My theory is that there are two camps of Gorillaz fans:
Ones that were there during their self-titled and Demons Days days, and ones that showed up during/after the Plastic Beach phase.
The first group has a specific idea of how the band should operate, and the second has a different idea. I've noticed that most people in the second group often consider Plastic Beach to be the group's best album, and are generally in favor of Humanz. The first group knows that Demon Days and s/t are their best albums, and are usually slightly in favor of Demon Days. This group hates Humanz.
Which group do you fall into and what are your opinions on these albums?
did you think anyone would care about the horseshit you just typed up
Carter Myers
Gorillaz casual. hated Humanz.
Liam Kelly
I actually favor s/t over Demon Days.
Evan Stewart
I got into Gorillaz late, like in 2015, but for a really long time I exclusively listened to Demon Days and s/t, and only recently listened to Plastic Beach.
Jayden Williams
Self titled was important to me because I bought it in the first year of school, I was about 11. It felt alive, but I'm owing a lot of what made it impactful to nostalgia. Saying that, I still stick it on from time to time and I enjoy it immensely.
I didn't really care much for Demon Days. I liked it, but it didn't stick. Plastic Beach on the other hand was great - it added to the lore and the visual accompaniment was great. Humanz is missing all of that I think, it felt lazy and rushed for some reason. The tracks aren't memorable to me.
Tyler Stewart
I agree, It's very close but s/t has some special grittiness to it whereas Demon Days is a little too polished. I love both though. >Self titled was important to me because I bought it in the first year of school, I was about 11.
Same here. It was one of the first CDs I ever bought, along with Daft Punk's Discovery (thanks Toonami for getting me into cartoon bands.) I was even younger than you, and it's definitely a nostalgic thing.
Christopher Roberts
It's weird because I'm 27 now, and when I say that Gorillaz was one of the first albums I bought with my own money I feel really young. It's easy to forget Gorillaz as a band have been around for over 15 years.
Luis Turner
I actually got into Gorillaz from D-Sides. While I remember seeing 19-2000 on MTV while channel surfing as a kid and while I thought the art gimmick was cool I was too disinterested in music at the time and wasn't into the whole trip hop genre. Then someone showed me We Are Happy Landfill a bunch of years later and I had no idea the band actually crossed over into a grungy punk rock style. After I got D-Sides I eventually got into the band through odd ends and songs from the rest of their discography. It took me a long time to warm up to any album though, especially Demon Days - but now as someone who loves hip hop and am a huge fan of MF Doom (particularly Madvillainy), Demon Days has aged incredibly for me.
In contrast I really loved Plastic Beach when it came out but have kind of soured on it a little bit since then. As for Humanz, I actually like it a bunch. It has an incredibly animated party vibe to it and I think it'll age better than Plastic Beach for me, but I do kind of miss how Demon Days made the best of it's virtual band premise with a fairly simple album. If Gorillaz continue, and I sincerely hope they do, I kind of hope they bring things a little bit back to basics and make an album that their characters can help inform, because as good as their music is and even though that's what matters, the virtual element of it has always kind of been the point behind that music.
Evan Ward
I found Gorillaz in the Demon Days era. Loved it and the self titled. I enjoy them more than Plastic Beach. Still love it though.
After about 3-4 days straight of listening to Humanz, it's become my favorite. Maybe just because it's new though.
Matthew Morgan
s/t was the only one that got the Gorillaz aural aesthetic right and feels like it was made by a cartoon band. Everything afterwards is just a Damon Albarn solo album with features, for better or worse.
Sebastian Ward
i am a classic fan and i must say the 19/2000 game that came with their Phase 1 interactive cd was the best gorillaz album
Luis Foster
I bought Demon Days back when I was just starting high school and loved every minute of it. Then bought Plastic Beach when it came out and loved it, and so far I'm enjoying Humanz as well. Demon Days is hands down their best album, but it's not like the most recent two aren't good. Maybe i'm fucking weird or something though
Christopher Hill
Early gorrilaz stuff really reminds of my childhood and my brother, bc he showed me that kind of music. I really love the early stuff and I like plastic beach as well, i tried to listen to humanz but haven't managed to go through all the album, I really dislike the trap rap shit, but I'm trying to keep an open mind
Ryder Gray
This
Demon Days is very overrated
Easton Watson
Got into Gorillaz 10 years ago. I do prefer Plastic Beach over Demon Days and enjoy Humanz
Caleb Mitchell
I was 5 years old when Gorillaz released the self-titled, and I've loved them since then. I remember being 9 and spending the little bit of allowance money I had on Demon Days.
