Gorillaz - Demon Days - 5/24/05
 

http://img122.exs.cx/img122/3722/s320x320sss4yh.jpg
Tracklisting:

1. Intro
2. Last Living Souls
3. Kids With Guns (feat. Neneh Cherry)
4. O Green World
5. Dirty Harry (feat. Bootie Brown & San Fernandez Youth Chorus)
6. Feel Good Inc (feat. De La Soul)
7. El Manana
8. Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
9. November Has Come (feat. MF Doom)
10. All Alone (feat. Roots Manuva)
11. White Light
12. DARE (feat. Shaun Ryder)
13. Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head (feat. Dennis Hopper)
14. Don't Get Lost In Heaven
15. Demon Days (Feat. The London Community Gospel Choir)

The first single will be 'Feel Good Inc'. It will be released in early May and you can listen to a clip of it here. The UK CD single will include another new track, 'Spitting Out Demons'.

Confirmed artists that guest on the album include: De La Soul, Roots Manuva, Shaun Ryder, The Bees, Booty Brown (The Pharcyde), Dennis Hopper, MF Doom, DangerMouse (producer), Neneh Cherry, Ike Turner, Martina Topley-Bird, The London Community Gospel Choir and The San Fernandez Youth Chorus

The album will also reportedly be available as a CD+DVD with the DVD including:

Exclusive Audio Track: 'The Swagga'
Feel Good Inc video
'Making Of' Animatic of the video
Audio commentary on the video from the band
Two Gorilla Bites: 'Gorillaz Talent Quest' and 'Gorillaz On Set'
Access to special 'key' to unlock secret parts of the Gorillaz website, including exclusive wallpapers and screensaver, and free download of bonus track 'Happy Landfill'.

Cool.

looks pretty sweet, i've been waiting for this for a while...

i don't think they can top the first album.

Sa-weet.It'll be interesting to hear them try.

Cool. I really want to hear the Dirty Harry song. I'm assuming it's a sequel to Clint Eastwood.

More album info from billboard.com and mtv.com

"Accurately described as "darker" and "more intense" than its predecessor, but no less eclectic... "Last Living Souls" is marked by acoustic strumming and piano melodies, while "Kids With Guns" threads a sample of Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" through a multi-faceted musical backdrop. [Mtv.com reports here that Neneh Cherry also adds vocals to this track]

The collective puts a weird spin on seductive soul with "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead," while "White Light" starts off in similar territory as Blur's raucous "Song 2" before being interrupted by an angelic interlude. For an extra dash of oddness, actor Dennis Hopper offers spoken-word intonations atop "Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head... The London Community Gospel Choir can be heard on the title track"

Can't wait for this one! Thanks for the info! :thumbsup:

This should be good.

NME world first track-by-track commentary, featuring exclusive bandmember comments

from NME:

Gorillaz's Demonic Return

An exclusive track-by-track guide to the new new album by Damon's cartoon crew...

Gorillaz have finally completed their long-awaited second album 'Demon Days'. To be released on May 23, Damon Albarn's cartoon creations flex their musical muscles once again, with 'The Grey Album''s Danger Mouse behind the desk as producer. Guests include Roots Manuva, De La Soul and veteran film star Dennis Hopper. "Dennis has been a spokesman for free creativity and ignoring rules," drummer Russel told NME. "Therefore a natural Gorillaz cohort"

01 Intro
Noodle: "The album opens with an ominous soundscape sampling George Romero's 'Dawn Of The Dead'. It expresses a similar sense of forboding we feel about the world."
NME says: A chaotic cacophony to terrorise your senses.

02: Last Living Souls
Russel: "Sometimes the climate we live in can make you feel like the last living soul on earth. The sense of introspection is reflected in the acoustic and on the piano."
NME says: Tick-tock beats, scything synths and angry isolation - a 21st-century 'Ghost Town'.

03: Kids With Guns
Russel: "This is more of a downtempo track. Likem night-time manoeuvres. The equivalent of creeping up on an enemy."
NME says: Brutal dub with a pop heart. Like getting duffed up by Joe Strummer and Salt N Pepper.

04: O Green World
Noodle: "This song is the sound of someone's train coming off its coasters. We gave 2D's vocals a distorted megaphone effect to make them seem like... a distant memory from the past."
NME says: Sounds a bit like - whisper it - a well-hard version of White Town's one-hit-wonder 'Your Woman'.

