GORILLAZ - Gorillaz (2001)

Here’s an Essex boy made good and no mistake. Undoubtedly Damon Albarn changed the whole 1990s UK music landscape with Blur; that he didn’t rest on that laurel but went on to an even greater palette of musical expression with this venture is nothing short of genius. To be aware of the tools required to attract a new 21^st Century pop audience is astute; to execute the project without a trace of dumbing down or blanding out is a miracle. It’s a good job he did wrap this up with the Gorillaz identity though, completely removing his direct involvement as far as most people were concerned. You can’t imagine Damon being able to put out a song under his own name which basically calls up the A1/M1, from South to North, wondering if there’s “anyone there?” For all I know it could well be a dig at what he saw as a lack of anything challenging musically coming down from “up north”, but had he done that in 2001 under his own name then that whole Blur/Oasis feud thing would’ve re-surfaced in a way that most people had terminally tired of. Done this way, I don’t recall anyone noticing (which maybe makes it a pointless gesture but there you go).

Coming back to this album, it’s been a few years since I first listened but what occurs now is just how much I really bought into the Gorillaz idea back in 2001. Asked at the time and I’d probably have expressed my admiration for this album but stated firmly, as a Blur fan, that I couldn’t wait for their new release. I mean that seems pretty stupid now, it’s totally clear that any work Albarn was involved in with Blur around 2000 (remember ‘Music Is My Radar’?) carried on seamlessly into this project. The first two tracks ‘Re-Hash’ and ‘5/4’ alone are all Damon vocals, choppy guitars and a fairly standard indie-rock beat. No major changes at all in fact, it makes you wonder if this record was initially conceived as a solo project with the Gorillaz concept coming quite late on. It isn’t until the fifth track that a rapper, or the suggestion that Albarn is anything other than at the centre of all this, appears with the classic debut single ‘Clint Eastwood’ but what a classic it still is. A statement in all but name of Damon’s newfound musical liberation from Blur as the rap boasts “finally someone let me out of my cage!”

The tunes do slowly develop the ideas of a Dub, Hip-Hop, World, Electro-Punk mish-mash that Damon seems to have wanted to develop but his ear for strong melody, even when experimentally feeling through some kind of jazzy-space-rock avenue on ‘Double’, always ensures that this isn’t a difficult listen. ‘Rock The House’ could fit like a glove onto a compilation of classic late-80s ‘daisy age’ Hip-Hop and by the time you hit the grooveadelic anthem of ’19-2000’ Albarn’s nailed it. Having to tone down his flair for beats and funky bass after an artistic breakthrough like this album, just to appease the dance-phobic Graham Coxon in Blur, must have been an unwelcome challenge. It’s little wonder they split really, ‘Gorillaz’ is a breathtaking eclectic triumph.

Essex Boy Rating: 9/10