After seven years, countless rumours and a seemingly endless amount of fan patience, Gorrilaz’s new albumHumanz is here. By now you know the story: we’ve been teased the follow up to 2010’s Plastic Beach for months, drip fed videos, tracks and their impressive line up of guest artists. But nothing could have really prepared us for this 20 track opus.
Across the mammoth record the band explores the rise of the alt-right, racism, mental health, the danger of the internet’s echo chamber, global warming, the west’s presence in the middle east and the decline of UK club culture. The project was imagined as a concept album tracking the dystopia that would emerge if Trump was elected president; at the time of writing the band didn’t realise they were predicting the future.
Not that it’s all doom and gloom, there is something touching in hearing Damon Albarn’s former nemesis Noel Gallagher make an appearance and sing, “We’ve got the power to be loving each other no matter what happens.”
But enough talking about it, finally give it a listen.
Credits
Text Wendy Syfret