05: Dirty Harry
Noodle: "This evolved from a tape recording of an old Gorillaz jam. Danger Mouse added the kids choir, the San Fernandez Youth Chorus."
NME says: Rap-rock's answer to Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

06: Feel Good Inc
Russel: "Part 'Billie Jean', part Rockwell. The beat on this tune is as infectious as influenza. And our friends De La Soul delivered this gooning, fun-filled rap."
NME says: The first single. The tune is borrowed from U2, the rapping is smooth - potentially Gorillaz's biggest tune yet.

07: El Manana
Russel: "This was the very last to be written. It arrived like a winning goal in the last few seconds of a match. It sounds like a digital soul record."
NME says: Downbeat keyboards, the track most reminiscent of Gorillaz's human masters, Blur.

08: Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
Russel: "There's a Charles Bukowski quote: 'If you're losing your sould and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose'. You can kinda hear this sentiment in this track."
NME says: Sleazy, Japanese-infused funk. Like porn film and kung fu movie soundtracks colliding in mid-air.

09: November Has Come
2D: "The beginning sounds like an old Wham! song, and features a rap supplied by London-born rapper MF Doom."
NME says: Straight-ahead electronic hip hop. Could have found a home on Gorillaz's first album.

10: All Alone
Russel: "Features a machine-gunning rap from Roots Manuva, we've talked about a collaboration with him for a long time."
NME says: Sounds like Roots is rapping over an '80s computer game, but swerves Nathan Barley-esque cliches.

11: White Light
Russel: "The most punk rock track. It's relentless."
NME says: A ram-raiding sinister rock blowout. Lock up your daughters... and your sons.

12: DARE
Russel: "This is a hefty track. Part clash. part Madonna."
Murdoc: "That's a rubbish description. It's nothing to do with Madonna. It's got a vocal by my old mate, Shaun Ryder. Shaun, eh! He's a scallywag, isn't he?"
NME says: The Happy Mondays' man is tag teamed with teeny boppers. Curiously, he sounds like The Streets' unusual 'uncle'.

13: Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head
Russel: "Narrated by Mr Dennis Hopper. Noodle ran into him at some award show and it turns out he knew some Gorillaz tracks already.
NME says: Dennis Hopper reads us a story, but soul-stealing monkeys ensure 'Harry Potter' this ain't.

14: Don't Get Lost In Heaven
Russel: "This is a little slice of West Coast, sun-soaked harmony. Like coming up for air."
NME says: If Danger Mouse's remixing went near The Beach Boys, it'd sound like this.

15: Demon Days
2D: "You remember when you were a little kid and you would look at the clouds and something that simple would make you feel a part of everything and all alone at the same time? As creative entities, we look for signs of life outside ourselves. That's why we all do what we do."
Murdoc: "Er... nope. It's for the birds after the show. Anyone who says different is just spinning a yarn."
NME says: Ends the Gorillaz on a gospel-induced, hymn-like high. "

After finding out about Dan the Automator's non-participation on this album, I lost some interest in Gorillaz. But after reading that "commentary," I'm actually looking forward to this.

:thumbsup: to De La Soul, Shaun Ryder and the continued use of Romero samples.

"5/4" owns me - looking forward to this.

cheers,

-the Jesus

Details of the tracklistings of the formats for the UK release of 'Feel Good Inc', out 9 May, from fans.gorillaz.com:

CD
1. Feel Good Inc. (Single Version)
2. Spitting Out The Demons

Ltd. 7" Picture Disc
A. Feel Good Inc. (Single Version)
B. 68 State

DVD
1. Feel Good Inc. (Video)
2. Spitting Out The Demons
3. Bill Murray (feat. The Bees)

High-quality streaming audio of Feel Good Inc.:

Windows Media Player

Real Player

and the video

Launch

interesting article from mtv.com...

Cartoon Gorillaz Put A Muzzle On Danger Mouse, Damon Albarn
04.05.2005 10:24 PM EDT

Each deflects interview questions, deferring to the animated musicians.

Damon Albarn is smarter than you might think.

Not that the Blur/Gorillaz frontman's acumen is in question, but conceptually the idea of a "virtual band" seems rather silly. However, there's a crafty motive behind the animated members 2-D, Noodle, Russel and Murdoc.

