SONG MACHINE, SEASON 1 is the latest album by world renowned virtual band gorillaz. But is it good?
Well, no. If you read my post from last week until the end you would've been clued into this pretty early on. So what do the songs sound like?
The album kicks off with STRANGE TIMEZ featuring Robert Smith from the cure. It's probably worth noting that every single track on this record has at least 1 feature, with a good few having 2. So the track opens with this annoying piano bit under Smith's vocals, which are the best part of the track and even then they aren't great. When 2D's (Damon Albarn's) vocals come in over this irritating keyboard melody. His lyrics suck too. When the beat finally kicks in the track isn't too bad but even then it's 2 minutes into the 4 minute runtime. Albarn's vocals are processed to the point where they're flat and they've got an annoying delay on them too. Just a really poor opener.
VALLEY OF THE PAGENS (ft) Beck is the second track and starts with a fairly funky rhythm section, with Beck emulating some of his older vocal stylings he's well known for, but man the hook just sucks on this song. It sounds tired and overdone and forced, the synth parts sound crap and insincere. Hard to make all the way thru the minute runtime.
THE LOST CHORD (ft Leee John) is a slight improvement in song quality. Not original, mind you- this sounds like something I could find for NYP on bandcamp. The production is alright but again the hook is just piss poor. John's vocals are pretty good, he's got a good vocal texture that plays off Albarn's well, but the words just aren't very good. Also the first track on the record I didn't feel the need to skip, but that doesn't mean it was engaging.
PACMAN is just fucking appalling. I've heard it maybe 3 or 4 times and even the opening melody pisses me off. skipped. CHALK TABLET TOWERS (ft. St Vincent) is another fine but not remarkable song. Sounds like something you'd hear on a radio station on GTA honestly. St Vincent's vocals aren't given much special priority, she just mostly sings along with Albarn. Not a skip but man if you asked me i could not sing or hum a single melody or line from this song.
Track 6 has a feature from Elton John, so going into it I had fairly high hopes. Unsurprisingly, it's a piano led track. Initially it's not too bad, the drums are fine and keys are good. Then the track's other feature, 6LACK starts rapping and his vocals are just crap. They're mumbly and slurred and autotuned and the lyrics are crap. Elton's vocals start after that and it's such a sharp transition that just does not work. It just feels like a wasted opportunity having Elton John, of all people, on your record and the track still sucks this much. Some of the piano parts are pretty good but the rest of the track ranges from unremarkable to boring and trying.
ARIES might be the best track on the record, and even then that's only because of safe it's played. It's just pretty standard 80's synth pop worship, with a sequenced punchy beat, chorus-y guitars and very 80's synthesisers. Albarn takes most of the vocal duty and actually does a pretty good job. The hook is actually quite good too, it actually manages to be memorable and pleasent to listen to, which is much more than can be said for alot of the album. My only major complaint is Albarn's repetition of this vocal refrain "I'm a model that is uncomplicated- you can play a happy tune on me" which is annoying, but the rest of the track is good, and largely quite enjoyable. The first track I would call good on the album, which is pretty dire. Then the opening lines of the next track, FRIDAY 13TH, take it right back where it was.
DEAD BUTTERFLIES has this boring hip hop beat with some pretty unexciting vocals from Albarn, some ok singing from Roxani Arias and an ok feature from Kano. Not memorable. "Désolé" is another ok track, it's got some good guitars, it's got a good rhythm section, but man the lyrics are Crap with a captial C. The track attachs this 3 note melody to the title, which is repeated a whole lot across the 6 minute runtime. There's some cool horns but man this one is a slog to get thru. Once you've heard the first 3 minutes you've heard the last 3.
The album ends on MOMENTARY BLISS, which was the first single to drop from the album. It's largely alright, Slowthai brings a good energy to the track, and he definitely elevates the hook, despite the mixture of nonsense and extremely surface level political observations that make up the lyrics. Doesn't even function very well as a closer.
Man this album was boring as hell to listen to. I'm not sure if the name "song machine" is some kind of sick joke referencing the factory produced, soulless feel of many of the tracks on the record, but god this record feels so inessential in the gorillaz canon. I think I could confidently say this is way, way worse than Humanz. Humanz at least had a handfull of pretty good to great tracks- but this record tops out at "fine" which is just not somewhere you wanna be. It just sucks seeing a band I spent so much time listening to when I was "getting into" music become so, so crap. I wish I could see what everyone else sees in this record but god damn it is just not good. Avoid.
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