Demon Days is the best Gorillaz album, because it's the most focused out of all the albums.
Andrew Williams
Found Gorillaz two years ago. Pretty good. Demon days is my favourite, S/T and PB are tied.
Whereas the others are at least an 8 with DD being a 9.5, Humanz is a 6 for me. There are some great tracks but the interludes don't work and it doesn't have the same kind of narrative that plastic beach has, nor does it have the atmosphere that Demon Days had.
Evan Robinson
>there will never be another track like "Faust" >tfw hearing "Latin Simone" for the first time
Isaiah Hughes
Got first listened in demon days, but didn't care for that or s/t. Plastic Beach is a 9/10. Nothing before or after is more than 6/10
Isaac Diaz
I didnt to listen to any gorrilaz until a year ago and my favourites are s/t and demon days (s/t being top).
I think humanz is bad, but has 1 or 2 good songs like hallelujah money and shes my collar
Adam Reyes
S/T>DD>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>PB=Humanz DD and S/T were both amazing. Humanz is the same as PB, there are like 3 Gorillaz songs, and like 15 collaborations. There music doesn't even have any style anymore, it just sounds like cookie cutter radio music.
Adrian Sanders
I listened to Gorillaz for about a year when I was 16 and Demon Days had just come out. I liked the first two albums at the time and have fond memories of blasting them while driving my first car after getting my license.
Aside from that but I it of nostalgia, I don't give 2 shits about Gorillaz now. By the time Plastic Beach came out, I didn't care enough to listen to it.
Cameron King
I don't really get people in this proposed first camp thinking Demon Days is better personally, Demon Days definitely has decent tracks but is just a little bit too clean, shiny and kind of boring. S/T can't be topped imo, it just fits so much better into what Gorillaz should be to me and holds up throughout much better than Demon Days.
Christopher Johnson
>s/t was the only one that got the Gorillaz aural aesthetic right and feels like it was made by a cartoon band
I never thought of this but I can completely agree with it. I still think Demon Days is the most consistent and accessible album Gorillaz has put out, the self titled and even Plastic Beach really fit into the comic book world created to accompany, or even to represent the music itself. A couple of exceptions to this would be DARE and O Green World, those two really feel like they could've come out of the self titled album.
Nathaniel Bennett
>putting Plastic Beach on the level of H*manz Objectively wrong. Humanz is much worse.
Gabriel Watson
But the collabs on Plastic Beach were actually thought out, sound good, and have a cohesive sound the entirety of the album, which is a stark fucking contrast to Humanz which is just shit flung at a wall in terms of both featured artists and the consistency of sound across the album
Nathaniel Martin
As someone who was introduced to Demon Days as a kid and listened to it almost exclusively, I can agree with this. Demon Days is undoubtedly their highest production value album and it sounds great throughout, but S/T has more of a sound that I would attribute to Gorillaz. D-Sides was pretty cool too. Really hope Albarn can redeem himself from Humanz sometime in the next few years, what a dumpster fire.
Jack Sanchez
Plastic Beach is one of my favourite Albums. I did indeed join the band at this point. I don't like Humanz.
Owen White
Agreed. The cartoon punks blasting music on a boombox and spraying graffiti is the whole gorillaz aesthetic to me. Demon Days carried the torch well but it was very shiny and HD in comparison to s/t's grittiness
Benjamin Hughes
>ywn hear Tomorrow Comes Today for the first time again >ywn hear DARE for the first time again >ywn hear Empire Ants for the first time again
Mason Butler
>But the collabs on Plastic Beach were actually thought out, sound good, and have a cohesive sound the entirety of the album >snopp dogg on the intro part 2, HBE being wasted >bashy ruining white flag >using the worst version of glitter freeze >sweepstakes >jones and simonon being wasted on the title track I don't think so
Jaxson Martinez
I'm definitely the second group and you are pretty much spot on. I thought Humanz was pretty good (definitely had its weak points, but it had some really strong points too) and Plastic Beach is my favourite.
