Gorillaz - Demon Days REVIEW

Gorillaz - Demon Days REVIEW: B-

Well, as you all may know by now, this is a side project of Blur's Damon Albarn. He has created an alternative universe cartoonish four piece band of oddities known as the Gorillaz, each with their own side story and quirks

But that's neither here or there, everyone including me was curious as to how the next effort from the Gorillaz would turn out, especially since Dan "The Automator" Nakamura is not producing this one ... and DJ Danger Mouse is. (I suppose at some point, I will do a review of his mash-up classic The Grey Album, feat. Jay-Z's Black Album and The Beatles White Album)

Back to the task at hand, there was a lot of goodness in Feel Good Inc., enough that it made me go out and grab the album from Circuit City last week. I think that my impression of the album is that it is ultimately a solid effort, superior in some ways to the Gorillaz debut, and in some ways puzzling

The initial question that remains with me after several listens through is why the kind of dead first section of the album. I mean it is somber, slow and dead feeling. There is certainly nothing musically wrong with them (Kids With Guns and O Green World are very solid tracks), it is just such a dead seat of tracks that it is hard not to skip through them.

The album really hits its paces with the big trio from the CD, Dirty Harry, Feel Good Inc., and El Manana. These are hands down the standout tracks from the album. Each really good in its own way, the almost gospelly cuts from Dirty Harry, the hip pop of FGI, and the cool atmospherics of EM

The album flattens out again until DARE, I mean if Ike Turner on piano in Every Planet We Reach Is Dead cannot save you, what can? DARE is excellent, high quality synth pop. And now a few words about Dennis Hopper's spoken word over great beats for Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head ... do you remember Karloff's reading of The Grinch That Stole Xmas? a real homerun, no? This one, too ... just awesome -- The album winds down with two tracks that spin off of the Hopper track, but they again kind of flatten out the album

I recognize that this is a concept album or producer album and that it's more about the concept than the individual singles, but this is an album where if you don't really like the Gz sound overall ... I would say pick off the ones you like on iT and leave the rest behind

Being a mixed effort, I cannot say that it is really necessary to buy the whole album unless you are a fan. I am a fan of the sound, but I cannot say that I will be spinning this one a lot all the way through ... just tracks here and there