Their first album was the first cd I ever bought so nostalgia points for that alone.
Demon Dayz is excellent (especially the collaboration with DOOM) but Plastic Beach Iâd their best I reckon. Brilliantly conceptual, loads of fun and has more memorable moments than the others. Cloud of Unknowing is a beauty and the ascension in Empire Ants is brilliant.
That being said all the stuff that came after Plastic Beach is rubbish or simply doesnât exist.
3, or a generous 4 depending on which number my fat thumbs land on.
Reckon this is a good shout. Like on Humanz thereâs lots of good stuff, but with all the guests it feels like a bunch of tracks thrown together rather than the first few albums that all have their own feel and work well as coherent sets of songs.
Going for a 4. So much brilliant stuff, but watered down by some less exciting bits. Their more recent stuff is largely underrated though.
One thing I do want to say is that I thought their Glastonbury headline set was great (saw it in person). There was a lot of sniffy press basically saying that it wasnât a big band banging out anthems. Well, Glastonbury is described as a performing arts festival. You had Mark E Smith, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Shaun Ryder, Snoop Dogg, De La Soul⊠imagine pulling all that lot together for a headline set and it being regarded as a failure because it wasnât Blur. And I like Blur. I remember my biggest disappointment of the set being that Gruff Rhys didnât turn up.
Snoop did turn up at the end. The opening of the set was him on video, but he came out in person for Clint Eastwood.
(edit: pointed out for the record, I realise your main point was that the opening bit made it look like he wouldnât appear in person, even though he performed earlier that day)
I absolutely adore Demon Days the album, itâs a truly great record from front to back I think
The reason thereâs such a big gap between Demon Days & Plastic Beach is that theyâd planned to call it a day after DD. One of my biggest ever regrets was not going to the âfinal showsâ that they put on at the Apollo music hall in Harlem. A friend of mine at the time was working on their records and was practically begging me to come over to NYC with them. Canât believe I missed this
Gave them a 4 though as, like others have said, the returns since Plastic Beach have been somewhat diminishing
Shout out to the heavy dub Space Monkey remix version of the s/t album, soundtrack to a stoned love summer 2002 in Paris
Came out at the peak of mine and my mates obsession with Gorillaz so we went along to gobble up whatever Gorillaz-adjacent material was out there. A bit out there but was pretty fun!
Completely agree. There was always a threat there would never be any more but now⊠itâs just an endless dumping ground for experiments. I donât know why, but it feels so disparate now.
The first album is nice and murky but the big singles are great moments of levity. I remember being disappointed when I bought it originally expecting it all to sound like the radio mix of Clint Eastwood. Appreciate it a lot more in retrospect.
Demon Days and Plastic Beach are just perfect pop albums with just the right amount of experimentation. Still love Feel Good inc. despite it being way overplayed at the time.
I also got into more interesting hip hop due to them, back when I started listening to them I was only listening to Eminem and Dr Dre but through them I discovered Del the funky Homosapien and Phi-Life Cypher and explored further. I was very happy when Doom, Roots Manuva and De La Soul turned up on Demon Days.
Iâve given each album since Plastic Beach a cursory listen but they havenât clicked. But a 4 for the strong nostalgia points. Might give the later albums another go this week.
Always really enjoyed this alternative version of Clint Eastwood even though its a bit cheesy.
The rumour that was going around a decade ago was that Plastic Beach was a huge financial investment that flopped massively. Radio 1 were flooded with complaints about playing Stylo and, in a fit of desperation, Damon was asked to go into the studio to make a big radio friendly hit (which, to be fair Doncamatic very much is).
Since then, itâs been a bit of a scratchy, grab some demos and some friends and push that out type of affair. Although Damonâs nominally in charge, the first two albums really benefitted from having an authoritative producer on each, whereas whatâs gone since has been⊠unfocused.
Which is a huge shame, because there are moments of brilliance everywhere. Just unpolished, and hidden amongst a lot of detritus. Humanz was such a disappointment that Iâve not paid attention much to them since.
I like the idea of Song Machine though; even if it doesnât stand up very well as an album the released EPs are great.
Genuinely great band IMO. I came for the funny cartoons but stayed for the wistful ballads, the bangers and, in recent years, the wistful bangers:
Also love the whole âfantasy footballâ element of it where Damon throws together all his favourite artists past and present to see what happens: Gruff Rhys jamming with De La Soul! Ibrahim Ferrer as some kind of unhinged post-apocalyptic bandleader! Mark E. Smith fronting Goldfrapp! Shaun Ryder⊠also fronting Goldfrapp! Elton John duetting with 6LACK! (OK, it doesnât always work)
Was at their Glasto set and thought it was a bit of a glorious failure - great fun for me personally but pretty misjudged for a crowd of U2 fans. Made me root for them more though. Initially gave them a 4 but Iâve just listened to âPlastic Beachâ (Albarnâs strongest album?) and might up it to 5 for the whole concept, maaan