By Samuel Rocha | Assignments Editor |
Gorillaz is an animated genre-breaking band founded about 22 years ago, blending music genres including alternative rock, hip-hop, and electronic music. Although originating in London, England, they have made musical waves across the globe, accumulating over 20 million records sold worldwide from 2001-2010. Gorillaz consists of lead singer Damon Albarn, Drummer Remi Kabaka Jr., and Animator Jamie Hewlett. Although it’s a rather small group, they have collaborated with many large and respected artists such as Danger Mouse, MF DOOM, and Snoop Dogg to name a few. Gorillaz’s most recent full album, “The Now Now,” was released on June 29, 2018.
Now, after a rather quiet year and a half, Gorillaz has come out of the shadows and hit us with a surprise single to preview the release of a new upcoming album, which has yet to be named. The release of their new single “Sound Machine Theme Tune” came on Jan. 28 and surprised me as it was a short 23 second session of just noise. It’s everything Gorillaz has been doing for the past 20 years, catchy synths, high keyboard notes, and catchy drum patterns but it sounds like it should be on a children’s album. There’s no singing, rapping, nor guitar for the entire 23 seconds and it just isn’t for me. This single can be listened to once then could be thrown away and forgotten and nobody would care.
With that upsetting release, Gorillaz decided to satisfy their fans with the release of another single titled, “Momentary Bliss,” that features upcoming rap artist slowthai and punk rock band, “Slaves.” The song is about four minutes long and contains slowthai and Slaves on the chorus. The chorus is exactly what you’d expect from a punk band, loud guitar strums and an aggressive voice over the instruments. With that exciting chorus, Gorillaz adds their synth keys and drums to put the cherry on top of the final product.
Momentary Bliss isn’t a deep meaning song, rather a moshpit song to jump around and have fun with. I enjoy the song in every way, the instrumentals, the verses, and it’s not too long in duration. If you enjoy Gorillaz or punk music, I believe you would have no problem taking a listen to the song at least once.
Momentary Bliss by Gorillaz is on all streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify.