Humanz is the fifth studio album by the British virtual band Gorillaz. The album was released on April 28, 2017 through Parlophone and Warner Bros.. Records. The album was announced on the band's official Instagram page on March 23, 2017. According to a press release, the album was recorded in London, Paris, New York City, Chicago, and Jamaica and was produced by Gorillaz, The Twilite Tone and Remi Kabaka Jr. This was the first studio album bands since 2011 The Fall , and featured collaborations from several artists including Noel Gallagher, Grace Jones, Uchis Kali, Vince Staples, Popcaan, DRAM, Anthony Hamilton, De La Soul, Danny Brown, Kelela, Mavis Staples , Pusha T, and Benjamin Clementine. Humanz debuted at number 2 in the US and UK and number 1 on the US top rock album chart. Humanz also debuted at number 1 on the album charts of Austria, Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland.
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After the release of their 2010 album, The Fall , rumors began circulating on the internet that the makers of Gorillaz Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett had fallen, and that this had caused band splits; People then report this to be true. Representatives for the band denied the rumors in a statement to Pitchfork . Gorillaz released a single with James Murphy and AndrÃÆ'Â © 3000 commissioned by Converse, entitled "DoYaThing" on February 23, 2012. In April 2012, in an interview with The Guardian, Albarn stated that Gorillaz is "impossible" to release new music, citing Hewlett's discontent that his animation became less important to the band and their performances. In June 2013, Hewlett said that he "believes [s] a future for Gorillaz, but Gorillaz is quite complicated and expensive to produce, so I think we need to wait a bit to see what happens because normally in the music industry everything changes.
Albarn released his solo album Everyday Robots on April 25, 2014. Hewlett revealed that he and Albarn decided to revive Gorillaz after Albarn played the show, "... we were at a party after that. drinking, and he said, 'Do you want to do something else?' And I said, 'Are you?' and he said, 'Are you?' And I said, 'Yes, of course.' I started working on it immediately, learning to draw a character again, playing my own for eight months when he performed with Blur in 2015. "In October 2014, Albarn was said" in the process of reactivating Gorillaz for release in 2016. " In Instagram post on January 30, 2015, Hewlett posted a new picture of fictional band member Murdoc and Noodle. He also responded to fans' requests by stating, "Yes Gorillaz Returns." Band Albarn Blur released their eighth studio album The Magic Whip on April 27, 2015. Before Blur's tour in support of The Magic Whip, Albarn said, "I started recording in September for a new Gorillaz record. "On January 19, 2017, Gorillaz released the first track of the album," Hallelujah Money "featuring Benjamin Clementine, accompanied by a music video as a non-commercial single on the Uproxx YouTube channel.
Maps Humanz
Music styles and themes
Albarn said that with Humanz he set out to create something that was not political, but an "emotional response to politics". The album's overall theme is the emotional outcome of events that change the unexpected world. Albarn deletes all references to Donald Trump on the album, saying "There is no reference to [Trump] on the record - in fact, whenever anyone makes a reference, I edit it." I do not want to give the most famous Human in the world getting famous, especially. He does not need it! "There is, however, a bonus song called" The Apprentice ", which refers to his former reality show. At one point, the album was called Transformerz , though it was later abandoned, for fear of confusion with the movie series of the same name.
Albarn was honored at the Ivor Novello Awards where he won a lifetime achievement award for his work with Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, the Bad & Queen, as well as a myriad of soundtracks and other work. During his acceptance speech, he spoke of his love for the band Simple Minds and how they can form a new Gorillaz record: "From someone who grew up in Leytonstone, it was a culture shock to say the least.Anyway, we're in this band and we have a guitarist who is an Edge of U2 is obsessive, but we have a looser bass player that is really Simple Minds Graham and I are a bit more confident about what we like and what we do I like, but they are more firmly Looking back now I like to pretend I promise you a miracle "- I listened to it when I started doing this new Gorillaz record and it just made me dizzy, and it blew everyone who worked with my mind They have not even heard of Simple Minds, and they love it - so that is proof that it was incredible. "
Recording
Before the studio recording, Albarn used an iPad app like GarageBand to create a framework for each song. Albarn previously used his iPad as an audio workstation for The Fall , touting his convenience over the 4-Track recorder he previously used for preliminary music production.
To guide collaborators into the "dark fantasy" setting that Albarn wants for Humanz, Albarn instructs guest artists to imagine a future in which Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election. While recording for Humanz begins long before Trump gets the Republican presidential nomination, let alone the presidency, the possibility of Trump's presidency is still considered remote by many; collaborator Pusha T (who noted his contribution in early 2016) then commented on Albarn's accidental foresight, saying: "I write from today's perspective, I write from the perspective of Trump's victory.When this really happened, I was like" Wait a minute, what what kind of crystal ball does this guy have? Why do you even ask me to think along these lines? "I do not think he thinks that [Trump] will win, I will not go that far, but he must be conceptualizing all this."
In April 2016, Hewlett uploaded two video clips to its Instagram account that showed follow-up work on the album. The first clip featured Liam Bailey and The Twilite Tone. The second clip is a time-lapse video featuring Albarn, Remi Kabaka Jr, Twilite Tone, and Jean-Michel Jarre. On May 17, 2016, Gorillaz was in the studio with Chicago-based hip-hop artist Vic Mensa, although Bailey and Mensa's contributions were not on the finished album.
In an interview with Albarn magazine, Albarn revealed that he reached out to collaborate with a number of different artists, many of whom rejected him, including British musician Morrissey, Dionne Warwick - who did not want to collaborate as some of the lyrics on the record contrary to his religious views, singer Sade, and American rapper Rick Ross. Albarn also revealed in an interview with Song Exploder that the song "Andromeda", featured a more prominent role for rapper DRAM and at one point, featured contributions from Rag'n'Bone Man (which was eventually discarded) and with French singer-songwriter Christine and the Queens, which also did not work. The group was also reportedly recorded with Erykah Badu, whom Albarn once worked on with Rocket Juice & amp; Month project.
The song "Charger" with Grace Jones is the result of Jones's song over the instrumental song for four hours, ad-libbing and vibing for it. Overwhelmed by the length of the vocals being recorded, Albarn has his studio floor covered with pieces of paper with everything Jones has recorded, found successful fragments and finally made songs from there. This photo was also uploaded to Instagram Kabaka, with other executive producers of The Twilite Tone album, trying to put the lyrics in order for the song. Albarn also revealed that the original vocals of the unnamed collaborator have been removed from the song, so as to accommodate Jones' vocals. The final compilation recording of Stephen Sedgwick's album recording "Charger" contains 90 separate tracks.
"We Got the Power" featured guest vocals from Jehnny Beth, lead singer of the British rock band, Savages, as well as backing vocals from American rapper D.R.A.M and British singer Noel Gallagher. Albarn welcomed Beth because the album was intended as "a series of conversations between men and women". She praised her performance, saying: "She sounds like herself, but there's a strong echo of Siouxsie Sioux, she's brilliant." The song became a special milestone for Albarn and Gallagher, after their public dislike of each other during what was dubbed by the media as the "Battle of Britpop" in the 1990s. At one point, the song featured backing vocals from his bandmate Albarn Blur, Graham Coxon, but his vocals were removed from the final version of the song. "At one point this song has Graham, Noel and I on it and it's a little directed in the wrong direction.It became almost retro in some sort of passion and too rocky for this recording so I was somewhat stripped right back down. We played it with a bit different from how it was recorded.This is the kind of song that appears in the final title of the movie.His climax.I think Jehnny will take a little testosterone ", Albarn said in an interview with Radio X. She also talked about working with Gallagher for the first time, which Albarn strongly free: "She's fantastic in the studio, it's fun when you see how someone runs their business. The song itself began after Albarn was given the Casio MT-40 for her birthday and she started composing a barebone demo, which was later refined to "We Got the Power". The idea to include Jehnny Beth came after XL Recordings founder Richard Russell said that Gallagher and Albarn "are two wealthy middle-aged men who sing about having the power, which does not look good." Beth wrote her own lyrics to include on the songs and lyrics that Albarn and Gallagher also wrote.
"Andromeda", the album's fourth single, is dedicated to Ethel, the mother of Albrish's longtime partner, Suzi Winstanley, who died when Albarn wrote the song. Ethel's death reminded Albarn of Bobby Womack, who appeared in group singles "Stylo" and "Cloud of Unknowing" from their album Plastic Beach and appeared on the song "Bobby in Phoenix" from The Fall . Albarn and Russell have also produced Womack's comeback album The Bravest Man in the Universe before Womack's death in June 2014. Sentimentalitas Albarn feels the loss of family and friends was instrumental in the creation of "Andromeda", with Albarn commenting message song: "Take the worst possible outcome, dare, and remember all the good that precedes it... all the beauty that precedes it." Albarn also stated that after a conversation with producer The Twilite Tone, he attempted to awaken the 1983 singles single Michael Jackson "Billie Jean" from his iconic album Thriller and Hall and Oates 'single "I Can' t Go for That (No Can Do) ", from their album Personal Eyes . Twilite Tone produced the song, while Albarn took care of the lyrics, The song features D.R.A.M., which originally had a more prominent feature on the song, with full chorus and poetry, however, Albarn stripped the vocals back when the song was fuller. At one point, the name of the song was "I Can not Go for Billie Jean", as a reference to Michael Jackson's songs and Hall and Oates songs.
