Transmission Party Time: TJ's Guide to Gorillaz Part 1 of ! Demon .

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett were seated around watching some pop start on TV. Damon said to Jamie that a cartoon band could do it in this day and age. So they started a cartoon band.

Blur had been Damon`s main gig for almost ten days and they only released their sixth album 13. Blur had been winding down and hadn`t been working as often.

Based on Hewlett`s anaimation and Damon`s songs, Gorillaz was formed with the opinion that it was a cartoon band. No one would recognise it was them can it.

Tomorrow Comes Today

TJ`s Rating: Awesome

They released an EP entitled `Tomorrow Comes Today` that started some initial buzz. A twelvemonth after the debut album, Gorillaz, was released. A Big hit with the critics, the album spawned a massive radio hit with `Clint Eastwood`. The album was produced by Dan the Automator and Damon. Breaking ground in many genres, the album managed to go into the American charts in a way that Blur never did.

I was never a vast fan of the inaugural album. I was into the singles but never gave the album a chance. Friends from Full Sail said it was better than Demon Days, which I nevertheless believe for reasons later to be discussed. It`s a large overall listen, but yet has some kinks to make out. Damon is complete liberated to experiment on this album. He`s detached from the rock constraints of Blur and comparisons to their contemporaries. If one didn`t recognize that this was Gorillaz and thinking that it was Blur, I wouldn`t see that surprising. The way the songs are written, length of the tracks and number of the tracks look like a Blur album, but pass to be below the list of Gorillaz.

Gorillaz (2001)

TJ`s Rating: Awesome

It`s a natural progression if you listen from Obscure to 13 to Gorillaz. With Gorillaz, the bravery of Parklife and The Great Escape returns. It`s a really good album and has a lot going on. There are guest singers, rappers, samples from Dawning of the Dead and hints of Trip-hop. The new found freedom of Damon can be heard in the record. He`s doing new things and old things. Guitar themes and lyrical themes found in Blur can be heard.

Damon returned to Obscure for one last hurrah on Think Tank (see my critique of Blur`s disco part 3), but returned to Gorillaz once touring and promoting the book was done. Demon Days is a return to work in some respects. It`s a continuance of Think Tank (which was originally called Darklife). It`s a concept album loosly based on Damon`s view that we want to keep the world. I tend to leave the politcs out of the music and make it as a concept album about the end of the world. We`re living in Demon Days, says the final song. As far out as Albarn can get, he can`t get away from commenting on the world. I can`t not think back to the Britpop trilogy and Damon`s obsession with Ray Davies. The mythical perspective has changed from the show to the future.

Demon Days (2005)

TJ`s Rating: Awesome

There is a blatant nod to Davies and the Kinks on `Feeling Good Inc.` I can`t help, but sing the speech of `Sunny Afternoon` during the windmill chorus. `Don't Get Lost in Heaven` mentions the country. The songs are best and fuller on Demon Days sooner than the experiments and the fragments on Gorillaz.