How Gorillaz’s Debut Album Reanimated The Pop Landscape

Meanwhile, the doped-out, melodica-touched trip-hop single Tomorrow Comes Today features cryptic lyrics that perhaps hint at the intrusions which may have led Albarn towards favouring the virtual approach to music-making. It sported a video that epitomised Gorillaz’s outlook: the band being introduced in animation, over a montage of urban landscapes. It is of a piece with the bluesy, Bo Diddley-sampling New Genious (Brother), which follows.

Verbal spars and early inspirations

On the low-slung spaghetti Western-flavoured single Clint Eastwood, Albarn found a verbal sparring partner in scientific yet banging American rapper Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who had been awaiting his moment in the limelight since releasing strong early work a decade prior. Del had already featured with Dan The Automator in Deltron 3030, and with both The Automator and Hatori on the collaborative Handsome Boy Modeling School project (with De La Soul producer Prince Paul), which must have served as an early inspiration for Albarn and Hewlett. (A lively album bonus comes in the shape of Ed Case’s Clint Eastwood remix, featuring dancehall reggae vocalist Sweetie Irie, which sped the tune up into a glorious, sunny bit of pop, which became a huge British hit and is still getting plaudits today.)

Albarn delivers a fragile, reggae-tinged falsetto on Man Research (Clapper), while Slow Country also has a sweet’n’sour reggae vibe, with lyrics expressing a wish to escape urban life. In comparison, the scratch-led Sound Check (Gravity) and the instrumental hip lounge vibes of Double Bass show Dan The Automator’s influence, before Del returns for the catchy, flute-laden single Rock The House, with its dynamic, martial arts-peppered video.

The jaunty, kooky 19-2000 features Hatori again, alongside Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth. The Soulchild remix featured on some editions of the album, underpinning the track with a familiar breakbeat, while Wall Of Sound Records big beat act The Wiseguys delivered a manic percussive remake on the single, whose video found Gorillaz taking the jeep from the album’s front cover on a cruise reminiscent of a Tank Girl adventure. Notably, the adaptable track was also repurposed for a collaborative single with cult US rapper Redman (Gorillaz On My Mind), excerpted from the Blade II soundtrack.

Stretching further out, Latin Simone (¿Que Pasa Contigo?) features Buena Vista Social Club singer Ibrahim Ferrer intoning sweetly over a shuffling hip-hop beat. Albarn would further explore his interest in world music with such later projects as Mali Music, Africa Express and The Good, The Bad And The Queen (featuring the late Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, who also played with Gorillaz), but here showed a delicate understanding of how to potentially sit acoustic Latin music within a new framework.

An adaptable concept

The marketing nous and multimedia approach to Gorillaz’s debut album was encapsulated in its bonuses and follow-ups. As well as the aforementioned extra tracks, and an enhanced segment on the CD, the French edition included an extra B-sides disc. These included The Sounder, featuring UK rappers Phi Life Cypher (who had also recorded versions of Clint Eastwood and the dub-inflected album track Starshine). The South Korean edition featured a video clip and games, while the Indonesian version even ventured into karaoke edits of some of the album’s singles. In 2002, the entire record received a dubwise revamp from Spacemonkeyz, Laika Come Home, while the singles’ B-sides were strong enough to be almost immediately compiled into the G Sides compilation.

Many more studio albums, and multiple tours, have followed. Guest collaborators have gone on to include a mind-boggling run of artists across an equally mind-boggling array of genres, among them Neneh Cherry, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Grace Jones, Anthony Hamilton, Mavis Staples, Jamie Principle, Noel Gallagher, George Benson, Robert Smith, Beck, Elton John, Snoop Dogg, Skepta, Mos Def, De La Soul, MF Doom, Pusha T, Roots Manuva, Vince Staples, Popcaan, Danny Brown. Gorillaz have also attracted a generation-spanning host of alt-rock stars, including members of The Clash, The Fall’s Mark E Smith, Peter Hook, Shaun Ryder, Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys, St Vincent and Slaves. Over two decades on from releasing their debut, the overall Gorillaz concept has proved incredibly adaptable to our changing world. The germ of it all can be found here.

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