my gorillaz journey

the older stuff

wayy back in the year of our lord... 2013? 10 years ago? my dad decided to show me and my sibling the music video for clint eastwood with gorillaz ft. del the funky homosapien. this, i believe, is still the perfect introduction to the band. the MV introduces all the characters, shows their personalities pretty well (murdoc gets his balls grabbed which is nice to see), it shows the classic gorillaz formula of alternative kinda-electronic music with a great guest rapper, and showcased the early artstyle that the characters would be most known for. but i'm getting ahead of myself. i was pretty hooked by this point- on my own, i went and listened to feel good inc. and rockit , the latter of which creeped me the fuck out. and that was that! ...or was it?

humanz

in 2017, gorillaz released saturnz barz from Humanz, their upcoming album. this is the moment when i rediscovered them, old enough where i could actually get into their music properly. of course, i started with humanz (and disliked it, as was the common sentiment at the time, although we'll get into the drastic changes in opinion from the fandom later). i relistened to their older things, watched a bunch of music videos, and then saw- a new album?!

the now now

i wasn't that big into music in general at the time, but i was really excited for the now now, nonetheless. it was perfect- i saw livestreams of the concerts, watched the music videos, and played lake zurich literally every time i did homework. i can't listen to it anymore. i never learn my lesson!

song machine

song machine: season one came out in 2020. ah, quaratine. the perfect time to get invested in a really stupid hobby- like a virtual band! i was invested more than ever, and gorillaz had a really clever strategy of putting out a new animated video every month of so (which is INSANE, by the way). by that time, i was fully immersed. i was talking about it, watching all the videos a million times over, and making fanart. no, i won't show any of that haha. but oh boy. it only gets worse.

cracker island

when cracker island (the single) came out, this was when i was fully hyped. i joined the discord to talk about the band nearly every day. ok, i realize how absoultely obsessed i seem with gorillaz. obviously i did other things, too. but when you have the ability to listen to music basically all the time, all day, you do! (i liked a lot of lemon demon and will wood at the time, too.) anyway, i stayed up till midnight for the album release. i listened to it again during lunch. i even went to the concert with earthgang as the opener!! that was awesome and was an amazing experience. cracker island is still one of my favorite things to ever hear live- and i've heard song for the dead live!

how they made it matter

so- why was i so obsessed? it's not my fault!!!... kinda? the fact is, gorillaz is just begging to be dove into. the characters are all easily recognizable, you can connect with them easily through what they say in the songs (even though its actually a middle-aged british dude), and there is just. so. much. lore. you can go diving for hours and hours on the internet and find so much media relating to gorillaz. theres music videos, of course, and then theres stuff like flash games and interviews and pirate radio and websites and lore and tiktoks and MORE! it helps that gorillaz is so current- you can find literally everything right here, online. even rise of the ogre, haha. it's accessible too- if you want to learn, just look at gorillaz for beginners or find one of the many, many youtube videos. the band is constantly innovating (especially in the early years) to adapt to the internet and its current culture. 2D now makes tiktoks about his poems. crazy world we live in, right?

not to mention the fans...

one thing that i've noticed is that gorillaz has the most creative fanbase i've ever been in. there is so much, and i mean so much art made with the characters. people make animatics, great art, t-shirts, cover songs, fan fictions, cosplays, sculptures, and so on. you can find gorillaz fanart (and a gorillaz fandom, for that matter) on basically every social media. i think this is because of the 'creative' nature of the band itself- it's heavily focused on not just music, but on bringing art to life in the form of original characters that you can almost believe are real. and yes, gorillaz are jamie and damon's OCs. technically. if you want to join the discord, by the way, it's not that hard to find a link.

when i went to the concert, i saw literally everyone. so many different people were interested in gorillaz, which was bonkers to me. i thought it would all be gay teenagers (which, to be fair, was a lot of people). but there are just so many aspects of the band that draw people in. the original artstyle, the new tiktoks, their 'classic' albums like demon days, the music videos, the way 2D is so silly goofy, people who like listening to music in a ton of different languages, those interested in their collaborators or any of the many genres they do, guys who hear feel good inc randomly at the mall, those who find murdoc hot, etc etc etc. the band itself encompasses a lot of creativity and i think that's the main thing that made me interested.

politics

obviously i have to include a section on politics- not very in depth, though. gorillaz has always been political and always will be- it was ingrained in the vision from the very start. want to hear more? watch dirty harry and let me out if you want to learn more (in the form of songs, lol)

ending...

to be honest, i'm a little out of my gorillaz phase. if i had written this last year at the same time, this would have been even longer. somehow they still remain in my top 5 most listened artists nearly every week. they're still my second most listened to band of all time. i'll even passionately argue about how good humanz is now. so i suppose this was my little tribute to what i consider the best band ever, even if i don't listen to them a ton anymore. i'll be on the lookout for any new releases, of course. thank you, damon and jamie!

i know more, but retain less...

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thats cool and all, but what SHOULD i listen to?

starting off, i'm no gorillaz expert... despite what i talk about. i'm pretty well-versed, but you can literally start with most places in their discography. if you're looking for a full overview of most things the band can accomplish, i'd say look no further than Song Machine: Season One (plus the deluxe). There's not gonna be a season two, by the way, lol. this is probably their most varied album, with tons of collaborators like elton john, jpegmafia, st vincent, peter hook, robert smith, beck, slowthai, and even more! they create a ton of varied styles of music, including a few different languages and music videos for every single song (on the regular album)!

from there, you can go wherever you like. enjoy the rap? check out humanz and demon days (theres a MF DOOM feature on there!). want more chill stuff like desole? go for the now now. need even more beautiful stuff like the lost chord? try plastic beach. don't forget to listen to their biggest hits too. feel good inc, rhinestone eyes, clint eastwood- all classics. i sincerely hope you enjoy.

well i already like those. what more is there?

if you're a gorillaz fan (or superfan, like me), you've probably already heard all the main albums. if you haven't checked out disc 1 of d-sides, i would definitely reccomend that. some of my favorite tracks are on there. and, if you've heard the singles (such as doyathing !), the fall, and even laika come home (you might be the first person to like it!), then why not check out their collaborators? Frequent guests like de la soul and beck are well worth checking out, along with some more acts that have featured on gorillaz songs, like st vincent, tame impala, danny brown, little dragon, and so many more.

and if you've exhausted that list and want people that just sound like gorillaz, try sad night dynamite. they're a trip-hop duo that have a 'seaside' style not unlike plastic beach but are pretty chill too. they are super inspired by gorillaz (as they've said many times). i love their self-titled album!

drastic changes in opinion from the fans

uhm i said id talk about this so heres a small segment. after 7 years of waiting, people wanted nothing more than a classic gorillaz album. and what they got was something people called "NOT gorillaz". go on 2017 gorillaz reddit and you will literally find a post saying this. yes its messy. yes its political. but humanz has so many good tracks. sure, it was basically entirely rap-focused and a lot more overt than pervious albums, but what is gorillaz known for if not changing genres every album? my only complaint is that it's just a bit long. cut out the interludes, and you 've got an otherwise amazing album.