If it feels like just yesteryear that Gorillaz last released a(nother exemplary) full-length effort, then that’s because, well, it was. However, there will be another one next month – entitled The Now Now – with the irrepressibly prolific Damon Albarn back behind Jamie Hewlett’s two-dimensional distractions once again.
Having been recorded in February of this year, thus some while after Humanz was completed and put out for anthropoid consumption, it may be more readily aligned with The Fall than D-Sides; and much like the former record aforementioned, collaborations are fewer and further between than we’ve become accustomed to as and whenever Gorillaz may be concerned.
But Humility, below, is one of two, with Ibanez enthusiast George Benson – last seen, in numbers, in your nearest vinyl bargain bin – bringing the sort of smooth noodling that’s traditionally the preserve of, if not exclusively reserved for, guitar stores. Albarn, meanwhile, delivers the kind of conflicted love song that, along with the likes of Busted and Blue and On Melancholy Hill, has sort of become a hallmark as he repeatedly poses: “If I’d be needed when I know that it’s broken, do I put it back?/ Or do I head out onto the lonesome track, and let you go?”
Lake Zurich, conversely, sounds less single-esque, and is more evocative of an offcut as a fairly indecipherable, monologic interlude provides the only vocal accompaniment to a track that, otherwise, sounds not dissimilar to a lukewarm Hot Chip workout. There’s ample groove to it though, and for The Now, it will do to tide us over until late on next month…
The Now Now is available from June 29th via Parlophone.