Gorillaz - "The Mountain" (2026)

Gorillaz' post hiatus records have been a bit hit and miss, with the project feeling like it lacked a consistent direction from album to album. Humanz stuck out like a sore thumb with its darker, more drab atmosphere on first release. And while musically it has aged better than I ever thought it would, lyrically it sounds so dated with it's core conceit of "what if Trump won the 2016 election" when we've had a decade of the man dominating the news cycle. It is also too long and a complete mess, jumping from style to style with no cohesion between tracks. The Now Now was a sort of half course correct, being are more stripped back, simpler album with less features and a more consistent vibe. There's some good songs on there, but as a whole it is a fairly forgettable release from the band that drew comparisons to 2010's The Fall (a somewhat throwaway side album that Damon Recorded on his Ipad while on tour for Plastic Beach).

Song Machine was a complete change of pace, with Damon and Jamie eschewing the traditional album rollout for a series of 'episodes' comprised of a standalone track built around the style and skillset of the song's feature. This resulted in the best crop of Gorillaz songs since Plastic Beach, but removed any of the broader themes and imagery the project is known for. A season 2 was in the works, but for some reason was scrapped in favour of a more traditional record, Cracker Island, that leaned back into the cartoon band's 'lore' for the first time in a while, but really didn't do much with it's occult theme and is honestly the most tired and by the numbers Gorillaz album yet.

The Mountain, is once again another switch in direction for the band, with the first rumblings of the record a couple of years ago claiming that it would be a spiritual sequel to Plastic Beach. And in some ways it very much is. The record is a big, ornate sounding album that is start studded with features, and has some core themes that run throughout without being too restrictive to date the album. But The Mountain is very much its own beast, with two distinct factors that really make it stand out from the previous Gorillaz cannon. The first is that, following on from a couple of trips to India that Jamie and Damon took, the record features a notable influence from traditional and contemporary Indian music genres - which is something entirely new to the band. The second is that the record features a core theme on death and the afterlife (inspired by both Damon and Jamie losing their fathers in the run up to recording), and such Damon has decided to dig the Gorillaz archives for recordings from previous collaborators who have since passed themselves. These posthumous features are all very tastefully included and to someone not in the know, would just feel like they were recorded for the album and not repurposed from sessions from decades past.

The record opens up similarly to Plastic Beach with a big ornate, orchestral intro. However in the place of the swooning strings of the Sinfonia Viva Orchestra is an ensemble of Indian and Indian-origin musicians playing a piece in the style of traditional Indian classical music. What results is quite an eery and mysterious opening to the record which leads into the next track, The Moon Cave, perfectly. The core of the The Moon Cave is textbook modern Gorillaz: dreamy, whimsical synthpop with a few extra elements thrown in to spice things up. The sitars and flutes continue on from the title track, and are meshed with the hazy synths and a beat switch up and hip-hop verse from Black Thought and the late Dave Joliceour of De La Soul. The track is pretty low-key, but has massively grown on me since release with the dreamy atmosphere and themes around going to 'the moon cave' as a sort of place to metaphorically wash yourself in the water there and let go of the past to make a fresh start.

The next song on the record, The Happy Dictator featuring Sparks, was released as the lead single and is the first of several that deal in the record's other major theme - that of power, control, autocrats and false prophets. Inspired by how Sapamurat Niyazov, the dictator of Turkmenistan from the dissolution of the USSR to his death in 2006, banned bad news in the country as a form of control over his subjects. The track plays into Sparks typical zaniness and pairs it with synthy Gorillaz sound, and because of that very much felt like a Song Machine off-cut on first listen. It certainly works well within the albums context, but I wouldn't say it is the strongest Gorillaz single out there. The God of Lying, featuring Joe Talbot of IDLES, falls into similar territory for me. The Track is built around a dubby off-kilter rhythm that feels like a softer Clint Eastwood, but lacks the punch and genuine weirdness that made the song stand out so vividly 25 years ago. Talbot is also doing his more dejected 'arty' approach to the vocals that has characterised the more recent IDLES records, but its a style I just don't think off he pulls off in much of an interesting way. His strength was always in the rage and fury of the early IDLES records, not this much more wordy, 'tasteful' approach. The song is by no means bad, but taken in isolation outside of the album just feels like an echo of previous Gorillaz highs.

The Hardest Thing and Orange County are a pair of songs that sit together between The Happy Dictator and The God of Lying, and follow more in the line of The Moon Cave revolving around coming to terms with grief and loss. They are a sombre and melancholic duo, with The Hardest Thing essentially serving as a triumphant woodwind and trumpet intro to the more poppy and uptempo Orange County. The songs are direct in their message about letting go of a mentor figure and the worries about living up to their legacy, and very much hit the spot - they feel very end credits-y. As the middle of the record approaches, the two themes start to meld together with The Empty Dream Machine, where Damon as 2D sings about the struggle to come to terms with grief and the desire to look for external solutions to the pain. The song has subtle Indian influences but is one of those moody, slightly autotuned R&B cuts that are always my least favourite on a Gorillaz album. It's fine but does nothing for me.

