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EDIT INFOGorillaz - Demon Days
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Album Details
- Artist: Gorillaz
- Album: Demon Days
- Label: Virgin
- Year of Release: 2005
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: dscanland on 2005-11-14
RecommendGorillaz is one of those concepts that really shouldn't have taken off half as big as it did. Damon Albarn hit on something when he hooked up with Dan The Automator on their debut. On Demon Days, their proper sophomore album The Automator is gone and Danger Mouse is in and has some big shoes to fill. And what happens is that Albarn takes more direction here and what we end up is something a little closer to Blur-sound than the previous album. The beats are big but Albarn's voice is on almost every track. One of the many highlights is Happy Monday's Shaun Ryder's vocals on "Dare". It adds a nice flavor to compliment Albarn's voice, just wish he sung a little more on the album. If you are looking for Blur, look no further than "Don't Get Lost In Heaven". Demon Days is a great album any way you slice it. Gorillaz should see even more fans with this album. And hey, is that Dennis Hopper narating on the clever "Fire Coming out of a Monkey's Head"?
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on 2011-12-28 CharlesMartel Said:
I have a lot of respect for Damon Albarn. I know that his persona as of the Blur era was a put on, but Albarn is an intelligent and educated musician who has more strings to his bow than many. His campaign for children to be taught to read music in school is something I can fully appreciate and his musical ideas are always innovative, even if sometimes the end product is not to my style.
Gorillaz was his concept of a virtual band. Apart from himself, the rest of the band members were supposed to remain pretty much anonymous, and performances were often conducted with the band members hidden and a projection of cartoon characters representing them shown instead. For the digital age, this was a pretty clever idea. However, and here's where the negatives kick in, I cannot say that the originality of the concept was matched by the originality of the music.
"Demon Days" is not a bad album. It just does not break the same new ground, musically, as the concept of the band behind it does. Not that such finesse matters to the punters who bought this. I can just imagine the average purchaser: male, mid-twenties, wears a suit to work, drinks lager with his mates from work on Friday evening, goes out on Saturday with other mates to see what he can pull. Yep, the typical UK (London even) shallow metrosexual.
Still, the market for this exists, and I cannot blame Albarn for aiming straight for it. After all, he shared many of those same characteristics (at least his persona did) in the early days of Blur. But when all is said and done, I suspect Albarn was trying too hard with "Demon Days" . It is as if he wanted every song to count (laudable aim, yes) but the end result is not up to it. "Last Living Souls" is a promising opener and easily the best track on the album, and it is always worrying when a band opens with its best track, because you know things will only go downhill from there. And go downhill they do.
I really tried hard to like this album. But in the end I only managed to like bits of it. It doesn't seem to go anywhere and the band lack an identity, musically, on which they can pin their virtual image. Neither trip-hop nor electronic, dance music nor indie, "Demon Days" struggles under the weight of the expectations of Damon Albarn and fails to make a lasting impression.
Rating: 6/10
