Get lost on Gorillaz’s ‘Cracker Island’
Some forms of tantalizing music can be created by juxtaposing contrasting elements. English musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett know this well. For the past 25 years, as virtual band Gorillaz, they’ve fostered a reputation for experimenting with myriad genres and for having an open door to quality, contemporary artists who wish to collaborate.
For the sake of reference, the band comprised of Albarn as 2D (vocals), Noodle (guitar), Murdoc (bass) and Russel Hobbs (drums, vocals) usually bobs in sonic atmospheres not limited to their merging of Pop, Hip-Hop, Funk, Electronic, Dub and Rock.
Each album unfolds, centered around their twisted adventures like a comic that invites you into the absurd. Instead of floating lost in abstraction, you’re connected to reality by a space tether comprised of relevant political undertones.
Their latest entry, the loose concept album “Cracker Island,” follows the same artistic direction of “The Now Now” (2018), which came about after 2D took creative control.
This time, the foursome wrap themes such as exhaustion and disconnection in rays of shining synths.
Approaching the crew’s eighth album, 2D knew he wanted to focus on Pop. Armed with iPad demos of most songs that would end up on this new project, he sought out LA-based Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin (Pink, Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters).
According to press material released through Apple Music, 2D would explore the studio coming up with melodies that attracted him. Kurstin would jump in, adding mellotron on the spot. This free-form approach took only a few hours for the musicians to whip up “Cracker Island’s” audio blueprint, “Silent Running,” featuring Adeleye Omotayo.
Singing about being lost in a trance-like state where he is absorbed and lost in his dream, 2D refers to the hypnotic nature/danger of beauty atop jubilant electronics mixed with layered vocals and tight bass.
Focusing on the lore that is just important as the music, a running theme for the band is
their resident megalomaniac Murdoc’s long documented abusive relationship with 2D.
On their last album, “Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez” (2020), Murdoc created The Last Cult with world domination on his mind.
However, he refuted that in official letters released at the time, stating he “started the cult only to impress the girl next door,” who is also the leader of a cult. Subsequent to founding The Last Cult, he tried to poison 2D twice, luckily backfiring on both occasions.
Now, with the help of Moon Flower, the band’s shared neighbor, she and Murdoc execute a plan of drugging 2D to recruit him as a member of her cult, The Forever Cult (reference earlier mentioned “Silent Running”).
Slightly zooming out, the Gorillaz head to California and try to unite people with the goal of changing humanity as we know it.
With numerous awards accredited to the band, including a Grammy for dark tinted Brit-Pop/Hip-Hop track “Feel Good Inc.” (2006), Gorillaz are most successful mining that dark vein.
In that sense, the choice of recruiting certified trippy hit-makers, LA-based bassist Thundercat and Kevin Parker, the mastermind behind Aussie Psych band Tame Impala, on respective features, is part of the record’s uplifting counterbalance.
The opening pulsing title track features the bassist taking on Funk and Jazz in a call and response with 2D. The song is still a highlight even though it’s surprisingly bad at showcasing Thundercat’s signature bass.
Some people may think that Gorillaz’s frequent employment of other, often legendary artists like Elton John and Roberta Flack is detrimental and something they always to have lean on.
“New Gold” featuring rapper Bootie Brown (The Pharcyde) and Tame Impala should lay that notion to rest. Gorillaz’s music has always been as chameleon-like as 2D. On this swirling dance floor burner, 2D’s melancholy, “Everything will disappear (new gold)/ Someone’s out here who traveled far too many years (new gold)/ To nowhere, nowhere (new gold, new gold)/ Nothing here is ever real (new gold)” grounds both Brown’s golden-era Rap bars and Tame Impala’s multi-colored Disco.
If you’re hooked, don’t miss 2D’s despondency in “Oil.”
In a duet with singer Stevie Nicks, in a memorable moment, the Fleetwood Mac member grittily compares a cluster-bomb strike to drum and bass music.
“Tormenta” featuring Bad Bunny is a Reggaeton side trip meant more for his fans. Even when “Cracker Island” threatens to lose momentum during the latter half of 15 songs, “Captain Chicken” featuring Del The Funky Homosapien and the mariachi breakdown of “Possession Island” featuring the returning easy-tospot weirdness of Beck, (last heard on “Strange Timez”) picks you back up. Essentially, it’s an album referencing darkness in our world that people are all too familiar with. The prescription? Dance.