Let's start with this: Gorillaz represents the greatest conceit yet dreamt up with which to get all the cash and creative freedom you want to make ambitious pop music in this most creativity-stifling of corporate environments.
It may be designed to divide opinion but we could go one-way and the other on this all day: corporations hoodwinking the kids vs. injections of real creativity into the bloated marketing beast and so on. But from the evil marketing genius point of view, the only flaw is that this project forces itself to stand or fall by the music.
Now take a deep breath. Albarn bashers back off. This album is destined to sell by the barrow load to kids all over the world. And. They. Are. Going. To. Love. It.
And why not? "Demon Days" is utterly unique and frequently wonderful. It's already spawned the summer's most irresistible single and is chock to the gills with music more ambitious than anything in the blockbuster category since Missy and Timbaland were in their prime. Music that, say, marketed as the product of a familiar British band well into the twilight of their career, would fail to get far beyond an existing fan base. Let alone get noticed across the Atlantic.
As a showcase for Albarn's increasingly fine way with a precariously sensitive song, this album is as much of a revelation as "Think Tank". Their structural ambition goes far beyond that record. Not everything hits the mark, however. There is an occasional sense of two tracks being taped together: Albarn's 'songs' and his contributors' beats and raps. But this is not Dangermouse's album, as some have suggested. Think of it more as a Blur album with a new bunch of producers involved. A Blur album that Alex would probably hate.
When all concerned really come together - as on the spectacular "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" - the results are exhilarating and elevate the humble pop song into the stratosphere. lf Albarn appears to be in control most of the time, he readily shares the reigns. With MF Doom in the booth for "November Has Come", Dangermouse kicks off and then the two of them pass the ball elegantly, seemingly creating the genre of Folk-Hop in the process.
The 'cartoon' mandate is met with an inventive anti-imperialist parable delivered by Dennis Hopper, "Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head". A mournful strum is addressed to the little towns in the USA that coveted jewels from a far away mountain. The same people who failed to show when the mountain rained fire down on the villages below. You could call it 'going after the American market'.
In short, the whole project is so dense there's far too much to address here. And that's before any mention of the videos and artwork - all beautifully evocative of the themes lying behind the songs. Suffice it to say that, whilst most of what passes for Art Pop these days does so on the cut of its trouser leg, "Demon Days" overflows with a rare invention that truly allows it to lay claim to the name.
by James Poletti