It's only when we get to The Manifesto that I feel like the album is doing something truly new for a Gorillaz record. The song is a seven minute, multipart banger that initially fuses Indian pop with Latin Rap courtesy of guest rapper Trueno, but then half way through flips on its lid into a hardcore hip-hop beat and a posthumous verse from D-12's Proof recorded when he was stranded in London with Damon in London in the wake of 9/11. The verse does feel slightly shoehorned in to fit the albums themes, but you can really feel the rage and fury in Proof's vocals that it doesn't really matter to me. The song then flips back into dramatic, dancey final section to close it out. The only song that goes nearly as hard as The Manifesto is Damascus, featuring Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bay (aka Mos Def). The song is built off demos from the Plastic Beach era, and with the Yasiin Bay feature it really feels like Sweepstakes part 2. I really like the song and the Arabian influence is really cool, but the way it builds and builds to a frenzied climax is one for one Sweepstakes. I can say the same thing about Delirium, featuring Mark E. Smith. Mark's vocals are clearly taken from the Glitter Freeze sessions, resulting in the song following its lead. I'm fine with that, as Glitter Freeze is a really unique song and more of that is welcome - but I wouldn't say it's something new and ground-breaking for the group.

To continue with the Plastic Beach comparisons, my only real complaint with that record is that the final leg feels a little drawn out (despite there not really being any one song to single out as weaker than the rest), and I feel the same about The Mountain. The Shadowy light is a synth-driven doo-wap ballad about accepting that everything and everyone comes to an end at some point, and features some of the most prominent Indian language vocals on the record by Asha Bholse, but the overall tune I can take or leave. Similarly Casablanca and The Sweet Prince are dreamy, dreary synthpop tunes that breeze by this point in the tracklist (the album is over an hour long, so the fact that it slows down in the final leg really stands out). Luckily The Mountain ends pretty strongly with The Sad God, which really wraps up the albums themes in a nice little bow, being from the perspective of a benign god looking down at the world and lamenting in all the man made horrors that we as a species have created. It musically calls back to the title track making the whole experience feel very complete. It might actually be the best closer to a Gorillaz record thus far (Pirate Jet is a better song, but feels more like a coda than a closer to me).

The Mountain is a bit of a mountain of a record, but I'm enjoying that for the first time since Plastic Beach, there is more to engage with on a conceptual level. It's not some era defining staple that Demon Days and Plastic Beach have become, but it's certainly a lot more interesting than most of Gorillaz' post-hiatus work. It does feel like it's living slightly in the shadow of Plastic Beach especially (with how much it clearly draws from those sessions and collaborators), and there aren't really any songs (bar The Manifesto) that show their strengths when taken out of the album context. It's almost the inverse of Song Machine. That record is pretty much all bangers but I very rarely listen to it as a full album because there's no cohesive theme or throughline. Whereas The Mountain really works as an album, but not as a collection of songs in isolation. I'm intrigued where Damon and Jamie go next with the project, because they certainly seem more invigorated with this record in interviews than they had been with the last few.

Top Tracks: The Mountain, The Moon Cave, The Hardest Thing, Orange County, The Manifesto, Delirium, Damascus, The Sad God

7/10

Oklou - "choke enough" (2025)

 

I'm heading to Primavera Sound in Barcelona this summer, and I thought it would be fun to go through the lineup and write about some of the artists as I give them a listen. Oklou is a French alt-pop / electro-pop artist. choke enough is her full length debut and made a lot of year end lists last year, and considering my enjoyment of the recent wave of girly synth-pop, I thought this was going to be my bag. However, it wasn't quite what I was expecting (based on my admittedly limited knowledge going in) and hasn't been something I have resonated with much at all.

Compared to the brash and personality driven pop records I've loved over the past couple of years, choke enough is more of an ambient pop and minimal electronic album. Not that that's a bad thing, but I clearly had my wires crossed when I heard 'y2k aesthetic' and expected something along the lines of a BRAT or Imaginal Disk. choke enough is nothing like these albums, the mixes are sparse and clean, and the melodies are restrained and just sort of breeze in and out of these tracks. The songs flow into each other in a way where if you're not paying much attention, you could easily miss that one has ended and a new one has started. At 13 tracks and 35 mins, the album progresses quickly, not really lingering on a single moment long enough to emphasise it.

I think that's why I'm not really clicking with the album, as it just breezes by, with the more pop-leaning tracks not really having enough personality to carry them; and the more ambient-leaning ones not really creating much of an interesting or enveloping sonic landscape. The core aesthetics of the album are fine enough, with the clean, airy synths and hazy, reverbed vocals and percussion. I can see why it got labelled with the y2k tag as it feels like a video game or sci-fi movie soundtrack from that era.

Out of the tracks here, the ones I enjoy the most are the ones that are more sparce and minimal, as they create more of a serene atmosphere that I'm liking more than the poppier, more synth driven cuts. thank you for recording makes good use of negative space to highlight the simple melody that sounds like its performed on a distorted, electronic flute or the like. obvious has subtle hints of horns that poke through the reverby synths. The title track is one of the stronger more poppy tracks, with a repeated melodic background vocals smothered in distortion and reverb. The thing is, while I like them while they're on, I'm not going to remember these tracks in the long run. I find by around the point of plague dogs in the second half, I'm pretty much done with the record's sound and style. It's pretty much played all its cards by that point, and they just don't do it for me.

I don't want to bash choke enough too much, as it's more of a case that this just wasn't for me rather than any issue with the actual quality or craftmanship here. Considering all the critical acclaim it has received, there's clearly a lot of fans out there for this. But yeah, it just doesn't do it for me.

Top Tracks: thank you for recording, obvious

5/10

Lorde - "Virgin" (2025)

Lorde's first two records really set the stage for the alt pop explosion of the late 2010s and early 2020s, with their stark and nocturnal synth pop instrumentation and Lorde's very raw and introspective lyrical content. While I personally am fairly ambivalent on the debut, I think Melodrama is a fantastic record that has really aged well. Lorde decided then to completely pivot her sound on 2021's Solar Power, to this throwback early 00s 'beachy' folk pop style with a hint of 90's alt dance / Madchester influence thrown in as well. I get what the record was trying to do, essentially being the antidote to Melodrama. Melodrama was, as the name suggests, about the Melodrama of experiencing your late teenage years and early twenties while being thrust into the limelight; whereas Solar Power was all about healing from that. However, it didn't sound summery and 'beachy' and relaxing; it sounded washed out, drab and lifeless. I hadn't re-listened to it since its release until I was going through Lorde's entire discography when Virgin was released a couple of month back; and I found it just as boring and aimless as I did in 2021.

