Gorillaz: Rise of the Ogre reviewed

Oh Gorillaz,  how I love you or at least I thought I did.  I do love the first album, but Demon Days fizzled out and Plastic Beach really only had one great song despite it being a solid album otherwise.  But between Demon Days and Plastic Beach, there was an "autobiography" of them called Rise of the Ogre.  But it just can't be how Damon Alburn and Jamie Hewlitt created the band out of boredom but they have to have their own massive backstory and character traits.  Gorillaz has to be more than just a cartoon band, they have to be a real band that just happens to be cartoons.  And that's why the book isn't very interesting.

It acts like a true band autobiography.  It tells the story of how Murdoc's, 2D's, Noodle and Russell's life and how they came together to become the Gorillaz.  There's also some narrator/interviewer guiding the reader along the journey.  But the thing is, it's all about the fabricated backstory of the Gorillaz which is fine.  I just wanted the real backstory between Alburn and Hewitt.  Oh well, I guess it is my fault for not liking what I got.

The main problem is how much Murdoc talks and talks and talks.  Almost everytime Murdoc "opens" his mouth so to speak is pretty much when my eyes start to glaze over.  There are a few times when Murdoc has some pretty cool stories like his youth, meeting 2D or double-crossing a record exec wanting to kill the band with this amazing line: "Didn't surprise me that he didn't find the guns, I didn't put them there."  But other than that it's pretty much "Blah blah blah I'm so great blah blah blah Everthing I touch turns to awesome blah blah blah My bass shagging skills is second to none."  He talks so much that the other band members don't have much to say which is a shame since 2D's hilarious, Noodle's thoughtful and Russell is entertainingly annoyed.

And I also have a problem with the involvement of Noodle in this.  This takes place after Demon Days is over and done with, touring-wise.  That means this is after the El Manana video in which Noodle's floating island from Feel Good Inc gets shot down and she becomes missing which neccistated Murdoc building a cyborg Noodle for Plastic Beach.  She's in the book, answering questions like nothing ever happened.  The last thing she says is about planning El Manana and then we get to the video shoot itself and she's gone.  It's like she spontaneously becomes an unperson right then and there.  That just irks me.

This book is for the hardcore Gorillaz fans.  I don't find the backstory and how everything connects to each other all that interesting.  Murdoc just bores me.  It's not that well-written with so much self-congratulatory backslaps that it becomes sickenly.  I know it's satire and it's probably a satire on those type of books of real bands but I didn't find it that clever or funny.  The photographs are nice and I do want to listen to the music again but still, not a good book.

5/10