Gorillaz (album) explained

Gorillaz
Type:studio
Artist:Gorillaz
Cover:Gorillaz 2001 album.png
Border:yes
Alt:The members of Gorillaz (Murdoc, 2D, Noodle and Russel) are riding on a Camouflage colored Buggy with Murdoc driving the vehicle and 2D sitting in the front next to him. Noodle is seen holding the bar on the front windshield while Russle, hooded, is at the back. The hood of the vehicle reads "geep".
Released:26 March 2001
Studio:
Genre:
Length:61:24
Producer:
Next Title:G-Sides
Next Year:2001

Gorillaz is the debut studio album by English virtual band Gorillaz, released on 26 March 2001 in the United Kingdom by Parlophone and in the United States by Virgin Records.[1] The album reached number three in the UK and number fourteen in the US, and the top ten in several other countries. Gorillaz has sold over seven million copies worldwide. The album's success earned the group an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Successful Virtual Band",[2] and spawned the singles "Clint Eastwood", "19-2000", "Rock the House", and "Tomorrow Comes Today".

Background

Musician Damon Albarn and comic book creator Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon, a fan of Hewlett's work, asked him to interview Blur, a band

Albarn and Coxon had recently formed.[3] The interview was published in Deadline magazine, home of Hewlett's comic strip, Tank Girl. Hewlett initially thought Albarn was "arsey, a wanker"; despite becoming acquaintances with the band, they often did not get on, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxon's ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997.[4] Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica.

The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV. Hewlett said, "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that."[5] The band originally identified themselves as "Gorilla" and the first song they recorded was "Ghost Train"[6] which was later released as a B-side on their single "Rock the House" and the B-side compilation G-Sides. The musicians behind Gorillaz' first incarnation included Albarn, Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator and Kid Koala, who had previously worked together on the track "Time Keeps on Slipping" for Deltron 3030's eponymous debut album.[7]

Although not released under the Gorillaz name, Albarn has said that "one of the first ever Gorillaz tunes" was Blur's 1997 single "On Your Own", which was released for their fifth studio album Blur.[8]

20th anniversary reissue

In March 2021, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album's release, a vinyl box set was announced.[9] The first edition of the boxset, which was exclusive to the band's webstore, was released on 10 December 2021. The boxset includes previously released material, including the original album, the B-sides compilation album G-Sides, and the remix album Laika Come Home (which received its first reissue since its initial press) and previously unreleased material, including live performances from the 2001 London Forum concert and five demos.[10] Additionally, it also includes notes and early sketches by Jamie Hewlett during the making of the album.[11] [12]

Composition

Critics have described the album as alternative rock,[13] [14] lo-fi,[15] [16] dub, hip hop,[17] trip hop,[18] [19] and art pop, with elements of punk rock,[20] rap rock,[21] art rock,[22] Britpop,[23] Latin,[20] and bubblegum pop.[20] The album's first single "Clint Eastwood", is named after the famous movie actor. A interpolation of the “Rock 1” preset from the Omnichord OM-300 can be heard throughout the song. Years after the release of this album, it was revealed that the track "Starshine" has an alternative version, which features Luton-based rap group Phi Life Cypher. This version is not available on any releases, but it is available on the Phi Life Cypher SoundCloud channel and also on the video-sharing website YouTube.[24]

All editions of the Gorillaz album feature an enhanced section that included screen savers, wallpaper and an autoplay, featuring a short movie which opens the user's Internet browser to a special section of the Gorillaz website, which gives the user full access to Murdoc's Winnebago.[25]

Del the Funky Homosapien collaborated on two songs on the album, "Clint Eastwood" and "Rock the House", both of which became singles and videos and achieved chart success. Del was not originally slated to collaborate on these songs. By the time Del came onto the project, the album was already finished, and Phi Life Cypher had recorded verses for "Clint Eastwood"; but when Del finished making Deltron 3030 with Dan the Automator, Automator asked if he could stay in the studio a little longer to record new verses for the Gorillaz songs.[26] For the purposes of the music videos and the Gorillaz storyline canon, Del performed as Gorillaz character "Del the Ghost Rapper", who was said to be a spirit that was hiding from death within the band's drummer, Russel Hobbs. Del later commented in an interview on the success of "Clint Eastwood" by saying that he actually wrote his rap for the song using the book How to Write a Hit Song, a book that he bought with a coupon his mother gave him. After the song went platinum he gave the plaque to his mother.[27] As part of Russel Hobbs' back-story, the character of Del was one of Russel's friends that was gunned down in a drive-by shooting, whose ghost possessed Russel.[28]

In 2004, the album was packaged with 2002's Laika Come Home in a limited edition box set as part of EMI's "2CD Originals" collection. Other saw a release such as the reggae-dub "Dub Dumb", which features British-Jamaican artist Sweetie Irie; it is available on the PlayStation 2 game MTV Music Generator 2 rather than on G-Sides or the album itself. Other tracks include "Gor Beaten", which was another track that didn't make the album; however, elements of the track's instrumental were once available on one of the Gorillaz member's computers in Kong Studios.[29]