The record was critically panned and didn't really connect with the fanbase as well, which left me wondering where Lorde would go next. Four years later, the release of Virgin's lead single What Was That gave us an answer. She's playing it safe and going back to the sounds and ideas that everyone loved on Melodrama. I'm being flippant saying What Was That is just Melodrama again, as it's more like Melodrama but more. The synths and grizzled and blaring, and the lyrics (once again revolving around that early 20s party lifestyle) are more blatant and explicit. It's not a particularly bad song, but as Lorde's big comeback it feels particularly underwhelming.

Virgin as a whole feels like Lorde trying to make Melodrama again but at the age she is now. Musically, some tracks follow on from What Was That, being a slightly edgier and more experimental interpretation of the alt pop style she perfected on Melodrama. Whereas others go for a more reserved and 'mature' take on that sound. Lyrically, she is framing the chaos and internal turbulence that characterises her 2010s work through the lens of things that you only really start thinking about as you approach your mid-to-late twenties. On the record, Lorde explores her gender identity, her relationship with her parents and the power dynamics within previous relationships - topics that don't get more than a passing thought in a nightclub at 19.

The other two singles fair a little better than What Was That. Man Of The Year is a slow-burning ballad that slowly fills out with clattering percussion that by the end of the track completely overwhelms the mix. The lyrics detailing how Lorde feels like she just doesn't fit into gender norms are also more engaging than the rehashed hot-mess party girl themes of What Was That. The opener, Hammer, also explores these themes and is definitely my favourite on the record. The warbling electronics and rising synth lines all build to a climax that recalls the cathartic release that Lorde does so well on songs like Green Light and Ribs. Favourite Daughter is also an album highlight for me, with a danceable groove and a memorable hook. Again it explores an interesting topic, as Lorde delves into her relationship with her mother and her desire to please her and how she never felt good enough.

Unfortunately, as the middle of the album approaches, it kind of just drops off the map. The tracks meander about with little in the way of a memorable hook or interesting instrumental. The synths feel very muted and turned down, and Lorde really struggles to command much presence with her vocals. The whole stretch of the record from Current Affairs to GRWM feels so drab and greyscale. The record does pick up a bit towards the end, with some more uptempo tunes that have a bit more of a danceable beat. You definitely can hear the influence of BRAT on these songs (Lorde has been pretty vocal about how working with Charli XCX on the Girl, So Confusing remix helped her escape from a years long creative flunk). However, these songs are still dressed up in the very moody and muted pallet of the rest of the record, so go nowhere near as hard and are not as nearly impactful as I would like them to be.

The album does close on a high point, the very raw and uncompromising Ballad, David. The song is framed as a takedown of a previous lover who abused a position of power; however has a subtext that this 'lover' is not necessarily a person, but a reflection of Lorde's relationship with herself, the industry and her fans. Lorde's vocals take centre stage, and the washed out, muted synths take a backseat which makes it one of the most impactful songs on the record.

Virgin has some interesting ideas, but they don't really come together into a cohesive whole. And coupled with some weak hooks and a drab and lifeless instrumental palette, it makes it a bit of a slog of a listen. It's definitely better than Solar Power, but I think its rather forgettable when put next to her first two albums or the slew of great girl-pop we've had over the past couple of years.

Top Tracks: Hammer, Favourite Daughter, David

5/10

Fat Dog - "WOOF." (2024)

 

Fat Dog were first brought to my attention last summer when they were added to the lineup of a festival I was attending and featured on Fantano's weekly singles roundup within the same week. I decided to check out those singles, was thoroughly impressed and made a mental note to try and catch their set. The two songs they had released thus far were this insane collision of dance punk, traditional gypsy folk music and EBM with absolutely ridiculous, absurdist lyrics about having a fever dream where the protagonist becomes the king of slugs and the like. While I really liked what I heard, what truly cemented Fat Dog in my mind was catching their set and witnessing the raw, unrestrained energy that these songs have live.

The aforementioned King of the Slugs is this 7 minute surrealist journey into the mind of someone who is really loosing the plot. The thumping two step bass cranks up the tension during the opening verses which is all released in a manic chorus where vocalist Joe Love yells at the top of his voice "I'm the king of the slugs, bitch!" This the proceeds into a slow and drawn out instrumental section that slowly morphs into a bouncy polka bridge that builds and builds until the song just smacks you with one of the hardest breakdowns I have heard in years. Wither, similarly, hits you in the face with an incessant two step groove that never lets up as Love caterwauls "You better wither baby, before you die" over and over. Other album highlights include the other two singles, All the Same and Running. All the Same has a super heavy, almost dubstep-y groove and Running being one of the most intense moments on the record. Love play's the character of an exposed cult leader running away from those trying to seek justice. Flurries of stabbing synths compliment Love's increasingly deranged vocals. I managed to see the band a few weeks ago and Running closed out the set, and felt like the climax to the whole show.

