The Now Now
In February 2018, Gorillaz won the BRIT Award for Best British Group, bestowed on the back of 2017’s *Humanz*. As Damon Albarn made a drunken, Brexit-bashing acceptance speech, he’d already consigned that album to history. By then, the restlessly inventive songwriter had almost finished this follow-up, intent on having new material for festival season. Binding hip-hop, synth-pop, folk, techno, and funk together with lovely melodies, these songs are immediate enough to reach far corners of main-stage fields. But, conceived by Albarn in lonely hotel rooms while Gorillaz toured the U.S., they contemplate the state of the world with absorbing melancholy. The result is adventurous yet intimate—proof that beyond the cartoons and collaborators (George Benson, Snoop Dogg, and Jamie Principle here), one man’s mournful heart and insatiable creative spirit drives Gorillaz.
The allure of isolation defines Damon Albarn’s latest project. With only a few guests on the album, he writes simple, mostly upbeat songs with words of exhaustion.
Florence + The Machine open up old wounds (and stick to old sounds) on High As Hope, while both Gorillaz’s The Now Now and what should be Teyana Taylor’s breakout moment, K.T.S.E., feel unfocused and undercooked. These, plus Panic At The Disco, Jim James, and Dirty Beaches’ Alex Zhang Hungtai in this week’s notable…
Gorillaz' new album 'The Now Now' is a trim and spritely listen to their last album, 2017’s bloated ‘Humanz’
By ditching the hackneyed attempts to stay relevant, the cartoon band show they can still feel relevant on The Now Now
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Damon Albarn trims down the guest list and focuses his songwriting on the band's most coherent LP to date
A more spaced-out affair, stripped of its star-studded collaborations and bathed in the apparent apathy of the modern age.
It's not an unusual move for Gorillaz, releasing a brief, breezy record swiftly on the heels of a magnum opus.
Gorillaz's latest album The Now Now – featuring George Benson and Snoop Dogg – is a reminder that realities, real or otherwise, are shared.
Just over a year since their apocalyptic fifth record, Humanz, Gorillaz are already back; mastermind Damon Albarn wrote The Now Now on the r...
The Now Now, by Gorillaz, was inspired because Damon Albarn wanted to bash out a few quick songs while on tour last year, so he had something new to play at festivals this summer.
Gorillaz's new album The Now Now is to last year's Humanz as the group's 2010 album The Fall is to its close proximity predecessor, Plastic Beach.
It’s quite easy to lose sight of the fact that ‘The Now Now’ was rushed out, recorded in February in time for festival season, as it
Gorillaz's sixth album 'The Now Now' goes against previous efforts - a Damon Albarn solo album in all but name, it's a likeable, lo-fi left turn.
Damon Albarn's Gorillaz is the world's biggest bedroom-pop project, the hermetic musings of a man with enough clout to call up Grace Jones like he's...
Gorillaz shift gears once again in our review of 'The Now Now' while Damon Albarn makes a much more introspective and focused record.
The Now Now is Gorillaz' sixth album, which is a pretty prolific output for an imaginary group.
On their sixth album, they cut back on the frivolities and attune to grim reality
Damon Albarn moves front and centre in a surprisingly upbeat record. Review by Owen Richards