Reception

Gorillaz received generally positive reviews from critics. It was ranked sixth in both Spin's and Kludge's end-of-year lists,[30] [31] 48 on NME's 2001 year-end list[32] and Q ranked it among the 50 best albums of the year.[33] The album was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Music Prize (Gorillaz was bookmakers' favourite before the nomination was withdrawn at the band's request).[34]

The album made some retrospective "best of" lists. Slant Magazine ranked the album no. 96 in its best of the 2000s,[35] Complex, Consequence Of Sound and Rhapsody ranked it among the top 100 albums of the 2000s[36] [37] [38] and Gigwise included it in its 2013 best self-titled albums of all time.[39] The album was given an entry in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[40]

Singles

Track listing

All songs are written by Damon Albarn and performed by Gorillaz, except where noted. Produced by Dan the Automator/Gorillaz with the exception of Track 13 produced by Tom Girling & Jason Cox

Sample credits

Source:[44]

20th Anniversary super deluxe vinyl boxset

LP 8: Demoz

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Gorillaz.[44]

Musicians

Technical

Artwork

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2001)Peak
position
Argentinian Albums (CAPIF)[45] 9
Australian Alternative Albums (ARIA)[46] 1
Chilean Albums Chart[47] 1
European Albums (Music & Media)[48] 1
Greek Albums (IFPI)[49] 6
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[50] 49
Slovak Albums (IFPI)[51] 18
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[52] 10
Uruguayan Albums (CUD)[53] 1

Year-end charts

Chart (2001)Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[54] 43
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[55] 10
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[56] 45
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[57] 27
Belgian Alternative Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[58] 22
Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)[59] 84
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[60] 42
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[61] 68
European Albums (Music & Media)[62] 15
French Albums (SNEP)[63] 25
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[64] 22
Italian Albums (FIMI)[65] 43
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[66] 10
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[67] 54
Swedish Albums & Compilations (Sverigetopplistan)[68] 73
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[69] 33
UK Albums (OCC)[70] 22
US Billboard 200[71] 93
Worldwide Albums (IFPI)[72] 18

Release history

RegionLabelCatalogEdition
United KingdomParlophone7243 5 32093 0original
7243 5 31138 0 3reissue
France7243 5 34488 0 6limited
United StatesVirgin7243 5 33748 0 8original
reissue
MalaysiaEMI7243 5 38704 0 9limited
USAWarner Bros. Records337480-2PRLDecember 2013, reissued after Universal acquired EMI and Warner’s acquisition of Parlophone.

References

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gorillaz celebrate 20 years of their debut album and tease new NFTS . . 26 March 2021 .
  2. News: Gorillaz: D-Sides . 11 February 2009 . James . Cooper . 19 November 2007 . inthenews.co.uk . https://web.archive.org/web/20100418193200/http://www.inthenews.co.uk/entertainment/reviews/music/r-n-b-rap/gorillaz-d-sides-$1170827.htm . 18 April 2010 . dead .
  3. FEATURE: Damon and Jamie Interview. HEY HEY WE'RE THE MONKEYS!. Elliot. Paul. Q. August 2001. 24 April 2017.
  4. Chris . Heath . Chris Heath . November 2007 . The 21 People Who Changed Music: Damon Albarn . . 87 . 24 April 2017 . 25 April 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170425121737/http://www.vblurpage.com/articles/stories/q_07.htm . dead .
  5. News: Keeping It (Un)real . 5 October 2008 . Neil . Gaiman . Neil Gaiman . July 2005 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20100105225835/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/gorillaz.html . 5 January 2010 . live .
  6. News: Gorillaz: Who Can It Be Now? . 10 October 2007 . Jim . Macnie . 9 June 2005 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20090506223813/http://www.vh1.com/artists/interview/1503836/060905/gorillaz.jhtml . 6 May 2009 . dead .
  7. Web site: [{{AllMusic |class = album |id = r480919|pure_url=yes }} Deltron 3030 review]. 27 March 2007. Steve. Huey. AllMusic .
  8. Web site: Gorillaz's Damon Albarn interview (part 2). McDougall. Lindsay. abc.net. 23 March 2010. ABC. 12 May 2015.
  9. Web site: Gorillaz Announce 20th Anniversary Reissue of Debut Album. Pitchfork. 4 November 2021. Matthew. Strauss. 16 December 2021.
  10. Web site: Murray. Eoin. 26 March 2021. Gorillaz celebrate 20th anniversary of debut album with reissue and NFT teasers. 5 November 2021. DJ Magazine.
  11. News: Gorillaz announce 20th anniversary reissue of debut album, 'Song Machine Live' cinema release. NME. 4 November 2021. Ali. Shutler. 16 December 2021.
  12. Web site: 4 November 2021. Gorillaz announce 20th anniversary super deluxe vinyl reissue of debut album. DJ Magazine. 5 November 2021.
  13. Thwack! Pow! Damon's death-defying year inside a cartoon phenomenon! Gorillaz!. NME. 13 October 2001. 26.
  14. Web site: Album review: Gorillaz - 'Humanz' - Music Insight. www.musicinsight.com.au.
  15. Web site: From the Record Crate: Gorillaz – "Demon Days" (2005). The Young Folks. Menjivar. Brittany. 21 May 2020.
  16. Web site: Gorillaz by Gorillaz. ABC. 3 February 2016. 16 December 2020.
  17. Web site: Gorillaz . Pitchfork . 28 June 2017.
  18. Web site: On this Day in EDM History: Gorillaz Release Their Debut Album. 26 March 2018 .
  19. News: Monkey Wrench . . 3 July 2001 . 3 April 2014 . Rees, Christina . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141006115606/http://www.villagevoice.com/2001-07-03/music/monkey-wrench/ . 6 October 2014 .
  20. News: Gorillaz: Monkeying around with music. 14 January 2002. BBC. 18 April 2020.
  21. Web site: Plastic Beach. HipHopDX. 30 November 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20150502122619/http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/album-reviews/id.1389/title.gorillaz-plastic-beach. 2 May 2015. dead.
  22. News: Gorillaz: Gorillaz . . 26 March 2001 . 3 April 2014.
  23. Web site: Gorillaz - Gorillaz - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic. AllMusic.
  24. Web site: Starshine ft Gorillaz.
  25. Web site: murdocswinnebago.com WHOIS domain registration information from Network Solutions.
  26. Web site: Del the Funky Homosapien Interview « Made You Look Radio. https://archive.today/20130411072554/http://www.madeyoulookradio.com/del-the-funky-homosapien-interview. dead. 2013-04-11.
  27. Web site: Pat Pemberton . Del the Funky Homosapien Hit the Books for Famous Gorillaz Rap . Spinner . 19 April 2010 . 19 January 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120916213947/http://www.spinner.com/2010/04/19/del-the-funky-homosapien-gorillaz-clint-eastwood-rap/ . 2012-09-16 . dead.
  28. Book: Brown, Cass . Cass Browne . Gorillaz . . 2 November 2006 . Penguin . United Kingdom . 1-59448-931-9 . 24–25 .
  29. Web site: Gorillaz-Unofficial 100% unofficial. 100% Gorillaz.. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120326063451/http://gorillaz-unofficial.com/news/. 26 March 2012.
  30. Web site: Rocklist.net...Spin Magazine (USA) End of Year Lists... . Rocklist.net . 8 October 2018.
  31. Web site: Perez . Arturo . Top 10 Albums of 2001 . . 25 November 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20040722004951/http://www.kludgemagazine.com/articles.php?id=88 . 22 July 2004 .
  32. Web site: NME's best albums and tracks of 2001. NME. 10 October 2016.
  33. December 2001 . The Best 50 Albums of 2001 . Q . 60–65.
  34. News: Gorillaz taken off Mercury list . 8 October 2018 . BBC News . 3 September 2001.
  35. Web site: The 100 Best Albums of the Aughts . 1 February 2010 . Slant . 8 October 2015.
  36. 29 November 2011 . 100 best albums of the 2000s . Complex . 1 June 2016.
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  38. Web site: 100 Best Albums of the Decade. Rhapsody. 4 December 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20101022110444/http://blog.rhapsody.com/2009/12/100-best-pop-albums-of-the-decade-50-41.html. 22 October 2010.
  39. Web site: The 19 best self-titled albums of all time: Eponymous excellence from Blur to Burial and Metallica to Madonna . Whitehill . Gaby . 17 December 2013 . Gigwise . 8 October 2018.
  40. Book: Robert Dimery . Michael Lydon . 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition . 23 March 2010 . Universe . 978-0-7893-2074-2.
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  42. Gorillaz Chart History (Hot 100). Billboard.
  43. Gorillaz Chart History (Alternative Airplay). Billboard.
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  47. Web site: 2001-10-10. Feria del Disco. https://web.archive.org/web/20011110183842/http://www.feriadeldisco.cl:80/fshop/ranking.asp?dept_id=. November 10, 2001.
  48. Eurochart - Albums. Billboard. 1 September 2001. 113. 35. 47. 0006-2510.
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  53. Web site: Ranking de Artistas Internacionales. https://web.archive.org/web/20011030030041/http://cudisco.org:80/ranking.htm . October 30, 2001. Cámara Uruguaya de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. January 27, 2022. dead.
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  67. Web site: Årslista Album 2001. Sverigetopplistan. sv.
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  71. Billboard 200 Albums - Year-End 2001. Billboard. 17 October 2020.
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  73. Web site: The Top 200 Artist Albums of 2002. Chartwatch: 2002 Chart Booklet. Zobbel.de. 43. 29 June 2021.
  74. Web site: The Top 200 Artist Albums of 2005. Chartwatch: 2005 Chart Booklet. Zobbel.de. 41. 29 June 2021.
  75. Web site: The Top 200 Artist Albums of 2006. Chartwatch: 2006 Chart Booklet. Zobbel.de. 42. 29 June 2021.

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