While the highlights are frankly brilliant, WOOF. as a whole is quite a short album, and the over the top, tongue-in-cheek nihilism doesn't translate as well to some of the more restrained cuts on the record. Clowns and I am the King feel more like in jokes that aren't actually that clever compared to the sheer ridiculousness of the singles. That, combined with the fact that the first and last tracks function more as just intro and outro tracks for the album rather than fully fledged songs, leaves the record feeling rather lacking in substance when it comes to the lyrics and themes. But then again, its quite obvious that the point of the album is just to be a vehicle to perform these songs live, so I can hardly critique it too much for not having much to dig into on re-listen. 

The best bits of WOOF. are some of the most exciting music I heard in all of 2024, however as a whole album it feels a little underdeveloped and scant on deeper ideas. It is also short enough that it really doesn't outstay its welcome either. And as a live band, Fat Dog are absolutely brilliant and I would recommend anyone who likes a moshy gig to go see them.

Top Tracks: Wither, King of the Slugs, All the Same, Running

7/10

Charli XCX - "BRAT" (2024)

As promised, here's what I think of BRAT. Like many others, my experience of Charli XCX was mostly her smash hits of the early to mid 2010s - the likes of I Love It, Boom Clap and her feature on Iggy Azalea's Fancy. However by the time of 2016's Vroom Vroom EP, Charli started shifting into the emerging genres of hyperpop and bubblegum bass, a much more subversive and less commercial sound. Coincidentally the EPs title track is probably the last time I remember a Charli XCX song having a significant pop-culture presence. Pretty much everything Charli put out following this creative shift has gained huge amounts of critical acclaim, but never really captured the pop-culture attention that some of those early songs did. It's a sentiment I can certainly understand, as while I would occasionally hear some of the newer singles on the radio (and enjoyed them well enough), I never felt compelled to check out the records despite them consistently making year end lists.

What was different about BRAT (bar the effective marketing with the lime green aesthetic and 'x is brat' memes), is that the singles did compel me to check out the full thing. They weren't just somewhat edgy pop songs, they had depth and heart that fitted into a wider narrative that's presented on the album. Charli is being open and vulnerable on these songs and I think that is what has connected with me and many others. BRAT at its core is a record about the transitional period of your mid to late 20s, where you can feel yourself growing and maturing, but still not ready to let go of the adventures and chaos of youth. In Charli's case, it is framed around her competing desires to be a part of the hedonistic party scene that she grew up a part of (and has made a big part of her stage persona) and a longing to have an identity (and legacy) beyond that.

The album opens with 360, which almost serves as pres music for a big night out. Lyrics centre around looking in the mirror and hyping yourself up. The repeated synth riff of the song also becomes a bit of a motif that reoccurs later on in the record. This leads into Club classics, which is a straight up club banger. The booming bass and skittering synth lines, alongside Charli's lyrics about wanting to party with her friends to the 'club classics' make it a perfect party tune. Sympathy is a knife is the first time the record really delves into something deeper. The song is not so subtly about Charli's relationship with Taylor Swift and how their interactions have made Charli feel. But it isn't really a diss track, as Charli is more reflective on how her own insecurities are shaping her perception of Taylor, and how it's more coming from her as opposed to Taylor slighting her in some way. The song has a soaring hook (one of the catchiest on the record) searing synths and a skittering drum beat, creating a very high stakes tension to the song that really pays of. Its definitely one of my favourites of the record.

I might say something stupid slows it down and brings some quite raw and intimate lyrics where Charli is vulnerable about her insecurities regarding her level of fame and how she feels "one foot in a normal life", not quite belonging in the celebrity world but also at a level of fame where she doesn't feel like she belongs in a normal life either. Midpoint Everything is romantic hits similar vibes, as Charli repetitively lists off mundane, day to day items and experiences and romanticises them against a very rigid drum beat and contrasting cinematic strings. Talk talk and Von dutch sit in between these tow tracks and bring back the feel good party vibes. Talk talk is a sensual piece of synth pop, and Von dutch goes hard with it's throbbing base and whining synth lines. The lyrics centre around tearing down someone who is obsessively jealous of Charli. It has a huge It Girl, 'no fucks given' vibe to it.

The back half of the record is not quite as strong in my opinion, but has some real highlights on it. Rewind recycles and permutates the 360 motif, and while I get what it's trying to achieve by using the same musical ideas to emphasise it's themes of wanting to go back to the start, reminiscing on the past and trying to undo your imperfections, I don't find this version of the 360 beat nearly as engaging. From a lyrical front, So I is a beautiful ballad dedicated to the late hyperpop pioneer and Charli's friend, SOPHIE. It is heart wrenchingly vulnerable and touching. But on a musical front the song is by far the safest on the record, and feels rather plain compared to the rest of what's on offer. B2b is an atmospheric club track with minimal lyrics, but I can say it's something I'm excited to get to when listening through the album.

However the best parts of the second half are so good! Starting with Girl, so confusing. Much like Sympathy is a knife, the track deep dives into Charli's relationship with another pop star, this time being Lorde. However, the angle here is much more about Charli trying to reach out to Lorde and be open about a perceived miss-match and misunderstandings between the two because she really respects her and wants their relationship to grow. (As a result Lorde featured on the even better remix where she is equally candid and vulnerable). Apple has grown on me massively since first listen, as it's a very catchy synth pop jam with a great analogy about generational trauma being an apple rotten right to the core. Mean girls acts a sort of last hurrah for the party girl vibes from earlier on in the record as Charli describes the party girl / It Girl archetype with such allure against a throbbing house beat and skittering jazzy keyboards.

