Gorillaz - Demon Days
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Music Reviews of Demon Days
Music Review: A nice blend of rock, rap, and electronica
Rating: 5 Stars
It may sound like a gimmick, but it actually works well. The band is Gorillaz...the members do not exist in real life. They are animated characters hailing from Britain. The project is really the project of a member of Blur (you know...the group that does that Song 2 Woo hoo song from sporting events). The animated group placed together an interesting album full of steady rock beats, some rhymes, elements of electronica, and the help of some rap acts that really deserve more attention than...Young Jeezy.
Anyways, here's my scores on the tracks:
1. Intro - Not much here, 5/10
2. Last Living Souls - 7.3/10, cool song, but it gets better.
3. Kids With Guns - 8.5/10, the beat to the song is quite good and the lyrics are simple. The ending is the best part.
4. O Green World - 8.7/10, decent
5. Dirty Harry - 9.3/10, now comes the good stuff, the chorus is great
6. Feel Good Inc. - 10/10, the big attraction. You've seen this on the ipod commercials. Great stuff.
7. El Manana - 9.9/10, another good song. The real reason why I got the album.
8. Every Planet We Reach Is Dead - 9.4/10, an easy going song with a sad-like message.
9. November Has Come - 9.5/10, MF Doom...he's the man.
10. All Alone - 8.7/10, the "All Alone" vocals are cool
11. White Light - 9.7/10, lot of people hate this song, but I think it's pretty damn cool
12. Dare - 8.4/10, a little on the poppish feel
13. Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head - 9.0/10, admire the reading of Dennis Hopper
14. Don't Get Lost in Heaven - 6.7/10, just a prelude into the final song
15. Demon Days - 8.5/10, the title track is really not my favorite, but it is a good way for the album to close out.
Overall, this album delivered during a time when people constantly claimed new music sucks (which isn't really true at all...stop watching MTV dude!). If you're interested in something different, give this album a try. Fans of rap acts like De La Soul, MF Doom, and Roots Manuva may also enjoy this album.
Music Review: In these Demon Days it's so cold outside...
Rating: 5 Stars
Previously to buying this album, the only thing I ever heard by Gorillaz was Clint Eastwood way back in the day. So I basically bought this album without any preconceived notions, and damn, it blew me away. This cd eclipses everything else I heard in 2005, although Don't Believe The Truth by Oasis was one hell of a listen too.
With this album, Damon Albarn does something with his musical talent that he hasn't done in a very long time: sum up life in the present tense. Where Damon focused on the working class in Britain on "Parklife" and the white collar upper class on "The Great Escape", this cd reflects the general post-9/11 anxiety of the years just following 2001. It's greatly reflected in the day-for-night tone of the album, and the album title itself.
This is also the most consistant cd that Damon has put out in a long long time. Every track stands out and every songs flows smoothly into the next. These 15 songs fly by, while at the same time, every song grabs your attention. Like the work of Radiohead, these songs will reveal more and more to you about them with each repeated listen. So you'll no doubt find yourself coming back to this cd again and again. Even the simpler songs have moments of sheer depth to them. Halfway through "All Alone" comes one of the most psychedelic and dreamy moments to be heard in modern pop music for a long time. This is just one example of the hidden gems on this disc.
The main recurring and unifying theme of this cd is anxiety and confusion brought on by life in the aftermath of something big (symbolized on this cd in the song "Fire Coming Out Of A Monkey's Head"). Through the noirish darkness of this album, comes hope for a better future and new beginning in the psychedelic title track.
If you don't want deep meaning though and you're looking for just something to listen to, this album is one hell of a ride. Damon Albarn has said that this may be the last Gorillaz album, saying that they can't get much better than this. If so, it is an extremely good note to end on.
Music Review: Demon Daze
Rating: 5 Stars
as pretty much every reviewer before me stated, DD takes some getting used to. I fell in love with "Feel Good Inc." the first time I heard it, so I knew I had to get the album, and it is, in one word, spectacular.
I don't own, nor have I ever owned, the first Gorillaz album, so I really didn't have any idea what the concept was, after many listens, I have been able to come up with a rough story, for me, the album represents the events from the end of the world (last living souls) to society outbreak (Feel Good Inc.)and ultimatly rebuilding of civilization (Demon Days)
Now I'm willing to bet this is just me, I'm the kind of person who would obsess over finding hidden meanings in Beatles songs, I nearly believed Paul was dead, I still believe Hotel California is about devil worship, so yeah, give me any Beatles song, and I can insanely break it down, Maxwells Silver Hammer, comentary on murder at the time, and the corrupt justice system, um, Yellow Submarine, metaphore for dying and going to heaven (sea of green) I am the walrus, metaphore for death, and rebirth, yeah, thats the kind of person I am.