Jack Russell
I like Demon Days better. I grew up staying up all night watching music videos and will always remember watching Feel Good Inc. I knew they would always play it at least one time per episode of some MTV music video show that was on back then. And plastic beach no doubt accentuated the transition into my cave-dwelling masterbatory behaviors. If you like their new stuff you'll like their old stuff.
Brayden Howard
I came around after plastic beach, the fall were out. Probably about 3 years ago. I think that Demon Days and Plastic Beach are their best, but I also like D-sides a lot. I don't really care about Humanz, and I think that s/t is decent, but not as good as Demon Days / Plastic Beach.
I feel that s/t is kind of just the token contrarian album.
Caleb Parker
I fall into the group that liked Plastic Beach (At least half their album) and didn't like The Fall and Humanz
Plastic Beach gets too much shit but it did such a better job in reviving and one thought gone band and bringing back the hype. I just don't like the songs in Humanz, and I hate the album art too.
Jordan Harris
I just dont get the theme of Humanz on a Gorillaz level. They exist in an extremely hyperbolized planet earth as it is. And even though he took all references to Trump out i just cant look past that message. I cant fucking stand Trump but it doesn't make sense for the Gorillaz to give a fuck about him
Ryder Miller
Ive been here since the beginning and plastic beach is my favorite . Nice theory OP you retard
Austin Hernandez
>I hate the album art too
I hate that it's like a callback/reference to demon days. What were they trying to accomplish or say by doing that?
Samuel Ross
same here
Luis Johnson
Eh. To some extent I think it kind of does - mainly because Gorillaz has always been an incredibly humanitarian concept (Free Tibet stuff they did in Phase 1, the entirety of Demon Days, especially Kids With Guns and Dirty Harry, D-Sides with Stop The Dams and Hong Kong etc.) The only thing that makes Humanz an outlier is the one instance where the lyrics even had to include mentions to Trump in the first place. It's why Hallelujah Money is a better "fuck Trump" song because much like Dirty Harry it's way more ambiguous and tasteful in it's critique.
I guess if you're going bring up a Trump message, at least put some backbone into it. Kendrick did a pretty decent job with XXX. With Pusha's lyrics it meets an awkward halfway point. While I do fault Damon a little for not having it rewritten I don't think it detracts from the main song itself which is a pretty decent track about fear and latching onto god figures to compensate for your personal human weaknesses.
Easton Moore
The cover is probably one of the things I like about it. Album is called Humanz = make a cover that's depicting the band as if they were humans. That one ain't rocket science.
Wasn't the cover for Demon Days a clear parody of Let It Be anyways? Humanz seems like an even more explicit homage to it rather than lining them up.
Jaxon Murphy
Started listening to them since s/t, bought all four major albums (skipped The Fall).
I do think Plastic Beach is their best work, but I'm not a fan of Humanz much at all. I don't think it's terrible, but it's definitely disappointing.
Cameron Taylor
I started listening to gorillaz in 2013 and I love the first 2 albums, I rarely listen to Plastic Beach and I think Humanz is ok. In my opinion Plastic Beach is very similar in quality and style to Humanz.
Ethan Flores
I grew up with s/t and Demon Days. These were the first albums I really listened to alot. Especially Demon Days was really important to me.
I didn't like Plastic Beach on release, but it grew on me a bit more, even though it never took the place of DD. Flash forward to now, I'm not so negative about Humanz. It's far from perfect, I would even say it was only good, not great (which is a Gorillaz standard [in my eyes The Fall doesn't exist.]). It has a certain structure to me, which I missed in PB.
