Song Machine Season One
by Gorillaz

This is the Gorillaz album I’d been waiting fifteen years for. Demon Days felt like the ultimate pleaser and the best, most distilled record Gorillaz could have released. I loved Plastic Beach and has some real moments of genius, but just seems a little high concept and disjointed in places.

Humanz and The Now Now had decent moments but were not great albums.

With Song Machine, Damon has truly perfect the craft of what Gorillaz should be in 2020. Playful, daring and the bi-monthly “single” format allows them to fully immerse on a single track - carefully curated guest stars, artwork and a video to tie it together.

The only real criticism I have is the artwork and title... if it read less like a compilation and had a great Jamie Hewlett cover then I strongly feel it would’ve charted higher in end of year lists. (Edited)

From Puzzlr 10/23/2020 17:38 | #259656 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Incredible return to the quality songwriting of Plastic Beach and Demon Days. 9/10

Best Tracks; Strange Timez, Pac-Man, The Pink Phantom, Aries, Désolé, Momentary Bliss.

Worst Tracks: Friday 13th, I don't like Octavian's delivery on this song at all. (Edited)

Best Gorillaz album since Plastic Beach

Best songs: Strange Timez, Aries, Momentary Bliss (Edited)

Song Machine in a lot of ways feels like Gorillaz self titled. It is a collection of wonderful tracks without a narrative cohesion. The features are managed very well, with each guest adding an effective flavor to their track. In particular, I have to compliment Leee John's breathtaking voice on "The Lost Chord". I do not think all the tracks work with "Friday 13th", "Dead Butterflies", and "Chalk Tablet Towers" feeling subpar. (Edited)

There is a lot of reasons to love this record such as the diverse feature list and also crisp sound that is due to the production. However, on the whole I think it is a bit confused and feels a bit lost. There are a lot of songs that just don't hit and feel like they lack substance. Also, I don't think the feature performances are really very good at all, bare a couple which are amazing, and they let down the album on the whole. Furthermore, it just isn't as cohesive as their other records, such as Plastic Beach, which is disappointing to say as I love Gorillaz. Despite this, there are great moments and still a lot to enjoy about the record. This includes the variety on the album with every song being unique and so it is very tough to be bored. Overall, I was let down by this record but it does have it's redeeming moments. (Edited)