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

Plastic Beach reviewed

At first, Gorillaz was basically nothing more than an alternative band with the appeal of it being a cartoon band with Damon Alburn, the lead singer of Blur.  And don't get me wrong, the self-titled album is amazing but the short-life of such a band seems to pretty short.  However, that was not to be as they eventually released Demon Days which attempted to experiment and expand their sound with mixed success.  Then there was word of a Gorillaz movie with the soundtrack being the third album a couple years ago.  Here we are now, with no movie but a third album Plastic Beach.  But with a cast of characters and a cinematic sound that seems to be a soundtrack, one can only wonder what the movie would have been like.

Of course, the whole "story" behind the album is all explained on the website where Murdoc wanted to make another Gorillaz album.  That's going to be hard since Noodle has gone missing since the events of the "El Manana" video and 2D & Russell left the band.  So Murdoc just kidnaps and then drugs 2D, builds a cyborg Noodle and replace Russell with a drum machine.  Presumably, to cover up 2D's drug trips, Murdoc just got every musician he could to collaborate with.

Alright, that's enough theorizing and delving into a fake history, how's the music?  The music is pretty good throughout the whole album which is a marked improvement over the inconsistent Demon Days.  Damon Alburn skills have grown to make musical soundscapes that can subtly alter moods and can take the listener on a journey.  There isn't much rocking on this album since this album does use a lot of synths and orchestra's including an Arabic orchestra.  The collaborators that vary from Lou Reed to Snoop Dogg also step up their games and act more like characters in some movie instead of just mere singers and in fact there's more cameos and guests than the actual "band" so to speak.

Now with an album this consistent, the problem is that no songs actually rise above the pack and become memorable.  The only exception to this is the masterful "Stylo" which is already like a mini-movie with Mos Def and Bobby Womack.  But with songs this good, it's not a huge problem.  It's a great album but it would still make a very awesome soundtrack if a Gorillaz movie was ever to come to fruition.

8/10