Gorillaz’s ‘Cracker Island’ delivers musical diversity, entrancing themes
February 26, 2023
Blending visual and performing art into another sonically sound package, animated band Gorillaz released their eighth studio album Feb. 24. All 10 tracks utilize every musical minute in its description of dystopian technology and experimentation with a biblical list of genres.
Although Cracker Island doesn’t show Gorillaz sharing their songs with as many artists as previous albums, each track that features a guest musician incorporates that artist’s style. Dreamy vocals on “Oil” complement Stevie Nicks’ ‘70s heyday while its techno treatment calls to the album’s social media themes. “Tormenta” featuring Bad Bunny goes most beyond Gorillaz’s comfort zone with its reggaeton styles and Spanish lyrics. However, the album features enough independently-Gorillaz tracks for their style and vision to shine throughout.
Opening track “Cracker Island” entrances with its futuristic beats and storytelling techniques. Lyrics like, “Where the truth is autotuned” and its monotone backing vocals chanting, “Forever cult” jolt fans into the apocalyptic ambiance. The album maintains its technological focus with “The Tired Influencer” by adding a clever post-production feature — the ghastly voice of artificial intelligence reciting its most common phrases. Each whisper of “Here’s what I found” reminds fans how commonly phone users converse with technology in a way that feels like “The Jetsons” come to life.
The pun-packed “New Gold” leans into Gorillaz’s hip-hop sound while making clever calls to their previous works. While the album strays away from rap overall, Bootie Brown’s verses make up for its lack of talk-singing. Both humans and cartoons can find the phrase “Bullsh–t keeps comin’ / maybe I’m a Matador” relatable on many levels.
“Baby Queen” stands out as an awkward moment in the album. While the instrumentals sound serene, the lyrics don’t provide enough substance to engage listeners. The story behind the song, Damon Albarn’s dream about a Thai princess who attended his show in 1997, proves a touching sentiment of the lasting impressions near-strangers can make on one another. However, the lyrics fail to pack the punch intended due to their excessive repetition. Pop welcomes emphasis on lyrics, but there comes a point where the catchiness of a song kills the tune’s quality.
“Possession Island” satisfies as the album’s departing track. Just before Gorillaz sing their final notes, a soft sweet piano signals the end’s proximity. This gesture and the parallelism between the first and last track’s titles tie loose ends together like an all-grown-up storybook. Listen to track after track for a movie-like experience of dystopian proportions or skip to whichever songs sound most intriguing. Either way, fans may relish in Cracker Island’s genre-merging mix and find another reason to deep dive into the lore of this rag-tag group of cartoon creatures.
4 chanting cult members out of 5
