They’ve always collaborated with random people but since Humanz they feel like a content farm.
This video came out three years ago but it explains the downfall of the cartoon band:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5tLdz_IECDcPreserveTube
Will have to watch this. Just got linked to this thread...
I used to love Gorillaz. I was a big fan back in high school with a buddy of mine, I think just after Humanz had dropped. The trinity of the self-titled, Demon Dayz, and Plastic Beach is an absolutely generational run of music and the compelling lore of a fictional band. All the way through Plastic Beach, there was not only a coherent lore, but a genuinely interesting story about the band's exploits, specifically the shady past of Murdoc and how that was catching up to the band. In retrospect, the lore really fell apart when they weren't able to make the Rhinestone eyes music video, as that would've been the ending of the Plastic Beach Era, but they couldn't due to budget, leaving them in limbo until a book hastily reset the band to the Demon Dayz status quo for Humanz.
Humanz imo is abysmal dogshit. For a 20-track album, it has two, maybe three listenable songs with exactly one song without a collaboration (which is one of the listenable ones). It felt more like a vanity project for Damon Albarn to collab with a bunch of artists he's acquainted with. The only attraction at this point too was the music as the lore and narrative fell apart at the end of Plastic Beach... that was just a miserable era overall and I pretty much just retreated to the original 3 albums.
Despite all this, I was really locked in for The Now Now a few years later, and I loved it, to me it's their fourth and final album. Obviously, the story is gone, but it listens like an apology for Humanz as its stripped down, minimal collabs, and just let Albarn shine. Then Song Machine S1 and it just killed all my interest, the attempt to abandon the album format did not work, and even they realized it as they're back to the album format. The only song I liked off it was Momentary Bliss, aside from that, it felt like Albarn dived headfirst back into everything that made Humanz abysmal dogshit so I just fell off. Went out and listened to better bands.
I just miss their soul. The G-bitz, the storyline for each album, the cast being actual characters... it really feels like it's only something Albarn and Hewlett do because it's an easy paycheck as they get older.
Honestly, this rant makes me want to go revisit the first 3 albums again. This was a very angry and blackpilled sperg post, but I still think the first three albums (plus G & D Sides) is a generational run of bangers and some of the best 2000s alt-rock and punk you can listen to.
Oh my god...its a Gorillaz album thats cohesive and has a clear vision and isn't just mindlessly stacked with features so Damon can shill an unknown and Jamie can actually do something interesting with the lore and characters!
Cynicism aside it feels like its been ages since a Gorillaz album felt like it had some level of focus and wasn't just an assortment of guests dicking around with Damon which seems Iike an odd thing to say because the self-titled was essentially that but it feels like after Plastic Beach imploded the newer works lack a cohesiveness that made Demon Days and Plastic Beach so special so The Mountain feels like an long overdue return to form.
Literally everything I just ranted about lol, even down to Plastic Beach being the implosion point of the artistic vision. Might have to give The Mountain a listen at some point.