"Talking about [the music] is something that [the band] likes to do," Albarn said with a rehearsed and evasive smirk. "I don't think they appreciate us stepping on their turf as it were. They think I'm delusional anyway, so anything I say can't possibly be right."

While Albarn may use his animated characters as a shrewd machination to avoid explaining his personal and musical intentions, what can be gleaned from the cagey Gorillaz is that their new album Demon Days, due May 24, is an opaque affair, both musically and thematically.

"Gorillaz make dark pop; that's what they always set out to achieve," Albarn said. "The whole album kind of tells the story of the night — staying up during the night — but it's also an allegory. It's what we're living in basically, the world in a state of night."

The most obvious difference on their sophomore offering is the absence of Dan "The Automator" Nakamura as the acting musical producer. Instead, Albarn reached out to Danger Mouse based on the strength of The Grey Album, which turned heads last year when it seamlessly and illegally meshed the Beatles' The White Album with Jay-Z's The Black Album (see "Remixers Turn Jay-Z's Black Album Grey, White And Brown").

"[The Automator] wasn't busy, the [project just] needed a slightly different approach," Albarn explained. "Danger Mouse, in my opinion, is one of the best young producers in the world. I think the last record was a lot more simplistic. It was virgin territory — animated hip-hop, reggae, stroke-rock, Latin rock — there's a lot more intricacy with this record."

For Danger Mouse, a.k.a. Brian Burton, a longtime Blur fan, the feelings of admiration and respect were mutual. "It was a no-brainer when there was interest there [from Albarn]," Burton said. "I heard demos of the new record, but the biggest part was getting the chance to be a part of something that's so strong — you just gotta jump on it. I had a very up-and-down year [in 2004], but it was definitely a big up when I got a chance to [work with Gorillaz]."

Like their debut, Gorillaz's Demon Days boasts a cast of colorful characters that aren't animated, including Booty Brown from the Pharcyde ("Dirty Harry"), outré rapper MF Doom ("November Has Come") and a bizarre cameo appearance by Dennis Hopper, who contributes a solemn spoken-word piece ("Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head").

But don't expect Albarn to reveal how the odd pairing took place. "I really feel that the band are going to be pissed if they see me talking about them, you know? And they're a lot funnier than me," he said.

What does speak for itself is the pulsing hip-hop rock of first single "Feel Good Inc." The cut features De La Soul and its shadowy Cloud City-like video ups the ante for visually stunning animated clips. In keeping with their theme of dispensing with the old, this time the Gorillaz created their clip without original band animator and "Tank Girl" creator Jamie Hewlett.

"I think it's a big step up from the last videos," Albarn said. "The influences range from classic 'Scooby Doo' to [Japanimation house] Studio Ghibli. It's got a lot of different textures to it."

While neither Albarn nor Burton would divulge any details about the next Blur or Danger Mouse albums, they did reveal that an alternate collaboration may be in the works. "We might be working together again this year on something which I started in Lagos, in Nigeria, last year. It could be quite fantastic I think," Albarn said, noting the record would be different from the world-beat Mali Music project he released in 2002. "It's definitely Afrocentric, but it's more of a country-soul record, actually."

A North American tour with "all the characters" is being planned for the summer, but having already cleaned house just two discs into their career, will Danger Mouse be on board for the Gorillaz's third offering?

"It's not really up to us, is it?" Burton said with a laugh, claiming the fickle animated characters could easily change their minds once again.

"It's too early to tell," Albarn said. "Success and things can inevitably ... You know, look at the Game and 50 Cent. That could easily happen to us."


Alternatively read it on mtv.com here.Watch a brief video clip from the interview on the mtv.com page that is linked to.

Finally, the article brings to an end speculation over which tracks the guest stars that had not been revealed to be on a specific track, are on. Ike Turner features on 'Every Planet We Reach Is Dead, and Martina Topley-Bird appears with Roots Manuva on 'All Alone'.

Their first album is one of my all time favorites. I'm a little dissapointed with Feel Good Inc though. I hope the rest of the album is better.

it seems this has leaked to the usual...um...places. the bad places we must not speak of. i've skimmed some of the tracks. its not grabbing me but also not disappointing. i think it will grow on me quite nicely, records like this usually do.

