Reviews of the week
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 1, 2005 9:00 p.m.
“Demon Days” Gorillaz Virgin
Records
In 2001, the virtual hip-hop band Gorillaz made its MTV debut
with the video “Clint Eastwood,” imprinting the likes
of Murdoc and Co. into the face of popular music. After all, who
could forget their quirky cartoon band personas? With “Demon
Days,” its sophomore effort, Gorillaz launched a monstrous
work begging to be picked apart. The only problem in the setup has
been divorcing the visuals from the music. Gorillaz has been
criticized for employing style over substance, sacrificing the
impression the music makes when singled out. The artwork in
“Demon Days'” is hard-edged and stylish as ever
(courtesy of Jamie Hewlett, creator of cult-comic “Tank
Girl”), and continuous in terms of the band’s
development. Martial arts master and guitar virtuosa Noodle has
flowered into adolescence while front man 2-D is even more
brooding. But the members of Gorillaz drop the bomb with a
larger-than-life album, defying all accusations that they sacrifice
their content for style. With Blur front man Damon Albarn even more
behind the music in “Demon Days,” the album packs a
multitude of matured layers while retaining the dropkicking beats
and bouncy dance melodies of the first album. Instrumentally, it
remains an electro-hip-hop work, stepping into genres of funk (as
with the first single “Dirty Harry”), hard rock and the
undeniable Blur-induced Brit pop influence. More traditional
instruments are also figured into the mix, including a string
section, acoustic guitar and piano in the songs “El
Mañana” and “Don’t Get Lost in
Heaven.” “Demon Days” is a self-conflicting,
conceptual work exploring the haunting themes of digital entrapment
amid interplays between dark and light sounds, morose and
illuminating imagery. The canvas is stretched with this album as
Albarn uses a similar formula and expands the list of sounds with
collaborators, including DJ Danger Mouse, famous for his 2004
mash-up of Jay-Z’s “Black Album” and The
Beatles’ “White Album.” The album opens with
“Intro,” a looming, spacey one-minute track, then
twists and turns through conflicting tracks such as “Last
Living Souls” and “All Alone” which load up on
minor key melodies and raunchy bass lines embedded with interludes
of uplifting atmospheric synths and vocals. The persevering beat is
switched off with a quaint and hopeful acoustic guitar in
“Feel Good Inc.” The thematic conflict within each
track highlights the narrative flow of the album, while
anticipations of catchy jams underscore the effect that the serious
darkness of “Demon Days” delivers to its listeners. The
feelings of melancholy the album evokes are inescapable as it grows
deeper with each succeeding track, offering only a few peaks of
hope until it builds up to the final, and title, track. The string
instrumentals and the sunshine smile timbre of the choir seek to
resolve the conflict and give hope to the lyrics, which have been
trapped in looming social constructs. The choir belches,
“Pick yourself up/ it’s a brand new day/ turn yourself
around to the soul.” Though it is difficult to escape the
introspective windmill imagery of the “Feel Good Inc.”
video, it only amplifies the group’s music visually. Gorillaz
compromises nothing in its music. The group took a big risk with
the experimentalism in this album, showing it’s not just a
fun band to jam to. They deserve to be taken seriously. -Taleen
Kalenderian
