Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez / Gorillaz / October 23, 2020
- Joshua Yoo
- Oct 30, 2020
- 2 min read
Given the absolutely “strange times” of this grueling year 2020, the ‘Song Machine’ web series makes more sense now than it would in any other context. Placing a precedence on the individual song over the traditional album structure, Gorillaz, with the help of numerous star collaborators, have further proven their unparalleled ability to bring out the absolute best of any genre, artist, or style they have a try with.
The nature of this untraditional project doesn’t lend itself to much of any conceptual cohesiveness, but the argument to be made is that the absence of such structure allowed them to more fully commit to the unique execution of each individual track with exceeding quality. “Désolé” is a prime example of this, as the gloomy yet soulful instrumental perfectly accompany the wistful vocals from 2-D and Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. The track “Aries” also stands out as a beautiful tribute to the synth-pop wave of prior decades, with guest Peter Hook bending the Gorillaz style to that of New Order of the 80s.
Another amazing aspect of this record is Gorillaz’ ability to take bizarre combinations of guest artists and produce these amazingly convincing multi-genre amalgamations. Take “The Pink Phantom,” where the unworldly duo of 6LACK and Elton John make for a beautifully haunting, autotune-laced ballad only made possible through the ingenious vision of one Damon Albarn.
Overall, the quality of collaborative writing, engineering, and performances on nearly every corner of this project is extraordinary. Some fans will still probably complain about the lack of album structure or continuity, but even so, ‘Song Machine, Season One’ is about as perfect as this type of concept could have turned out.
Best Track(s): Aries, Pac-Man, Désolé, The Valley of The Pagans, The Pink Phantom, Momentary Bliss, The Lost Chord
Lowlight(s): Chalk Tablet Towers
SCORE: 9/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKXloFW_ZCA
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