Here's the comic book they created about the new album:
http://www.ugo.com/channels/music/fe...z/gorillaz.asp

I think its pretty good. Those Dan-less beats are really impressive too.

review:

by April Madden, journalist for a national publication in the United Kingdon.


Demon Days, Gorillaz, Parlophone/ EMI

It was 2D that said of this record that it’s “like someone had taken the first album and coloured it in”; and that’s not a bad analogy for describing it. Boasting a deep, varied, exploratory soundscape unified by fantastically tight production from mixing guru Dangermouse and long – term Gorillaz collaborator Damon Albarn; the long – awaited follow up to Gorillaz’ eponymous debut in 2001 is a finely – tuned rollercoaster ride through an astonishingly diverse array of musical styles.

The album begins with Intro, familiar to visitors of the band’s website, an oboe – heavy classically scary piece of incidental music that may be the only survivor from the band’s abortive attempt at a movie in 2003; followed by the jagged synths of Last Living Souls, sliding in on a delicate thread of Moog bossa nova. This is pared – down towerblock pop with classically beautiful melodies and develops into a gorgeous combination of piano and strings. 2D’s vocals are lazily raspy, and would be sneering punkishly if they could be bothered. If Dr Dre ever became possessed by the spirit of Mozart and produced a record by a zombie punk band; this would be it. Kids With Guns, I’m sorry to say, we only had twenty seconds of at the time of going to press (not even seven of which comprise guest star Neneh Cherry’s vocals), but from what I’ve heard so far it’s delightfully funky and features Murdoc doing flicky, simple yet effective things to a bass guitar that sound like they should probably be illegal...

The album then takes a turn in a completely different direction with the wonderfully oxymoronic, overproduced dischordancy of O Green World. Sounding like one of Damon Albarn’s classical waltzes on speed, or then again possibly like Jesus Jones on ketamine; this is staggering, reeling, dizzy punk pop with a headache. Also reminiscent of Blur’s 13, the lyrics are a plea to a dying planet with a vocal line that contains suspicious elements of Danny Elfman’s This Is Hallowe’en Town. It gives you the bizarre urge to see 2D on the cover of Deadline with a flick – knife in one hand and a flower in the other.

O Green World is followed by Dirty Harry, released as a white – label promo some months ago. Heavily reminiscent of De La Soul, the track in fact features rapper Bootsy Brown of the Pharcyde. This is rap’s first outing on the album so far and bizarrely, it doesn’t mesh with the incredibly funky old – skool stylings of the melody line but instead takes a completely different direction; coming in on some fantastically cinematic strings and blazing into angry, fuzzily – recorded ranting. This could prove disjointing and somewhat upsetting for listeners who were expecting the milder tones of previous Gorillaz rapper Del Tha Funky Homosapien.

They won’t be disappointed, however; as the next track is the album’s first single, Feel Good Inc; on the surface an overwhelmingly chart – friendly pop anthem in the same vein as the band’s first real chart smash Clint Eastwood, but like its predecessor possessing hidden lyrical depths. The tune features De La Soul being a great deal feistier than is usual, an intriguing and amusing departure from their signature style.

And then there’s El Manana.

El Manana sounds like prog rock’s hippy children on Ecstasy. 2D’s vocals on this love song are achingly beautiful, backed by swooning strings and incredible keyboard melodies. The chorus is sadly uplifting, chillingly melancholy. The first time I sat down to listen to this I unconsciously drew stars all over my notes. I think that says it all.

The album then smoulders into the dirty blues – funk of Every Planet We Reach Is Dead. 2D’s collaboration on Steely Dan cover FM (with Nathan Haines, on the album Squire For Hire) is an obvious influence here, as the band have teamed up with Motown legend Ike Turner for this unexpected but wonderful departure into 80s bar – room blues. Noodle’s guitar doesn’t gently weep, it moans and screams by turns – where the hell did she learn how to do that?! – whilst Murdoc adds bass that struts like a peacock. Vocally it’s soft and gentle, featuring a total sex kitten of a lyric in “I’ll take you deeper, down to the sleepy glow”, before building into a drawn - out crescendo of piano, guitar and strings over a pounding rhythm, and then dying softly, gently away for a moment; before building once more and then slowly expiring into strings, beats, and a husky hint of flute. It’s followed by November Has Come, featuring guest rapper MF Doom; a drowsy but highly polished zombie hip – hop / dark pop offering with a gorgeously jazzy chorus line; which sees Gorillaz kicking it Guru style. If they ever made Jazzmatazz – Zombie Shuffle this would be the compilation’s killer track. The aural equivalent to the first hit of smack, it’s warm and fuzzily melancholy with a slight hint of spinning discordance.

It’s at this point that the album pokes fun at the listener, spins them around, pokes them on the arse and says “Oi! Reject false icons, remember?” The next track, All Alone, has the immediacy of Nintendo alt – pop and a silly little voice – changer vocal sample that instantly bumps you out of the dreamy mood the album has put you in and makes you giggle. The track gets progressively darker, however, bringing in a touch of drum and bass and some stuttering, jagged calypso on the keyboards and then the vocals of dub star Roots Manuva. Just as you’re convinced this tune is deep, discordant dancehall, though; it lifts itself up above the clouds on a line of acoustic guitar and Martina Topley – Bird’s stunningly lovely vocals. Strangely reminiscent of a few Blur b – sides from 1995; this is a challenging track that somehow doesn’t lose its appeal, despite the amount of musical styles it throws at the listener.

You’re prepared for almost anything after this… except for maybe the fact that White Light is vaguely reminiscent of 1980s cock – rock. A synth – heavy slice of pure punk pop apparently featuring a prison buddy of Murdoc’s, just when you’re least expecting it the song drifts into prog rock harmonics and a guitar wails upwards again, then brings you back to the school disco chugging of the main track, before cutting off suddenly. Then the jangly grooves of D.A.R.E begin. This is pure early 90s acid – indie, what we used to call ‘rave’ before some bright spark discovered E and beats per minute. The track stars Shaun Ryder, the shambolic creative force behind the legendary Happy Mondays, and will instantly amuse the denizens of the band’s website for an obscure reason related to elevators. The track has instant appeal and catchiness, it’s all smiles and baggy jeans; yet somehow still fits with the range of musical styles already displayed on the album.

But nothing I heard thus far prepared me for the next track, the absolutely stunning Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head. A spoken word verse line, voiced evocatively by Dennis Hopper, tells an incredible, allegorical tale of a small and happy people living at the foot of a volcanic mountain named Monkey; whilst 2D’s vocal line on the chorus is a folksy, delicately melodic reproach to a brain – dead world. The song slides so seamlessly into the next, both melodically and vocally; that you’d be forgiven for thinking that the last three songs on the album are in fact a tiny, stunted prog – rock opus for the attention deficit generation. Don’t Get Lost In Heaven slides into Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head with the odd and wonderful combination of a Beach Boys – esque vocal line and the cheerfully sung lyric that “there was crack on the corner and someone dead, and fire coming out of the monkey’s head” before becoming an incredibly powerful, uplifting gospel tune featuring no discernable vocals by any of the band members. This in turn fades into the album’s title track Demon Days on a by – now – characteristic dream of meandering violins, which sees 2D pick up the vocals again over a shushing city soundscape and strings; before a classically indie shuffling spatter of drums kicks in and guest vocalists the London Community Gospel Choir take complete control of the uplifting positivity of the lyrics. In a wonderful, final oxymoron, the cartoon band’s album ends by reminding the listener, over and over, that they are a human soul.

Overall, Demon Days is a stunning, provocative album; full of big ideas brought to fruition by an astonishingly varied and talented group of collaborators. It veers from one musical style to the next with enough continuity and self – referencing that it never looses the listener’s attention. Each track seems to take a little sideways dawdle onto whatever magical island it is that Noodle inhabits in the video to Feel Good Inc; and comes back refreshed and ready to go off in yet another direction. Challenging yet instantly appealing, bold yet gentle, fake and yet at the same time more real than anything else, full of unexpected sounds yet at the same time reassuringly classic melodies; Demon Days is a beautiful collection of dichotomies put together in a single record. It’s not so much like someone has taken the first album and coloured it in; it’s like they’ve taken the first album and made an expansive collage of it, full of unexpected texture and sparkly bits. It’s warm, sexy, deep dark pop, with a heart and a soul and a conscience.

Definitely worth waiting for.

Reviews from NME & Mojo:

2D or not 2D?
Technological expertise and a cast of thousands but, under EMI's watchful eye, can Damon and pals pull off album number two?

Gorillaz - Demon Days - Parlophone - 8/10

If you were to invent a pop act right now, where would you begin? well, human beings take too many drugs and start boo-hooing when they don't get their own way, so you'd create something, like a cartoon character, to front the whole sheband. You'd do something to make sure The Kids parents didn't understand the appeal - it's the punk rock way after all. And since we live in such modern times, you'd promote this new pop star not through conventional channels like the gig circuit or CD:UK, but through some semi-interactive platform, to star with the world's most-can't-get-out-of-your-headbale tune, and once the entire project reached critical mass, whack out a single. Congratulations: you've just invented the Crazy Frog. You are, to all intents and purposes, a ****.
Of course, nobody would suggest Damon Albarn is a **** - he was far too pretty in his 20s to be truly hateable - but if you need proof of how far we've come since the first Gorillaz album dropped four years ago, just think how unextraordinary the band's shenanigans seem now. We don't think, 'Hold your horses, cartoons can't make albums' - we just wonder how Gorillaz sold so many albums in America when 2D's teeth were in such a state. Gorillaz, now, are just a normal band. For this secona lbum the music steps up a gear to compensate for that conceptual shortfall by conjuring up a unique mix that's darker, but often more accessible, than its predecessor and strutting around very much like the ultimate pop album. But that's not the only significant development.
Where 2001's 'Gorillaz' began life as an elaborate and self-indulgent vanity project and accidently turned out to be quite good to the tune of six million copies sold, 'Demon Days' is, alongside the Coldplay album, one of 2005's biggest bankers for EMI. none of this is a happy accident, and nothing has been left to chance. It speaks volumes that legal downloads of the splendid lead single 'Feel Good Inc.' became chart eligible - thanks to a limited run of vinyl, ussued to record shops simply to satisfy chart regulations - in the very week that downloads first qualified in the UK charts. Reckon Damon sat at home and thought of that one? Already, the Gorillaz' return feels less like a group of mavericks operating in some musical wasteland on the edge of civilisation and more as if EMI's marketing gurus have sprung into life scribbling 'MAINSTREAM VS UNDERGROUND' and 'ASDA BUYERS VS PUNK KIDZ' on flipcharts. Given the first album's scucess, the big challenge must have been "how do you manufacture spontaneity?"
They haven't been short of ideas. Practicality, sadly has got in the way of the band embarking on a series of Gorillaz guerilla gigs. Instead, a similarly self-conscious culture jamming exercise was set in motion, through which a viral-type campaign encoruage fans to stick anti-celebrity 'Reject False Icons' stickers on billboards. One fan recently noted, in their online diary: "I plan on going to the mall this week, and writing 'Reject False Icons' on some bathroom stalls. Have to do my part, and trust me, I'm not the only one who has done this... I'm part of a 'team' who does this kind of thing every day. Pretty exciting actually."
'Exciting'. Make no mistake, this as sophisticated and insidious as the 'street teams' orchestrated for bands like Busted and McFly, except at least that lot get a free frisbee for their troubles. Alongside (but hamfistedly at odds with) the 'Reject False Icons' campaign, Gorillaz alos launched their 'Search For A Star' online campaign, which incorrectly billed itself as the first online-only talent search. Either it was Gorillaz' intention to eventually telll the applicants 'Look, Michelle McManus isn't really *that* bad - what you've done is exactly what she did', or this supposed satire of the game game was simply in place to have a laugh at the expense of the band's fans. At the very least, those fans are being used to promote 'Demon Days', just like the fans who bought the limited edition 'Feel Good Inc.' vinyl were used to create acres of publicity when then single charted.
Have those fans been cheated? Have we all been cheated? It all become irrelevant as soon as you press play, because beyond the mixed messages and startling lack of logic in the album's promotion, 'Demon Days' may end 2005 as one of the year's most celebrated albums. Before you even consider the sonic and melodic innvoation paraded through the album, there's so much crammed into each of these 15 songs (without any one of them sounding over-produced or cluttered) that repeated listening is a must. There's always something new to enjoy.
Instrumental in this album's charm is Danger Mouse's production, which propels it far beyong the limits of its predecessor; the standard Gorillaz sonic motifs (light-headed dub, left-of-centre electronic flourished, caricatured wailing from another planet and the irresistible thud of a thousand bass bins) remain, but there's a seemingly unselfconscious desire from all parties to innovate within the realms of the modern pop song. They succeed at every turn, and the inevitable rolecall of guests keep it moving. With the exception of the London Community Gospel Choir, who'd arguably turn up to the recording of an envelope being opened, this is an unexpected and imaginatively plucked succession of cameos, taking in De La Soul, Martina Topley-Bird, Neneh Cherry (on the droopily spectacular 'Kids With Guns'), Roots Manuva (on 'All Alone', the most 'Gorillaz' sounding track), Ike 'nice guy' Turner, Dennis Hopper... even the score from 'Dawn Of The Dead' pops in to say a spooky hello at the album's outset.
We also find Shaun Ryder sounding genuinely relevant for the first time in 15 years, in an electronic pop masterpiece called 'DARE'. With the exception of 'O Green World' (whose chorus lyric 'Uhhhh-uhhhhh-uhhhhh-uh' sounds like Jimmy Saville at the dentist) 'DARE' is the finest moment on an album which never drops below total brilliance: it's convention and will be everywhere this summer.
If you believe Gorillaz are genuinely inverting popular culture then you probably also think Apple present some sort of 'cool' alternative to Microsoft, but while 'Demon Days' is as fastidiously packaged and cynically promoted as your average Shania Twain release, it's an honest overview of the rarely-accepted fact that it never really *is* all about the music, even when the music's this extraordinary. 'Demon Days' is also just a few IQ points away from being as clever as it thinks it is. Pretty clever.
Peter Robinson.