The record closes with the duo of I think about it all the time and 365. I think about it all the time strips the song back to basically just a drum beat and a few low key synths as Charli discusses meeting up with her friends who just had a baby and how that has caused her to reflect on whether she wants a child, her own biological clock and the career sacrifices she might have to make if she chooses to start a family. 365 brings everything full circle and remixes the 360 beat with a fresh set of lyrics primarily focused around drug usage. While I get what what Charli has done placing it as the closer to the record, essentially saying that while she's having these desires to move away from the party scene, she's still not ready to leave it behind quite yet; it does kind of lessen the impact of the arc of the record, especially I think about it all the time.

BRAT has the majority of the best pop songs I've heard this year on it and all wrapped up in an incredibly tight and thematically complete record. There are a couple of moments where I thought it could've been a little more daring but every song on here is at the very least really good and well worth your time. I would also recommend checking out the remix album as well, as much like the Lorde remix of Girl, so confusing, the tracks are more than just remixes - they are further extensions and reinterpretations of the themes of the original tracks.

Top Tracks: 360, Club classics, Sympathy is a knife, I might say something stupid, Talk talk, Von dutch, Everything is romantic, Girl, so confusing, Apple, Mean girls, I think about it all the time, 365

8/10

Gorillaz - "Cracker Island" (2023)

After 2020's Song Machine project brought some of the magic back to Gorillaz that has been missing since the group came back from hiatus, I was really anticipating the already teased Season 2. That series, it turns out, has been aborted in favour of a more traditional album roll-out with a record with a more cohesive theme and tone. You wouldn't have guessed it, however, from the first couple of singles, which very much give off Song Machine vibes. The title track, featuring Thundercat, hits all of the check boxes for a song machine track - a core song idea based around the feature's skillset and moulding the Gorillaz elements around it. The second single, New Gold, featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, was even teased way back before we knew whether Song Machine Season 1 was going to result in a full album. Both songs are really great, catchy alt-dance tunes that use their features really well. The backing vocals from Thundercat and Tame Impala really mesh well with the songs and perfectly bring them into the 'Gorillaz-verse'. And maybe it's just the Bootie Brown feature, but New Gold really gives me Demon Days vibes with its general feel and groove.

However, the rest of the album is nothing like this - hence why it does kind of feel like half an aborted Song Machine Season 2 and half something else. Pretty much the entire rest of the album is sleepy, melancholic electro pop akin to The Now Now from 2018. Between the title track, which opens up the album, and New Gold there are three songs that very much hit this washed out synth-y vibe: Oil, The Tired Influencer and Silent Running. Silent Running is easily the best of the three, by virtue of being the one that is the least washed out and has the best hook, but they all leave something to be desired. Oil relegates Stevie Nicks' feature to some quiet backing vocals, which feels like so much wasted potential; and the washed out synth pop style isn't exactly something that I think would get the best out of her. I'd have much rather had a Song Machine-esque song that sounds like an homage to Fleetwood Mac featuring Stevie instead. 

Both Oil and The Tired Influencer revolve around capitalistic consumption and celebrity culture, which are themes that have been well-tread by Gorillaz ever since their debut - and these songs don't add anything that the group hasn't already said before. The theming is a recurring problem throughout the album. For a record called Cracker Island and literally features Murdoch and 2D in full blown cult gear it does very little with this idea. The odd comment on internet influencers and consumer culture and that's the extent of it. Plastic Beach, this is not.

The second half does not fair much better, unfortunately. Baby Queen is about when Damon Albarn met The Queen of Thailand as a teenager in the 90s and wondering if he would meet her again some time. In theory it is a cute idea for a song, but the song itself is just another sleepy synth pop ballad that has nothing that interesting about it musically. It also feels very un-Gorillaz-y for a Gorillaz song, like it's too real of an experience without the filter of that cartoon universe. Tarantula passes me by on every listen, and Tormenta is a half-baked reggeaton song featuring Porto Rican rapper Bad Bunny. It is a nice change of pace from all the washed out electro pop (the change of pace also makes sense as it was another song that was recorded for the scrapped Song Machine S2), but on it's own merits the song feels pretty unfinished and unremarkable. Following these two is Skinny Ape, which is a song that just really grates on me for some reason. The song starts off as this twangy and bouncy 2000s-esque indie pop song, but the vocal melody just sounds like Damon Album shamelessly ripping off MGMT's Kids and just trying to make it just wacky and 'Gorillaz-y' enough to get away with it. The track progresses into a much noisier, blown out dance climax which I prefer much more than the first half - but the self-referential lyrics "I'm a skinny little, skinny little, skinny little, skinny little ape" feel like a silly joke more than anything meaningful.

The acoustic closer, Possession Island, is a degree better than most of the second half, as it feels a little more impactful as it slowly layers up and builds into a slight mariachi sway. 2D's vocals, singing "We're all in this together to the end" certainly makes it feel like a closer. It's certainly not the strongest song the band has written, and Beck is dramatically underutilised (he's basically non-existent on the song), but it is certainly more interesting than the rest of the second half. Much like most of the Gorillaz releases post-hiatus, there is a deluxe edition with a few bonus songs. These tracks have a bit more colour than most of the album tracks, but all feel somewhat unfinished and so aren't as essential as the bonus tracks on Song Machine for example.

Cracker Island feels like a bit of a missfire to be honest. Outside of the first two singles, the record feels quite underdeveloped and redundant. While nothing here is particularly bad (and so outclasses the record compared to the complete mess that is Humanz), it gives me nothing that previous Gorillaz albums haven't already done better. I honestly think I prefer The Now Now to this simply because that record felt a bit more mysterious and whimsical. Time for the group to re-try Song Machine S2 I think.