So, yeah, I see an apoclyptic nature in the first five tracks (especsially in Last Living Souls, for obvious reassons, and Dirty Harry, which for some reasson feels kind of like Road Warriors) and tracks 6-end feel to me like redemtion of society.
but really, aside from all the hidden messages I see, theres some mighty fine music here, Beatles played Beatles music, Pink Flyod played Pink Flyod music, The Stones played Stones music, and Gorillaz play Gorillaz music, its simply a genre all their own, the only songs I really don't like are the last four, I find Dare over-rated, Monkey's Head is simply to weird for me, and I'm the kind of guy who understands "within you without you" and the last two preachy songs feel very out of place in an otherwise stellar album, the best of 2005, it isn't often we get this kind of music, but in my view, Demon Days could very well be the "Dark Side of the Moon" of the 21st century.
Music Review: Then One Day The Strangefolk Arrived.
Rating: 4 Stars
First of all, looking over the reviews here I see...well, no reviews! It seems the fans of Gorillaz are virtual fans, not real fans at all (and they don't seem to know their music history!) Gorillaz is a side project predominantly, but not entirely, by Blur's Damon Albarn. As with their first cd, "Demon Days" is a mixture of trip-hop, hip-hop, rap, funk, and now add in children's choir vocals on "Dirty Harry" (perhaps a sequel to "Clint Eastwood"?), and the London Gospel Choir on songs "Don't Get Lost In Heaven" and "Demon Days". Being 15 songs in length, and running nearly 50 minutes, "Demon Days" has a wide array of musical styles all tied into one album. It's somewhat uneven, just like their first, but I think this is slightly better than their debut. I enjoyed some of the darker songs like "Last Living Souls", "Kids With Guns" and the Dennis Hopper spoken word "Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head".
The first single "Feel Good, Inc." has a great rap from De La Soul, and "Kids With Guns" utilizes a sample of Salt 'N' Pepa's "Push It" along with the vocal talents of Neneh Cherry. I found "Dirty Harry" to be one of the best songs on the cd though, and it should be the next single if the band is wise. This is one strange disc due to the swing in emotional content from the darkness of the aformentioned songs to the bright ending of "Don't Get Lost In Heaven" and "Demon Days", and you could add "Dare" to the list as well.
There were several songs that could have been left off such as the mostly instrumental "O Green World", "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead", "November Has Come" and "White Light"--which seems to use some sample from a horror movie as it's chorus. Taken all together, this is one of the more eclectic cds released this year, maybe alongside Beck's "Guero". "Demon Days" entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart at number 6, selling 107,000 copies in its first week of release, so there must be many more fans that obviously haven't written their reviews here yet!
Music Review: One of 2005's most unique and most alternative albums
Rating: 4 Stars
The fact that a cartoon simulated quartet can win over platinum sales is frickin' amazing. I am a music-business enthusiast and subscriber to Billboard Magazine so I see how much each album sells each week. I've notice that Gorillaz DEMON DAYS specifically has been a strong seller for the most part. I'd also heard first single "FEEL GOOD INC" and I was just curious to see what all the buzz about GORILLAZ was. After listening to it, I could completely understand why everybody loved the album so much.
What I think is the appeal of GORILLAZ is the fact that it is so different from your typical mix of alternative rock and alternative hip-hop. The themality of GORILLAZ tunes is also different from the themes that you see for the most part in rock music and hip-hop music. You don't hear rock artists for the most part asking "are we the last living souls".
The production of DEMON DAYS is definitely an aquired taste with its spare, bass heavy feel. I think that subtlety is what gives DEMON DAYS the feel that it has. Also, the lead vocals are almost "folksy" in quality, giving the music a whole other timbre. Just by listening and analyzing this album can you discover a whole other level of music and musicianship. While it seems so simple after a first listen (I initially didn't like this album), it is so complex listening to it over and over again and the songs and sounds easily get stuck in your head, especially infectious, first breakthrough single "Feel Good".
My favorite tracks include "Kids With Guns", "Dirty Harry", "Feel Good", and "November Has Come". This is certainly an ambitious album as well as a unique listen. This is easily a four star album, if not more, just for the simple fact that it is different from everything else in the music business. The more and more that I listen to this album and analyze it, the more and more that I like it as well as understand it.