IN THE GORILLAZ' MIDST
Those cartoon collaborators in full
*Neneh Cherry - In the late-80's, Neneh pioneered wearing cycling shorts, being pregnant on Top Of The Pops and making era-defining Hip Hop albums ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
*Ike Turner - Smacked his wife around but - hey! - what a great musician!
*Dangermouse - "Shot to fame" (It says here) with 'The Grey Album', which blended the snooker career of Jimmy White with the pop career of Cilla Black. Maybe.
*Martina Topley-Bird - Bristonllian trip-hop siren discovered by strange collaborator Tricky while hanging around her school gates.
*Dennis Hopper - Starred in seminal movies like Rebel Without A Cause and Easy Rider, although these days seems to spend most of his time appearing in total turkeys and Channel 5 movies, so he was probably quite cheap for this.
*Roots Manuva - the artist formerly known as Rodney
*De La Soul - Former Daisy Age geek-rappers turned crotchety old men of hip-hop
*Sean Ryder - Former greatest rock lyricist of his generation now overshadowed by the antics of his former sidekick, Bez.


Gorillaz - Demon Days - Parlophone - 4/5

Blur's Damon Albarn proves a cartoon band needn't make frivolous music.

A collaboration with the cult cartoonist Jamie Hewlett and producer Dan Nakamura, conceived as an outlet for Damon Albarn's dabblings in the non-Blur world of hip hop and kitchen-sink R&B, Gorillaz sold six million copies of their 2002 debut to become something more than a hobby band. On Demon Days, Albarn's generic cross-pollination has bedded in nicely - allowing (on All Alone) a blubbery, boggling beat, a typically eccentric Roots Manuva rap and Martina Topley-Bird's angelic pipes to co-exist in perfect symbiosis. The result is an aural phantasmagoria - funky, playful but siniste like the best children's stories - soundtracking Albarn's vision of a crumbling, exploited world where zombified 'Kids With Guns' hold sway from North Hulme to Sierra Leone and dead-eyed multi-nationals rape an ancient culture in a lysergic parable brilliantly narrated by Dennis Hopper. Quite astonishing.
Danny Eccleston.

Dirty Harry-->Feel Good Inc.-->El Manana is one incredible sequence of songs.

I can't stop playing Feel Good Inc.

I like it much better than the chosen first single, Clint Eastwood, from the first cd. (that was the first single right?)

The beat is tight. I haven't heard it in clubs, yet - but I am sure I will soon. I'll be out there on the dance floor.

The video's great too.

I really hated Clint Eastwood, but i love Feel Good Inc.