đŸŽ” How Good Are They Really đŸŽ” Gorillaz

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 I’d 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 doesn’t exist.

3, or a generous 4 depending on which number my fat thumbs land on.

Not really fussed either way, but the highs are brilliant.

For those who’ve only heard the singles, have a listen to this:

One of my highlights from their best album. The way that brass and those drums come in. Lovely.

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Reckon this is a good shout. Like on Humanz there’s 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.

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Forgot about this too. Their best track, imo – beautiful arrangement.

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Each of the projects Damon Albarn done
 none of them are over 3.5 in total

but to have managed such amazing highs across very different projects, would be 5 for him if we were rating that way 
which we’re not

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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 wasn’t 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 wasn’t Blur. And I like Blur. I remember my biggest disappointment of the set being that Gruff Rhys didn’t turn up.

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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 wouldn’t appear in person, even though he performed earlier that day)

I absolutely adore Demon Days the album, it’s a truly great record from front to back I think

The reason there’s such a big gap between Demon Days & Plastic Beach is that they’d planned to call it a day after DD. One of my biggest ever regrets was not going to the ‘final shows’ 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. Can’t 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

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Did anyone ever see this when it was on?

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!

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Completely agree. There was always a threat there would never be any more but now
 it’s just an endless dumping ground for experiments. I don’t know why, but it feels so disparate now.

I fully expect The Hives HGATR to be a shitshow

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Gave them a 4, big fan of the first 3 albums.

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.

I’ve given each album since Plastic Beach a cursory listen but they haven’t 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.

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The Dirty Harry riff/groove when it drops is an all-timer btw

glorious stuff

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I know it’s a clichĂ©, but I refuse to believe that anyone who has seen The Hives live would feel the need to pile in on them.

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5/5

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Very very much this.

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, it’s been a bit of a scratchy, grab some demos and some friends and push that out type of affair. Although Damon’s nominally in charge, the first two albums really benefitted from having an authoritative producer on each, whereas what’s 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 I’ve not paid attention much to them since.

I like the idea of Song Machine though; even if it doesn’t stand up very well as an album the released EPs are great.

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I very much enjoyed the period in the band when Murdoc had to leave because and they replaced him with Ace from the Powerpuff Girls.

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I like Humanz.

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Minimalist Tinder bio.

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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 “fantasy football” 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 doesn’t 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 I’ve just listened to “Plastic Beach” (Albarn’s strongest album?) and might up it to 5 for the whole concept, maaan

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