The Now Now
by Gorillaz

It never used to be like this. Gorillaz used to provide quality pop music that was both ambitious and cohesive. "Demon Days" & "Plastic Beach" may have had quite different tracks on each record, but both works were undeniably striking as a whole.

Unfortunately when the overloaded Humanz dropped last year, it was tonally all over the place despite being quite ambitious, resulting in an album that felt like an unfocused mess; one diluted by far too many guests. "The Now Now" is its polar opposite: the record feels like a cohesive whole and flows really well, but it lacks that ambition... that bite that pushed Gorillaz' early work from a good collection of songs into something truly memorable and great.

What we have here is 11 good electropop tracks with synth funk overtones, but none of these tracks stand with the best tracks from Gorillaz, hell, even "Humanz" had higher peaks ("Andromeda", for instance). So yeah, a much tighter collection than its predecessor, but one that doesn't feel fresh or vital (despite being quite enjoyable overall). (Edited)

From IgnacioJoaquin 07/02/2018 22:36 | #217661 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Not exactly generic, but very uninspired and missing the colors and bounce Gorillaz used to bring to the music they made.
Consistently mediocre, unambitious and insipid. As expected. (Edited)

The Now Now short of meanders through its run time with meh instrumentals and uninteresting lyrics, never negative but never leaving a serious mark. (Edited)

This is the most okay album I've listened to (Edited)

An absolutely incredible album .I personally loved Humanz, but I did not want another album like it. I didn't want "The Now Now" to sound like re-hashed "old" Gorillaz either. I wanted a new direction. I definitely think I got it. I've pretty much loved every Gorillaz album, and this one is in my top 3 along with Demon Days and D-Sides. The songwriting is extremely mature, and it ties in in-character performances with very personal lyrical themes from Damon. The production is also very crisp and clean, allowing all of the beautiful and layered instrumentals to clearly standout and sound exciting. The vocal performances and hooks are also huge pros on this album. Damon's vocals sound more compelling and ranged than ever, and the hooks are extremely catchy yet creative. The album is consistently filled with absolute bangers, or beautiful, BEAUTIFUL synth ballads mixed with organic instrumentals. There are also many amazing buildups and peaks. The bridge oon Fire Flies, the buildup of Souk Eye, the synth solos on Magic City, etc. I don't care what people say, Gorillaz fucking did it again.