Gorillaz: Rise of the Ogre reviewed

Oh Gorillaz, how I know you or at least I thinking I did. I do enjoy the inaugural album, but Demon Days fizzled out and Plastic Beach really only had one great song despite it being a solid album otherwise. But between Demon Days and Plastic Beach, there was an "autobiography" of them called Rise of the Ogre. But it simply can't be how Damon Alburn and Jamie Hewlitt created the ring out of boredom but they take to make their own massive backstory and character traits.

Gorillaz has to be more than simply a cartoon band, they take to be a real band that only happens to be cartoons. And that's why the word isn't very interesting.

It acts like a true band autobiography. It tells the history of how Murdoc's, 2D's, Noodle and Russell's life and how they came together to suit the Gorillaz. There's also some narrator/interviewer guiding the reader on the journey. But the matter is, it's all around the fictional backstory of the Gorillaz which is fine. I merely wanted the real backstory between Alburn and Hewitt. Oh well, I judge it is my fault for not liking what I got.

The primary job is how much Murdoc negotiation and talks and talks. Almost everytime Murdoc "opens" his talk so to address is pretty much when my eyes begin to glaze over. There are a few times when Murdoc has some pretty cool stories like his youth, meeting 2D or double-crossing a record exec wanting to pop the set with this amazing line: "Didn't surprise me that he didn't get the guns, I didn't put them there." But other than that it's pretty much "Blah blah blah I'm so great blah blah blah Everthing I touch turns to awesome blah blah blah My bass shagging skills is second to none." He talks so often that the former band members don't hold lots to say which is a shame since 2D's hilarious, Noodle's thoughtful and Russell is entertainingly annoyed.

And I too take a job with the participation of Noodle in this. This takes office after Demon Days is complete and through with, touring-wise. That way this is afterwards the El Manana video in which Noodle's floating island from Feeling Good Inc gets shot down and she becomes missing which neccistated Murdoc building a cyborg Noodle for Plastic Beach. She's in the book, answering questions like nothing ever happened. The final thing she says is about planning El Manana and so we get to the television shoot itself and she's gone. It's like she spontaneously becomes an unperson right then and there. That just irks me.

This word is for the hardcore Gorillaz fans. I don't get the backstory and how everything connects to each other all that interesting. Murdoc just bores me. It's not that well-written with so much self-congratulatory backslaps that it becomes sickenly. I know it's irony and it's likely a sarcasm on those type of books of actual bands but I didn't see it that clever or funny. The photographs are skillful and I do need to hear to the music again but still, not a full book.

5/10