Gorillaz is back with their 8th studio album “Cracker Island” their first album in three years “Song Machine, Season one: Strange Timez”. The animated band led by Damon Albarn has consistently made quality music for the last 20+ years. Some of the songs on this album were supposed to be a sequel to the last album but that idea was scrapped for a traditional album and this album has the usual amount of collaborations. Stevie Nicks, Thundercat, Bad Bunny, Bootie Brown and Beck are some of the artists they collaborate with and this album is a follow-up for their EP “Meanwhile” that came out two years ago.
The issue with this album nothing stands out or takes any risk in being a band that blends genres together so seamlessly. They usually make hits out of songs that feature other artists but none of the featured artists they work with make the songs stand out which is very disappointing for the track with Stevie Nicks called “Oil”, it doesn’t even sound like her. It sounds like they auto tuned her voice so much you can’t recognize it.
Most of the songs sound the same with Albarn singing over hip-hop/club sounding sounds as it says he has synthesizers all over this album which is way too much. The tracks “The Tired Influencer, “Oil” and the title song “Cracker Island” even if it’s catchy are big examples of that. While “Tormenta” is all Spanish which isn’t bad just doesn’t do much for anyone, no offense Bad Bunny. “New Gold” is catchy but the rapping doesn’t fit well with it.
“Silent Running” has a more upbeat pace to it as it rocks out a bit but still has the club/hip-hop feel to it but is one of the better songs on the album. The remaining tracks seem to be the better songs as they have no featured artists on them. “Baby queen” has great sounding vocals. “Tarantula” also has a nice sound to it and “Skinny ape” is an interesting song but a solid track. The final track “Possession Island” has a nice quiet/slow pace to it and is sounds very emotional too, plus it has great piano solos along with Beck harmonizing.
I will give Albarn credit as he is a very talented singer/songwriter and musician who literally does everything to make an album. That doesn’t mean you have to make an album every few years or even every five years if it is going to be average, as the album isn’t great or bad just ok and listenable. Just many critics like myself think there is something missing and that it sounds like his solo work which I never listened to but can imagine. Nothing reminds of me “Feel good inc”, “Clint Eastwood” or “19-2000” or anything off “Plastic Beach”. I think their fans would rather be on Possession Island the last track than on Cracker Island their title track.