Top Tracks: Cracker Island, New Gold

5/10

Everything Everything - "Raw Data Feel" (2022)

With touring of their last record, 2020's Re-Animator, put on hold due to the pandemic, Everything Everything went straight back into the studio to record a new project. While an enjoyable album for me, that record felt like it wasn't much of a step forward for the band compared to their previous four albums for many (a sentiment I can certainly agree with). So the band made a conscious effort to take a new direction with Raw Data Feel both lyrically and sonically. Re-Animator somewhat shifted lyrically to more human, 'emotional' topics than the band's usual socio-political critiques; however did so in quite broad strokes. Raw Data Feel doubles down in this direction, telling more personal stories around the the theme of human responses to trauma. Furthermore, Jonathon Higgs generated a portion of the lyrics using AI by feeding a bot he named Kevin 4chan threads, LinkedIn T&Cs and the whole of Beowulf.

An interesting idea for sure, however it doesn't quite come together for me. Lyrically, the album feels like a bit of a mess and the AI lyrics don't help. The band are known for their eccentric and sometimes cryptic word barrages, but this is the first time for me they seem like they might not have much meaning behind them beyond just being ridiculous for the sake of it. For example, the hook of Pizza Boy is "I'll have a Coke, I'll have a Pepsi now". It is one of the lyrics revealed to be generated from the AI, and the on the nose commentary on consumerism and choice paralysis is 1) nowhere near as deep as it thinks it is, 2) not all that catchy. I'm not going to sing along to that, it sounds stupid, not quirky and eccentric. There is a running theme of the main character wanting to offload his trauma onto a computer, and Kevin is one of several recurring characters in the record, but it isn't clear whether Kevin is the main character or the robot companion. The same goes for Jennifer and The Goatman, how these characters fit in and relate to each other is thinly sketched and unclear. It's an album that appears to have some kind of linear narrative, but when you try and look for it you can't make head or tale of it. 

Similarly, Higgs' lyrics have always had the tendency to descend into generalisations as he focuses more on the feeling created by something rather than the thing or event itself; but due to the increased intimacy of Raw Data Feel, the use of "it" and "thing" is far more common on here than any of their previous releases and so in places does feel underwritten. That being said, the record works so much better if taken on the broader strokes much like the rest of their work. Teletype and I Want A Love Like This are about trying to bury yourself in someone else to avoid your own demons, Bad Friday is about excessive partying, Shark Week is about narcissism and control as coping mechanisms, HEX delves deep into the pits of internet forums, and Jennifer is about straight up escaping a mentally damaging situation or environment.

On a musical level, the band also make a lot of changes, and as a result the album feels all over the place. The band have done away with the majority of the prog-pop and art rock elements of their sound, delving deeper into their synth pop and electronic tendencies. What results is a much more synthetic and ridged sounding album, but with much more simple poppy song progressions. The band still sound as eccentric as they always did, but it feels way more surface level with booming and blown out synths and drums, jarring dynamic changes and instrumental switch ups; rather than the complex grooves and linear builds of the band's earlier records. 

The sequencing and pacing also seems so weird. The first four tracks are the four singles, and are all glitchy alt dance tunes, but after this point the style is dropped and doesn't return again. The fifth track, Jennifer, is a driving Killer's-esque heartland rock song, however Higg's voice is far less suited for this kind of earnest delivery than the likes of Brandon Flowers. It's a shame because the song itself is one of the strongest written on the record. Leviathan is the standard Radiohead inspired slow burn that each EE album has, although it is five and a half minutes long and doesn't do anything really to justify its length. Every EE album also has one track that is the most over the top, balls to the wall song that the band can possibly come up with about 2/3 of the way through the record. Raw Data Feel has not one, but three; and they all sit one after another slap bang in the middle of the runtime. Shark Week is easily my favourite of the three, with its snappy beat and catchy vocal melodies. Cut Up! and HEX, however veer just slightly over the edge from over the top to obnoxious. Cut Up! has a really tacky instrumental that sounds like a bad imitation of Depeche Mode's Master and Servant and Higg's repetitive staccato vocals get really grating. I like the sinister lyrics and booming, bassy verses of HEX, but the chorus feels underwhelming and I can't help but feel like the band has covered the idea of internet radicalisation enough times at this point and far better in the past (e.g. Zero Pharaoh or Ivory Tower).

The record is just a little too long and bloated, and the odd blocking of similar tracks together make it feel disjointed. Metroland Is Burning and My Computer just feel unnecessary. By the time the record limps into it's final leg I struggle to care about the supposed emotional arc songs like Kevin's Car and Born Under A Meteor are supposed to provide to the narrative. The closer does pull me back in to an extent. Titled Software Greatman, it plays more into the existentialism of the idea about offloading your emotions onto a machine and the fact that you can never be truly 'over' something traumatic as it becomes a part of your identity. "I don't know how to get over this thing, 'cause it's always there" Higgs sings and it certainly hits a lot harder than the deliberately deflective lyrics earlier on in the record.

Raw Data Feel is a messy album with a half formed concept. But the fact that it is so overstuffed means with every moment it is trying something new. It's never boring, even if the ideas don't always land. EE are still a band that don't really sound like anyone else. I commend the ambition, and I certainly prefer a miss-fired experiment to something uninspired. If anything, it has given me a greater appreciation for the tight math rock grooves and explosive choruses of group's debut, which is an album that has never truly clicked for me until now.

Top Tracks: I Want A Love Like This, Shark Week, Software Greatman

6/10

CHVRCHES - "Screen Violence" (2021)

CHVRCHES' first two records were two really great, emotional and introspective synth pop albums featuring gruff and jagged sounding synths and vocal manipulations on Lauren Mayberry's strident voice that gave them a real bite to them compared to a lot of the 2010's 80's nostalgia groups. However with their third album, 2018's Love Is Dead, they shifted to making more mainstream pop with Lauren looking more outwardly for lyrical inspiration and they shipped off production to pop super-producer Greg Kurstin. These changes completely stripped the band of their personality, with the lyrics coming off bland and repetitive, and the music behind them really edgeless.

However I'm glad to say that CHVRCHES are back. From the opening moments of Asking For A Friend you can just tell the band have gone back to what they know best, self-produced edgy and immediate instrumentals and dense and detailed lyrics about Lauren Mayberry's personal experiences in the world. Asking For A Friend is also one of CHVRCHES' best songs. It's self-questioning, yet self-assured; and deals with a fractured and sour friendship that has fallen apart. All this tension and hurt builds throughout the track until it crashes down into a dance breakdown that the band do so well.

Much of the record has taken on a slight horror aesthetic, with darker more graphic lyrics that refer to the likes of death and disappearance and nightmares. To accompany this, the band has leaned more heavily into the darker side of their influences, the likes of Depeche Mode and The Cure. This gives the record more of an alternative rock element compared to their past releases that works well within the band's dynamic. Tracks like California and Violent Delights are built more around their guitar and drum parts, with the layers of synths as an additional varnish on the songs. Violent Delights in particular is build around a driving and grizzly breakbeat, with the cinematic layers of guitars and synths creating a massive and overwhelming sound to accompany the lyrics detailing graphic, off-putting dreams and recurring nightmares.

The record builds to its gigantic centrepiece, the melodramatic and monolithic How Not To Drown featuring Robert Smith of The Cure. It's a fairly long tune for CHVRCHES, that slowly builds to a climactic bridge with both Lauren and Robert pouring their hearts out over thick syrup-y guitars and waves of washing synths that make you feel like your falling deeper and deeper into the songs atmosphere. This is followed by Final Girl, the song that sounds the most like The Cure on the record. The reverb-gated drums and whining guitars sound straight out of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. The track deals with the idea of choices and life decisions, and whether there is some final version of yourself that is truly happy and accomplished. The track switches to a major key for the choruses and provides a great dynamic between the reality of what is and the fantasy of what could be.

Unfortunately, the record does have a few flaws. At points it does feel a little too blown out and over-produced, particularly the drums on some of the songs. For example the song Nightmares, which I quite like the song at its core, is so loud and full that Lauren's voice comes of like it's fighting for space against everything else. It sounds like she is shouting, but without any of the body and weight behind it. The singles (other than How Not To Drown) are also not great. He Said She Said has really ugly super blown out drums and uninspired lyrics that read like a Wikipedia definition of gaslighting. It's a frustrating song because Lauren written far better and more nuanced songs about similar topics before. Good Girls isn't quite as bad, but follows a very run of the mill pop chord progression and structure, with quite a repetitive chorus as well. However it does feature the line "They say I cut my teeth on weaker men", which is delivered with a level of sass which makes me smirk.

The album does end on a real high point though, the stripped back ballad about betrayal, Better If You Don't. Lauren delivers the lyrics with a sense of real pain and hurt, the kind of deflation when you give up on someone. The track slowly picks itself up, as the tempo increases and the chiming guitars provide a cathartic release.

Screen Violence is a record that I want to like more than I do, because it contains some of CHVRCHES best songs to date. However a couple of dud singles and slightly excessive production hold it back slightly compared to the band's first two records. I'm glad they're back on form and looking forward to the darker direction they seem to be heading in.

Top Tracks: Asking For A Friend, California, Violent Delights, How Not To Drown, Final Girl, Better If You Don't

7/10

Billie Eilish - "Happier Than Ever" (2021)

Billie Eilish's debut record catapulted her into global stardom with its catchy and in your face singles which incorporated an ear grabbing ASMR style vocal approach and really unique and punchy electropop and trap production from her brother and producer Finneas. While I enjoyed these elements of that record, it felt pretty lightweight from a lyrical perspective and was trying way to hard to be edgy and dark without the substance to back it up. So I was hoping that as Billie grew as an artist she would produce something with more depth to it. 

Which is sort of what we've got with Happier Than Ever, but with couple of huge caveats which make the record feel like more of a step forward and then two steps back for Billie. Now 19 and dealing with the extreme pressures of growing up in a world where she's one of the biggest names in music, the record delves into this and how it has effected Billie and her relationships both personal and public. It's certainly more mature and sincere than the forced melodramatic teenage angst of the debut (Billie even sings "When I retell a story, I make everything sound worse" on the opening cut, Getting Older). However, to match this shift in tone, the immediate and attention demanding electropop production has been pared back; instead the much more subtle and minimal influences of soul and jazz-pop (and even a smattering of trip hop) take centre stage. I understand the intent in having more adult and 'tasteful' instrumentation to back up the more mature themes, however the instrumentals generally feel lacking across the board on this album. So many feel wafer thin with no real interesting texture or progression. Ideas that feel fairly fresh at the start of tracks feel run into the ground by their conclusion.

The same can be said of Billie's vocals, she forgoes a lot of the dynamic and staccato flows of the first record for a more traditional soul and vocal jazz approach. However she keeps the hushed, ASMR style elements; which results in plenty of places that would've benefited from a powerful vocals to increase the emotional intensity of these songs. The album is long, and Billie's current vocal aesthetic is really run into the ground by the end of it. The most frustrating thing about this is that Billie is clearly an incredibly talented singer and I really like her voice, but this whole ASMR thing has worn off for me and I wish she mixed it up a bit, because I know she's capable of it.

