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Taken only for what it is, Gorillaz is an engaging, if not entirely arresting, journey through sluggish mood rock and jazzy hip-hop. Taken for what it aspires to be, though, it's more disappointing than awe-inspiring...
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Much of the album has the odd, rehashed sound of a Blur record produced by the Automator, but the diverse guests keep at least every other song fresh and new.
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Inspired by the punky reggae parties of Sandinista!-era Clash, tracks like the dub-rap-rock mutation "Clint Eastwood" and its catchier two-step Rasta remix bring back the exuberance missing from Blur's last album, 13, while running with its anything-goes avant-aesthetic.
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I so want to hate this album.... If only the album flat-out sucked, I'd be on much firmer ground. Too bad it doesn't.
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Neither Brit-pop nor hip-hop, "Gorillaz" contains a motley, dub-influenced collection of songs that are, like Hewlett's drawings, an exercise in sophisticated immaturity
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As forward-thinking as this sounds, it just kind of makes Gorillaz an Archies/Josie & The Pussycats for the new millennium. It also makes them and their album fit in with everyone else in the progressive hip-hop canon, all of whom see fit to make slightly ludicrous concept records.
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It's what you might expect from a bunch of musos playing with Cubase or ProTools: sampled loops, Brixton dub, trip-hoppy tangents. U.N.K.L.E.'s bratty nephew, really, though the album sounds like the group locked the metronome on "heavy funk groove"--chugging and satisfying at first, it feels exhausted by the fifth or sixth track.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 322 out of 339
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Mixed: 11 out of 339
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Negative: 6 out of 339
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VadamercaNJul 27, 2007
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Sep 26, 2010
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Nov 24, 2021Certified hood classic. Every time I listen to this album I fall in love listening to the band again. Very good enjoy.