the album it feels like a collection of half-baked MIDI demos that don’t fit together. It doesn’t quite reach the threshold of bad, but considering Albarn’s recent output it’s incredibly disappointing.
4/10