While most the tracks here range from inoffensively passable to fairly good, what really drags the album down is it's length and general bloat. At 16 tracks and 56 minutes, with most of the tracks being slow and and quiet ballads, it just drags. The stretch from Halley's Comet to Your Power in the second half really tests my patience with slow, sad balled after slow, sad balled. Furthermore the record feels very uncomfortable to listen to, but not in an intentional way. The messy and sprawling nature of it makes it feel unfocused, like Billie is just throwing her heart on the table and baring it all to us in that very teenage way. And while emotional breakdown records like this can work (and some have become all time classics), Happier Than Ever lacks the draw in terms of songwriting and production and just ends up feeling too long, too dour and uncomfortable.

Not that there aren't highlights. The opening track Getting Older is perhaps Billie's best written song to date, being this cute piano balled about looking back on your past self and looking forward to your future. Therefore I Am is the only track with the sense of fun and snark that made some of the singles from the debut so popular, and is catchy as hell. The title track starts as the same accoustic ballad as many of the songs on the record, but half way through switches up into a massive, completely blown out stadium pop rock song that compared to the rest of the album actually feels like it has some cathartic release to it. The singles my future and Lost Cause have also grown on me, being more of slow burns than the immediate singles from the debut record.

Happier Than Ever is such a frustrating record, as it addressed my main problem with the debut, but takes so many steps backwards in other areas that it doesn't feel like an improvement. I'm still hopeful that Billie will grow into the artist she has so much promise to be, but Happier Than Ever isn't that record unfortunately.

Top Tracks: Getting Older, Therefore I Am, Happier Than Ever

4/10

Gorillaz - "Song Machine, Season 1 - Strange Timez" (2020)

Gorillaz were one of my first musical loves, with the singles from Demon Days and their respective videos imprinted in my brain from my childhood. And as I've grown up I've only grown to love them more, as I started to understand how creative and daring the project is, with the format allowing Damon Albarn to not be confined by genre boundaries and conventions. That being said, the cartoon band's post hiatus work so far has been rather mixed, lacking (for the most part) the colour and life that permeated the group's first 3 albums. Song Machine fixes that by effectively being a series of standalone singles (and videos), completely disconnected from each other - allowing each track to be entirely its own thing. This makes each song on the record feel as colourful and unique as possible, without Albarn having to worry about the overall theme or atmosphere of the entire record. Plus some of these tracks are phenomenal.

The opening track, Strange Timez, launches us into the record with eerie, sporadic keys and The Cure's Robert Smith twisting and eccentric vocal hook, before 2D's dreamy and dejected vocals lamenting the state of the world take over for the verses. The track slowly unravels into an alt-dance groove. The track is spooky and dark, yet colourful and catchy - just like the best Gorillaz tracks. Much of the record follows in the title track's footsteps, being the best Gorillaz tracks of the revival and some up there with the classics. The following track, The Valley of The Pagans, featuring Beck, is a fun new wave romp about internet / celeb hedonism. It's super slick, groovey and colourful. Beck sells the persona of a super arrogant celebrity so well on the song. Pac-Man is funky with really video-gamey synth tones, and features a fantastic multipart verse from Schoolboy Q to close out the track. The closing track of the standard edition, Momentary Bliss, is a homage to British ska and punk, but with the trademark cartoony synths that Gorillaz are know for. Both the punk due Slaves and the rapper Slowthai also kill it on this track.

The tracks Aries and Desole are the pinnacle of the record and by far my two favourite songs of the year. Aries features drumming from UK artist Georgia and basswork from (formally) New Order's Peter Hook. The song is pure New Order worship, but the track is amazing. It is such a good New Order song that it's better than a lot of what New Order have put out, and their 80s track record is pretty great. Peter Hook's bass, 2D's dreamy and wistful vocals, and the thin ethereal synth lines; it's all there. Desole fetures elements of African Wassoulou music, with Fatoumata Diawara's beautiful lead vocals and the  dreamy Afrobeat groove. It's emotional and intense, yet restrained and full of longing.

Even the weaker tracks on the record are still fairly decent, and have elements to them I really like. The Pink Phantom has grown on me a lot since it was released as a single. It's a completely over the top and melodramatic piano balled featuring Elton John hamming it up on the vocals. On initial listens, the inclusion of the monotone, autotuned rapping from 6lack completely bewildered me; but now while I don't think it adds to the track, I don't really think it detracts from it either. Friday 13th has this really nice dreamy synth pop meets dub instrumental, although Octavian's feature is easily the least charismatic on the record and I really wish someone more colourful provided the vocals. The Lost Chord and Chalk Tablet Towers have some really good atmosphere to them (both being quite R&B infused tunes), but just lack an extra element to make them stand up against the best of the record.

I've also got to mention the Dulux Edition tracks, because they're all generally good or great. Particularly the 7 minute dance banger, Opium. The track infuses alt-dance with acid jazz and Latin music and just keeps going trough these manic, chaotic phases. Simplicity is a much more strip backed chill Latin song, and MLS is colourful and fun with really charismatic rapping from JPEGMAFIA. The closing track, How Far?, is also really good, being this sinister and carnival sounding song featuring drumming from the late Tony Allen and an angry and bitter vocal performance from Skepta.

Strange Timez is such a great return to form for Gorillaz, and while it doesn't quite reach the consistent brilliance of Demon Days and Plastic Beach due to its lack of consistent theme and atmosphere, it is undeniable that the change in format has resulted in a such a more creative and quality release than the likes of Humanz and The Now Now. It's one of  my favourite records this year.

Top Tracks: Strange Timez, The Valley of The Pagans, Pac-Man, Aries, Desole, Momentary Bliss, Opium, Simplicity, How Far?

8/10