BUT, I can't believe the "normal" album stops at that shit song with the Savages singer. First it kinda sucks, second I love four out of five of the added songs and they definitely add to the structure of Humanz that has formed in my head, I can't understand why these songs aren't "essential" enough for Damon Albarn to be in the album. Without them the album would have been a real dissapointment (or a bigger one can't decide right now)
Elijah Davis
Started listening shortly after the S/T came out.
Self-titled is very good, but feels sort of simplistic at times.
Demon Days is the best album. None of the others are even close.
Plastic Beach isn't bad, but the album as a whole doesn't feel super cohesive.
The Fall is fucking hot garbage, babby's first synth level electronica. He made it on his first iPad and it fucking shows.
Humanz is about on the same level as Plastic Beach for the most part, but they have this weird fucking obsession with dissonance in the percussion and it makes a number of songs that could have been really good sound like utter shit.
Nolan Perez
Listened to Gorillaz since S/T. Thought Humanz was ok, but Plastic Beach is my favorite.
S/T I love but it doesn't blow me away. I dunno why, all the songs get me (with the exception of maybe Sound Check) but as a whole I don't really think about it much. Demon Days was pretty mindblowing when it first came out, but listening to it again a few years later I feel like the second half hits too many similar points in tone and style (excluding DARE) up until the last 2 songs. Which is why I love Plastic Beach the most (other than me just prefering the sounds) - it's the most thematically consistent one while still offering a fairly varied palette of styles and songs and genres mixed in (imo). There's like 3 tracks at most I'll skip. Humanz has a great first half and a pretty lacking second half - still ok, though.
disregard this entire post though I'm an idiot that doesn't even into music properly
Luke Myers
I'm more in favor of the theory that anyone who likes Humanz is a subhumanz.
Colton Butler
I was a huge Gorillaz fan from about 9 until high school, beginning in phase one. Gorillaz is still my favorite probably due to nostalgia. Plastic Beach I also think is really good. I fucking hate Humanz. It seems totally soulless and uncreative compared to their other stuff.
Adam Parker
I've been listening to this band since the 4th grade when their debut came out, I enjoy Humanz but their their first 2 albums are easily their best.
Joseph Adams
>think The Apprentice will actually be one of the good songs >it gets political 2/3s of the way in for no reason whatsoever That's not how you properly put a message into a song. And this is a big problem of the album. Political songs can be fine, but if its shoehorned in or too on the nose it's shitty.
Evan King
You took that song as political? Zebra Katz's verse just came across to me as a typically bragadocious west coast-flavored bars. It wasn't great but the horns made me think they were meant to be over the top more than anything.
Adrian Cook
It talks about the "new white king" replacing the black prince and about making tons of laws about anything.
Julian Rogers
I'm from the "first group" and I think Plastic Beach is their best. Buzz off, fag. Humanz is overall a bad album though.
Brody Bennett
liked S/T when it came out, but didn't really love it. the punk graffiti aesthetic is kinda off-putting for me.
bought DD on a whim as soon as it came out and was absolutely blown away. every song was amazing, and it had an incredible atmosphere.
PB was alright.
didn't listen to Humanz yet. if the rest of the album isn't miles above the two or three tracks i've heard, i'm in for a bad time.
Brandon Phillips
I like DD best
I also like Humanz
William Price
I started liking Gorillaz about 5 months ago, maybe a bit more.
I first listened to s/t and Plastic Beach, but then i checked their whole work.
Humanz is a huge piece of garbage with literally 4 good songs (Andromeda, The Apprentice, Charger and She's my collar)
My favorite album would be S/T, and I also quite like The Fall, even though most people seem to hate it
Dylan Green
Yeah, it's not a Gorillaz album without at least a couple wasted or misplaced collaborations
Noah Jackson
>D-Sides 2nd best to S/T I thought I was alone all these years..
Andrew Kelly
does anyone know why they stopped using Del after the first album? I'm not saying he would need to be on every album but a call back to him would of been cool. He worked really well as a part of not only Russell but just the whole Gorillaz sound
Jace Gray
Demon Days > S/T > Humanz > Plastic Beach.
Actually never listened to their other stuff.
Hunter Hill
Rumor has it that Del and Damon had a falling out, so he was written out of the Gorillaz lore (death finally caught up to Russell and Del willingly had himself exorcised).
