GORILLAZ - Song Machine, Season One LP (colour vinyl)

Limited edition orange colour vinyl.

A collection of singles released each month since its inception. That being said, each song stands strong on its own.

Gorillaz throws practically every idea at the wall here and they all stick, moving from incredibly funky sounding beats from PAC-MAN and The Valley of The Pagans (whose outro is probably one of the best moments in the Gorillaz catalog), hazy, laid back songs like Friday 13th and Dead Butterflies, to dreamy, atmospheric tracks with The Lost Chord and The Pink Phantom, both of which remind of tracks from Humanz and The Now Now (Sorcererz and Ticker Tape/Fire Flies respectively) but with new life breathed into them, making the concepts and atmosphere of those songs feel fresher than ever.

There’s the ever beautiful Désolé with amazing strings and horns backing 2D and Fatoumata Diawara throughout the track, accompanied by one of the greatest basslines Gorillaz has come up with. In fact, this album is full of some of their best basslines, especially on Aries with Peter Hook, making the song sound like what New Order should sound like these days. Strange Timez sets the mood for the album perfectly and Momentary Bliss is a monster of a banger to send us off.