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[YCoCg]

Gorillaz have released their seventh studio album today, titled "Song Machine, Season One | Strange Timez", initially started as a web series project with the aim to release one new song a month throughout 2020 turned into a full blown album featuring artists such as Robert Smith of The Cure, Elton John, Peter Hook, Schoolboy Q, St. Vincent, Skepta and many more.

Main Tracklist

1. "Strange Timez" (featuring Robert Smith)
2. "The Valley of the Pagans" (featuring Beck)
3. "The Lost Chord" (featuring Leee John)
4. "Pac-Man" (featuring Schoolboy Q)
5. "Chalk Tablet Towers" (featuring St. Vincent)
6. "The Pink Phantom" (featuring Elton John and 6lack)
7. "Aries" (featuring Peter Hook and Georgia)
8. "Friday 13th" (featuring Octavian)
9. "Dead Butterflies" (featuring Kano and Roxani Arias)
10. "Désolé (Extended version)" (featuring Fatoumata Diawara)
11. "Momentary Bliss" (featuring Slowthai and Slaves)

Extended Tracklist

• "Opium" (featuring EarthGang)
• "Simplicity" (featuring Joan As Police Woman)
• "Severed Head" (featuring GoldLink and Unknown Mortal Orchestra)
• "With Love to an Ex" (featuring Moonchild Sanelly)
• "MLS" (featuring JPEGMafia and Chai)
• "How Far?" (featuring Tony Allen and Skepta)

You can stream the album from the usual places (Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc).

 

[Bridges]

I haven't listened to it yet other than the "singles" that have come out. Haven't loved what I've heard so far except for "Aries" with Peter Hook, I really enjoyed that one.

 

[hariseldon]

Had a listen to a couple - Aries and PAC Man are excellent. Will have to have a proper listen to the rest of it when the room stops spinning.

 

[J-Roderton]

I’ve listed to a few tracks. Not bad.

 

[Droxcy]

Love it this guy never stops and season 2 soon to follow!

 

[Taxexemption]

Gorillaz peaked with Demon Days. They have a good one every now and then but every time they release a new album there are fewer songs I genuinely enjoy.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I only liked Aries and Pac-Man. Everything else was mid.

 

[JSoup]

I keep getting the e-mails about the new songs, but I've yet to listen to any of them.
On my todo list for today.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Great band they’ll be in the rock n roll hall of fame one day I assume soon

 

[YCoCg]

After a couple of listens I'd say my stand out tracks for this album are Strange Timez, The Lost Chord, Pac-Man (possibly favourite), The Pink Phantom (though need to be in the mood for it) and Aries, with a shout out to Momentary Bliss.

The extended tracklist falls into the same trap Humanz did where the main band hardly or don't feature on the vocals, it's all guest. With Love To An Ex and How Far? are good tracks but don't "feel" like Gorillaz tracks in this sense.

 

[DonJuanSchlong]

Would love to see them so a song with Take Impala, ever since they talked about a collab together.

 

[Bridges]

Gorillaz peaked with Demon Days. They have a good one every now and then but every time they release a new album there are fewer songs I genuinely enjoy.

Plastic Beach is up there with Demon Days imo and Humanz is pretty underrated, but yeah I feel they're on the decline. Humanz was weird because it hardly felt like a Gorillaz album, being far too focused on their featured artists, The Now Now had the opposite problem and lacked that alt-rock/rap synergy that made a lot of their earlier stuff cool.

Having listened to more of this now, I'm pretty down on the Song Machine. I really like "Aries" but none of the other songs are interesting or catchy enough to warrant repeated listens. There's a crazy amount of star power on these tracks but to me they mostly feel shoe-horned. I'm a big fan of Robert Smith but "Strange Timez" does nothing for me.

Would love to see them so a song with Take Impala, ever since they talked about a collab together.

This would be interesting