If Damon and Del did have a falling out though they made up a couple of years ago since they performed Clint Eastwood live together for the first time with Dan the Automator.
Levi Thompson
Plastic Beach > Demon Days = Gorillaz > The Fall > Humanz
Xavier Adams
What soured on Plastic Beach for you?
Hunter Barnes
me too, user
Landon Hughes
>He worked really well as a part of not only Russell but just the whole Gorillaz sound >Rumor has it that Del and Damon had a falling out lol. Del never met damon until a few years ago on his everyday robots tour. Dan asked him to record verses for clint eastwood and Rock the House after a Deltron session and they ended up using them, replacing phi-life cypher's verses. Del wasn't used again because damon didn't know him and he wanted to switch up the sound between albums, so he brought in danger mouse
Jace Wood
If I'd have to put it in any way I felt the album is kind of too sanitized. It's still a good album but out of all the Gorillaz albums it's "cleanliness" kind of wears dry around the midway point. Notably after Glitter Freeze for me the album kind of deteriorates a little, with On Melancholy Hill being the only song to get me a little more excited about it. Broken and Plastic Beach in particular are kind of same-y comfort-zone Gorillaz tracks and Sweepstakes is too much of a slow burner. I also felt that, even though it's the least "rap/hip hop" album of the bunch, I think quality wise it's also the weakest, outside of Superfast Jellyfish, and as a band that ended up being my gateway into hip hop I find that part of the album a bit of a let down. At the time I was under the impression that Plastic Beach was going to be the last Gorillaz album and I realized after a while that the latter half of the album lacked a satisfying bite to it to make that "ending" worthwhile.
Still a really fucking good album though. On Melancholy Hill and Empire Ants are two of the best songs they've ever put out, if not the best. I don't think the band has put out a single bad album, even if Humanz is way different than what I expected, and I'm still interested in what they're going to do from here on out.
Robert Cook
i got into gorillaz post plastic beach and i like their self-titled much more
and humanz can just
like
cease to exist
Henry Evans
>feat.
Joshua White
RANKING 1. DoYaThing 2. Platic Beach 3. Demon Days 4. Gorillaz 5. The Fall 6. Humanz
G-SIDES, D-SIDES, AND Monkey are all shite
Grayson Miller
god i want to die
Ryan Ortiz
I started listening with Demon Days around the time it came out and I will listen to both it and s/t from time to time. I don't listen to Plastic Beach that much, even though it's only "alright" to my ears. Humanz is pretty good, but Let Me Out, We Got the Power, and Hallelujah Money are pretty bad. >tfw s/t is my goto album when I build/paint my Warhammer 40k minis
Tyler Sanders
but the first side of d-sides has 2 top 5 gorillaz songs
Parker Bell
Gorillaz has now just become an empty shell. The work put into creating the characters now, by Jamie Hewlett, are only so that Damon can send a vague political message. Pretending to be somehow doing a valiant effort and being politically correct while still trying to "not partake" in the band and making it seem as though he still cares about it being independent.
Let me give you all an idea about who Damon Albarn is. He believes in ghost. He is the absolute nutshell of Aesthetics. He thinks that artist means "being right about everything" and is another white knight politically-correct twit. He's a fraud, and I no longer respect him as an artist. If he continues to broadcast his political agenda, whether it be open and blatantly obvious or vague, I will stop listening to the ever-rotting corpse that is Gorillaz.
>The work put into creating the characters now, by Jamie Hewlett, are only so that Damon can send a vague political message Were you this upset with the tibet bitez or 911 Go back to r/thedonald, you underage fag
Evan Adams
Well shit, if the music is bad (which indeed I think it is) and the only thing coming out of it are uneducated, vague political statements being jammed down our throats, I don't see why I should appreciate the band.
Great job resorting to argumentum ad hominem. I'm not even a Trump-supporter. Completely missing my point. If you wanted to make yourself look like an idiot, well done!
Dylan Cruz
...
Josiah Robinson
Remind me what TV show it was that Donald Trump starred in?