De La Soul had previously appeared on previous albums Gorillaz Demon Days and Plastic Beach on the songs "Feel Good Inc" and "Superfast Jellyfish" respectively, and appeared on the fifth album track "Momentz". Albarn revealed that the song was originally supposed to feature American comedian and actor Dave Chappelle, however, he became convinced after chatting with De La Soul members, Posdnuos. "I did not hear De La Soul for that, Posdnous came in. He said, 'I want to do something.' We're trying to get Dave Chappelle to do that, but he knows Post, and somehow, that's what happened. "
Albarn revealed that there will be an alternative version of the songs to be released, one including an additional version of "Andromeda" with rapper D.R.A.M. and the Middle Eastern version of "Busted and Blue", which was found to feature Syrian musician Faia Younan, who previously collaborated with Albarn on the Africa Express Orchestra of Syrian Musicians and Guests project, in which he performed in the song " Yah Mahla El Fus'ha ". While an alternative version of the song also exists, there are also songs that do not create albums, which are listed online by the group, which reveal that the band has collaborated further with Sidiki DiabatÃÆ'Â ©, Little Simz and Azekel (who have backing vocals on the song "Momentz"). These songs were finally released as a bonus song of the "Super Deluxe" edition of Humanz released on 3 November 2017.
In an interview with Sound on Sound, recording engineer Stephen Sedgwick and executive producer of The Twilite Tone revealed more of the story behind the recorded songs. Like the song "Strobelite", which comes from an early drum pattern created by Albarn on the SEIKO watch machine. When the drum pattern is being recorded, the production team is talking, which is finally recorded and stored on the last track. The Anthony Hamilton-featuring "Carnival" comes from the experience of Albarn visiting carnivals in Trinidad and Tobago, which inspires Hamilton both in the lyrics and vocal appearances, while the song and the title "Feast of Sexual Feelings" comes from the headlines of Twilite Tone and Albarn reading newspapers, which encouraging the creation of the song.
Release and promotion
On March 6, 2017, Gorillaz announced that they were leading their own festival called "Demon Dayz" in Margate, England. It takes place on June 10 at the Dreamland theme park, with free access to the rides, and is also broadcast live, via Red Bull TV. Tickets were sold on the morning of March 10th, 9am, and they were sold out a few hours later. The festival was revealed to feature a number of collaborators from albums and other musicians influencing the band, such as Vince Staples, De La Soul, Fufanu, Danny Brown, Little Simz, Uchis Kali, Popcaan, and Kilo Kish.
On March 23, 2017, four new songs were played on various radio stations: "Saturnz Barz" and "Andromeda" on BBC Radio 1, "We Got the Power" on Radio X, and "Ascension" on Beats 1. On the same day , the four tracks were released for download, and the 360 ​​Virtual Reality music video for "Saturnz Barz" was released in partnership with YouTube, becoming the first music video featuring Gorillaz characters since 2012 "DoYaThing".
On the same day, Gorillaz redesigned their website and announced a live secret concert at Printworks Nightclub, London, on the night of March 24, 2017, featuring the first full performance of the album, and streamed live on their Facebook page at the event.
The fifth single from Humanz , "Let Me Out" featuring Mavis Staples and Pusha T, was released on April 6, 2017.
A Gorillaz-themed augmented reality app created in collaboration with Electronic Beats was released on April 10, 2017, where users can interact with Murdoc, 2D, Noodle, and Russell, and can visit the band's new studio and listen to playlists created by members. The next day, Gorillaz announces that this app will also be used to host the "Humanz House Party", a listening event that is touted as "the greatest geo-specific listening experience ever." It runs from 21 April to 23, a week before the release of the album, and allows fans to be the first to hear the full new album. At the same time, Jamie Hewlett revealed in an interview with the magazine that a Gorillaz 10 episode TV show was being worked on.
On April 17, 2017, Humanz Tour was officially announced on the band's official website, with concerts in Europe, Asia, North and South America. A copy of the album was included with the ticket purchase.
On 31 October 2017, "Garage Palace" featuring Little Simz was released as a single from the "Super Deluxe" Humanz Edition, which includes 14 additional tracks and was released on November 3, 2017.
Reception
Humanz generally received positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which gives a normalized rating of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 77, based on 32 reviews.
