Gorillaz - The Now Now (Album Review) + Gorillaz albums rated

The Now Now. Gorillaz are back, just a year and two months after their last album they're back.

Last year, with Humanz, the band filled almost every song with guest stars, new talent and some old. It made for an epic listen, but felt like a hip/hop and alternative playlist that featured Damon Albarn's vocals from time to time. Great songs still made their way onto the 20 song long record, such as "She's My Collar", "Andromeda" and "Charger" but many of the tracks were unoriginal and lacking any feeling of being a Gorillaz song.

Now on their new album The Now Now, Damon Albarn takes the helm vocally on every single song (besides "Hollywood") as the beloved character 2-D but seems awfully melancholy, introspective and yet unfulfilling. Listening to this album is sort of boring, although compared to Humanz its tracklist is much shorter, only 11 songs.

There are definitely some standout moments. The singles "Humility" and "Lake Zurich" are fantastic synth funk, summery tunes, the former featuring a fantastic guitar riff from soul legend George Benson. Many of the other songs here are just dull and unmemorable like "Sorcererz", "Fire Flies" and "Idaho". Thankfully we do get the interesting closer "Souk Eye" and fan-dividing "Tranz" as two great tracks that shine through the gloom.

Overall I'd have to give this album a 6.5/10.
Rated from worst to best:
11. Sorcererz
10. Kansas
9. One Percent
8. Fire Flies
7. Magic City
6. Idaho
5. Idaho
4. Lake Zurich
3. Tranz
2. Souk Eye
1. Humility

http://www.deezer.com/album/66493272

https://open.spotify.com/album/1amYhlukNF8WdaQC3gKkgL?si=3MqwMxhOTkiYN2Nz4b-zjw

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-now-now/1387814084

All Gorillaz albums rated worst to best:
6. Humanz (5/10)
5. The Now Now (6.5/10)
4. Gorillaz (8/10)
3. The Fall (8/10)
2. Plastic Beach (8.5/10)
1. Demon Days (9/10)