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Tag: Damon Albarn

  • First Listen: Gorillaz’ “Stylo”

    Since the Gorillaz project was conceptualized a decade or so, I’ve gotta say that in terms of Damon Albarn projects, they’ve been my favorite. Blur’s always been kinda scattershot for me, and The Good, the Bad and the Queen was one of those albums I regretted buying after the first listen. Honestly, I could care less about the marketing gimmick (in this case, the band being “animated”)-all that matters to me is whether the music is good or not. For the most part, it has been, and Gorillaz has rightfully become the most critically adored and commercially accepted project of Albarn’s career-at least here in the States.

    Anyway, there’s a new Gorillaz project coming later this year entitled “Plastic Beach”. The first single from it is called “Stylo”, and it features Albarn’s nasal vocal tones with assistance from a vaguely-recognizable Mos Def (who has officially recovered his mojo) and soul legend Bobby Womack (who can still sing with power past retirement age, if this song is any indication). The song itself is a little on the repetitive side, but I like the overall vibe of it. All Gorillaz songs seem to have this haunting quality to them.

    Check out the song on Gorillaz’ official website and let us know what you think.

  • The Top 100 Songs of the ’00s, #98: “Clint Eastwood”

    gorillaz

    Not quite random thoughts:

    Show of hands: does this song remind anyone other than me of being high?

    I’m not sure if it’s the song’s musical bed-sampling music from “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly”, a movie starring (you guessed it) Clint Eastwood, or if it’s Damon Albarn’s dazed-sounding chorus. It could be the rhyming from the perpetually stoned Del tha Funkee Homosapien. Might be all three. Either way, I practically catch a contact just from *listening* to this song. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.

    Could a song like this have possibly come from anything other than a cartoon band? And what else could the line “I’ve got sunshine in a bag” be about?

    Gorillaz=best supergroup of the decade. Audioslave would be close if they hadn’t made that last sucky album.