Oliver Rogers
If you bothered to read my whole post then you would have realized that gorillaz have been political since the beginning. I'm sorry that you are so underage that I have to tell you this >I'm not even a trump supporter >another white knight politically-correct twit okay user
Justin Bennett
>Submission starts out really REALLY fucking good >spongebob squarepants starts rapping halfway in I SCREAMED with rage that's how this whole album has been, a song starts or ends good, there's maybe 2-3 songs that are good the whole way through
Jason Nelson
Because of Humanz, I decided to go back and listen to all of their earlier work so I had context for it. DD > s/t is my current ranking
Julian Gomez
>free tibet because China abhors tibet and treats tibetans like shit >post 9/11 world Both of which are good political messages >hamfisted bitching about trump >"I bet you got upset with these past political messages!" Shut up you fag
Elijah Roberts
>hamfisted bitching about trump >but 911 is isn't
Now whether its Saddam or Bin Laden that's been startin' all this trouble for us Creeping horrors, doing show after show, sleeping on the tour bus We lost Aaliyah, lost our families, it takes no genius You dont need us to say the world is fucked up, y'all can see it Now it seems the public needs this shit to calm its kids Cause they findin' out how you lied about your twisted sins They say we bad for you, but shit, our music is your friend They can't deter you from the truth cause we the helping hand >Shut up you fag Ok user
Kevin Taylor
this post is confusing because I thought redditors loved danny
Nathan Foster
Hewlett wouldn't even return to Gorillaz if he didn't get creative control over the "universe" of it. You think he didn't sign up for the shit Damon wanted to run with? He called it quits with Gorillaz after Plastic Beach because the entire album and it's promotion didn't accommodate for him.
Also why is it the Trump fanatics that always lack onto any political leaning criticizing their masters as "uneducated". You guys are worse and more defensive than the people trying to convince everyone that Humanz is secretly genius.
Sebastian Allen
nice dubs redditboogeymanposter
Kayden Nguyen
>get objectively fucked in the ass and look like a retard >try to fit random user into a stereotype that doesn't fit what they said >proceed to scream underage because retard DAMN.
Aaron Gutierrez
>I SCREAMED with rage little hyperbolic, no?
Andrew Scott
>get objectively fucked in the ass lol ok
Jordan Morgan
Is hyperbole a problem on a board that talks about how they're affected by music and calls eachother faggots or says someone was "fucked in the ass" by a random comment?
Chill.
Sebastian Richardson
I became a fan when the 19/2000 clip dropped, got s/t short after on limewire or napster or something, I remember I had my dad convert it to tape so I could listen to it on my walkman.
Demon Days was the first album I've ever bought, and overall, I prefer it, but only by a little. I actually like 2D's voice more on s/t, it was more nasal, it sounds more like a guy who is on painkillers 24/7, and from DD, it's just sounds like Damon to me.
I liked Plastic Beach, but I fel that it only had 3 types of songs, pop song, rap songs, and the occasional dabble in electronic I guess? Overall, I didn't like it as much as I did the original, but it still had some great songs.
>The Fall
I like Humanz, I'm still listening to it, I think I only took out Sex Murder Party and Circle of friends from my playlist, the rest of the songs are fine, each has something great going for it, but my favourite is either Andromeda, Saturnz barz, or Charger.
DD>s/t>Humanz>Plastic beach>>>>the fall
Dominic Cruz
I consider Plastic Beach to be Gorillaz' best album, and Humanz their worse by far.
Just stop, user. You're looking like a fucking troglodyte by the second.
Josiah Wood
Not sure why you'd reply with lol ok, now you seem even more mad. Oh indubitably Mr. Fedora, let us discuss the effects of hyperbole in modern society and tell people to Chill. to feel like a badass. Please proceed to brag about your college degree and or bench and squat numbers.
Jackson Foster
this guy fucks
Jeremiah Cook
72553884 >u mad oh wow, such a dumb post. Not even worth a (You)
Parker Phillips
I like plastic beach but i think humanz is shit
the difference between the two is that plastic beach sounds good as a whole and as individual tracks, humanz is pretty much ass the whole way through, save like 5 songs