The reviewers' general point of praise concerns the political themes of the album, as well as the dark, yet humorous "party" sound. Josh Gray from Clash felt that the band had "created their youngest album, a vivid recording that depicts a clear picture of the future that makes it look real." Kenneth Partridge from Paste rated it 8.5 and wrote "The result: Gorillaz's most vibrant and consistently interesting album". Writing for Holler! Cam Lindsay notes that although the album does not have an "Apple-friendly jingle", he "made it with fun themes and political themes that gave a very entertaining feeling from a circus show." Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic considers this album more wild and irregular than the band's 2010 album, Plastic Beach , due to a greater focus on individual songs than the overall concept. He also noted that although the album is very heavy R & amp; B vibe and undercurrent politics, he felt the album as a whole was "oddly exhilarating, as if every musician who entered the studio found solace in the act of creation."
Niall Doherty from the magazine Q showed the diminished influence of Albarn's vocals on the album compared to the two albums she had followed, Everyday Robots and The Magic Whip >, concluding the review with "What's Humanz is lacking in a memorable connection, it makes for in a fist - and 'We Got The Power' sums up the best.An immune song featuring Thrilling Turns of Savage singer , Jehnny Beth, made sure the album about wading through dark days ended with a winning record. "Some reviewers overall feel that many of the bands themselves and" cartoon pictures "fall to the wayside in the wake of many collaborators. Consequence of Sound author Nina Corcoran gave Humanz a B value, stating "In the end, Humanz structure itself as we watch Gorillaz host a party at the club which is trendy, all the time the world is burning, positioning its four digital members out of line of vision, though, it feels like a sneak in the band's catalog - which is not always a bad thing. "
The album structure has had some interesting comparative criticisms for Drake's More Life . In terms of album structure, criticism has been more diverse. In a generally positive review, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian acknowledged the album as "a collection of diverse collections, not a coherent album." Collector Record considers it a flaw but also its power, stating that "the album throws it all at you in one delirious big attack that has no real anchors." Will Hermes of Rolling Stone wrote "If it is an uneven LP, that's pretty brilliant with standard mixtape, which is probably the best way to measure it."
Accolades
Track list
All songs produced by Gorillaz, Twilite Tone D/\ P and Remi Kabaka Jr. "The Apprentice" features additional productions from Fraser T. Smith. Credits are adapted from album liner notes.
Sample credit
- "Intro: I Switched My Robot Off" contains examples of Space Shuttle Discovery during the launch sequence.
- "Saturnz Barz" contains an example of an instructional voice from Interactive Planetarium by Scientific Toys Limited.
- "Interlude: The Non-Conformist Oath" contains an example of "A Wild and Crazy Guy" as written and performed by Steve Martin, from his album A Wild and Crazy Guy .
- "Submission" contains examples of "Your Love" as written by Jose Gomez, Francis Nicholls, Jamie Principle and Mark Trollan and performed by Jamie Principle featuring Adrienne Jett.
- "Carnival (Special 2D)" contains examples of "Breathless" written by Dexter Stewart, Kerwin DuBois and Roy Cape and performed by Blaxx and Roy Cape.
Personnel
Note
- ^ [a] "The Humanz" consists of Apostles A-Salaam, Starr Busby, Melanie JB Charles, Drea D'Nur, Giovanni James, Marcus Anthony Johnson, Janelle Kroll, Brandon Markell Holmes, and Imani VonshÃÆ'
Singles
- On March 23, 2017, four singles were released to the Gorillaz Youtube channel and to the streaming service.
- The first single, "Saturnz Barz" ballooned under Hot 100 in 101 and peaked at 5 on the US Hot Rock Song chart. In the UK, the single peaked at 87.
- "We Got The Power", the second single, reached 13th on the Hot Rock Songs charts and 38 on the Alternative Song chart.
- "Ascension", the third single, peaked at 11 on the Hot Rock Songs charts. In the UK, the single peaked at 91.
- "Andromeda", the fourth single, reached 9 on the Hot Rock Song chart.
- "Let Me Out", the fifth single, was released on April 6, 2017. It ballooned under Hot 100 at 115 and peaked at 7 on the Hot Rock Songs charts.
- "The Apprentice", the sixth single, was released on April 24, 2017. The climax reached 18 on the Hot Rock Songs charts.
- "Strobelite", the seventh single, was released on August 7, 2017. Its peak reached 22 on the Hot Rock Songs charts.
- "Garage Palace" and "Andromeda (D.R.A.M Special)", from the "Super Deluxe" edition were released as singles.
Diagram
Certification
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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