Reviewing the new Gorillaz singles

So after 7 years of waiting Gorillaz have suddenly dropped 4 singles at once and as a massive fan I was immediately hyped. I was slightly wary however - after all, the puzzling kind-of release of 'Hallelujah Money' which not only seemed to be a very strange choice of lead single with a video which wasn't anything like the beloved animated videos fans are used to, but was also one of too many similarly themed anti-Trump songs all released around his inaguration, which meant it got swallowed up with little praise. These new singles however are far more promising...

Saturn Barz (ft. Popcaan)



Saturn Barz is the main single being pushed to promote 'Humanz', as evidenced by it being the only of the 4 singles with a proper video, and it seems to so far be the most divisive of the 4. I can see why some would be turned off by instead of hearing Damon Albarn/2D's familiar reverb-heavy British voice hearing an autotuned Jamaican dancehall star yelling "ALL MY LOIFE!", but it's pretty much exactly what I wanted from the new Gorillaz album - the band trying out new, relevant stuff without 'selling out'. Aside from Popcaan's addictive hook, the instrumental is also great, with heavy bass, trap inspired percussion and ghostly voices backed up by equally spooky synth notes. And that's all before 2D's perfectly depressing chorus rolls around, and the song turns from being a  hellish party into a claustrophobic nightmare about cannibalistic Gods and technophobia. If someone had told me that Gorillaz were about to drop a dancehall-inspired track just a year after the boom of unbearable commercial dancehall in the form of Drake and Major Lazor I would have been worried, but Gorillaz pull it off in style.

9/10

Andromeda (ft. D.R.A.M)



The first of the four singles I personally heard, Andromeda is still my favourite of the 4. My favourite Gorillaz song (and one of my all time favourite songs in general) is 'On Melancholy Hill', which should make it clear why I love this song so much. It's calm, euphoric and the repeated refrain of "Take it in your heart now lover" gets me every time. D.R.A.M doesn't make a huge contribution to the song, to the point where I didn't realise he was actually featured until several listens in, but his soulful voice fits the song greatly. Overall, it's one of the best songs I've heard this year.

10/10

Ascension (ft. Vince Staples)


This is a weird one. Lyrics about racial tensions meet with ideas about the end of the world and a meme is sampled for the most terrifying second of music released this year. This is possibly my least favourite of the songs, mainly because several of Staples's lines are a bit... off ("All these liberated women sittin' in my lap" and "She wet like Barbra Streisand" are two examples.), but other than that the track has massive momentum and the build up to the scream was absolutely nerve-shredding until I found out it was sampled from the legendary "OH YEAH MR KRABS" Youtube video.

8/10

We Got The Power



Listening to this right after 'Ascension' can give you whiplash, as it's maybe the most straightforwardly joyous songs they've ever made. Since Gorillaz are most loved for their more depressing cuts ('Clint Eastwood', 'Feel Good Inc.') this has the potential to go under the radar, which would be a huge shame. Jenny Beth's powerful vocals, distorted in the same way as 2D's are perfect for the song, and although their not immediately noticable, Noel Gallagher's vocals on the final chorus are incredibly significant, as it gives legitimacy to the message of the song. After all, what could be a better way of preaching love and tolerance than having two of the key players in the once-huge Blur vs Oasis beef finally coming together on a great song?

9/10

Is Streaming killing the album?

On Friday 10th March 2016, Ed Sheeran broke a UK chart record that I can see being broken for a long time - He landed 16 songs in the Official Singles chart Top 20 and 9 in the top 10. While this exposes a massive flaw with the 'Singles' chart, this is far from the first time it's happened. Starting off with Justin Bieber's 'Purpose' in late 2015, numerous albums have had 10 or more songs all debut on national charts at once, namely Beyonce with 'Lemonade' (The best album which this has happened to thus far), Drake with 'Views' and the Weeknd with 'Starboy'. It's got to the point where even mildly hyped albums such as Future's two new projects have 3 or 4 new songs entering the chart at once each. 

So why does this happen? The main reason is streaming charts, and that when an album is streamed a stream is given to each individual track - as opposed to buying an album in itunes where purchasing a full LP won't count as one individual sale of each song on the LP. This in itself isn't necessarily bad - It makes sense and allows new fans to discover which deep cuts from artists are the best ones as these usually have more plays - but the problem comes when these are factored into charts. Obviously if no massive singles have been released for say a month and then an artist like Ed Sheeran releases an album onto streaming services, almost every track will be streamed enough to make the top 50 chart. In the case of 'Divide' the top 15 spots on the UK Spotify chart all belong to him (With one song at 17). This may be accurate to what the UK is listening to, but surely there should be a limit on what songs are considered 'Singles' by the UK and US charts?

Anyway, that's a different point which isn't as important as what I perceive to be the slow death of the album as any kind of cohesive project. I want to quickly pre-face this by saying OBVIOUSLY a very large number of artists still make cohesive, trimmed and generally great albums. The problem is that an increasing number of very prominent artists are seemingly creating what amount to giant song-dumps with a name and cover. An album being long is one thing, but this isn't 'To Pimp a Butterfly' or 'Teens of Denial' we're talking about here. 'Views', 'Starboy' and 'Divide' all suffer from the same basic problem which likely wouldn't have happened if these albums weren't made to benefit from streaming - they are all an hour or more long, which is waaaaaay too long for albums with very little experimentation or subtlety. 

What makes long albums like 'To Pimp A Butterfly' so easy to get through is that every song is drastically different and also great - you can't point to two songs on the album that you get mixed up with each other as every track is about a different but related topic and uses a different palette of instrumentation. What makes albums like 'Divide' and 'Views' so hard to get through is that only one or two of the songs are particularly good and there's way more rubbish and filler either way. On 'Divide' specifically, there are at least 7 sappy ballads, none of which are above a 5/10 for me.

The reason artists do this is that it on Spotify having more tracks means people are listening for longer, therefore making more revenue for the artists and their labels. This is also why there's been a larger than ever number of trap artists who can crank out 4 15-track mixtapes a year, and why so many rock artists seem to be complaining or struggling, as these bands tend to spend 2-3 years crafting what they hope will be classic albums. Already, albums like '24k Magik' by Bruno Mars which are fairly standard, trimmed albums seem an oddity. When critics start praising a pop album for being under 50 minutes long you know somethings up. This doesn't necessarily reflect quality, but it does show how the album as a thought-out collection of songs designed to go well together may be on it's way out.