S'all About The Money

Leading on from last time, it's probably for the best that I scheduled these out. I wanted to wait a couple of days before covering this one for obvious reasons (and to see if they'd bob it up on soundcloud or whatever but no such luck yet.) Anyway, as you may be aware, there is a nee Gorrilaz tune out after some months of teasing and a few years of waiting. Now you notice I said tune and not Single, for some reason people have bee nsaying it's the first single off the new album but it's not actually *said* anywhere that it is. (and I'll admit I was one of those folks until doing a bit of reading for this).



So, let's get the elephant out of the room shall we? Damon's definitely taking a political angle with this one. Not that it's strange territory for Gorillaz to tackle, see Fire Coming Out Of A Monkeys Head or Dirty Harry from Demon Days for example, or even the one off collaboration with D12 about 9/11 if you want to get obscure. I've seen some people be kind of disappointed about that and it's a tad confusing, granted the few examples I've just mentioned perhaps aren't as explicitly on the nose about their issues but still. I'm not going to press it anymore because it's all over the bloody news these days and the last place you want political discourse is a music blog of all places.

Right, now that's out of the way how is the tune? Well you'd be forgiven if you thought this was a leftover from Plastic Beach or The Fall, the style is quite similar but that isn't a bad thing at all, it's just I thought some of Damon's solo LP might have slipped in there. Saying that though, I am very much enjoying the return of the backing choir, something I've missed from the penultimate parts of Demon Days which made them shine. Speaking of choir contributions too, a high point of new Gorillaz things coming out is seeing who Damon's lined up for collaborations this time, ad Benjamin Clementine doesn't disappoint here, his delivery compliments the overall production very well indeed, and is a nice counterpoint to Damon's vocal too. I remain tentatively excited, I'm not blown away yet, but there's certainly more to come.

-Claude Van Foxbat