I missed a lot of pop culture in my teenage years. And I have nobody but myself to blame for it.
Between the years of 2004-2009, I was living in a fog. The world was trundling on around me, churning out music and movies and tv shows, but I didn't pay any amount of attention. I was a shitty teenager actively refusing to get a grip on his own autism, stuck in a Catholic secondary school that prioritised spending money on shitty bike sheds instead of fixing up the gym. So I retreated into my head to avoid engaging with reality as much as possible. My days outside of the weekend were spent thinking about how much I hated the school, how much the lessons sucked, how much I wanted to punch anyone I met and which video game characters I wanted to bang the most.
I'm being as blunt as possible so that you get an idea of where I was when the 2000s came and went, and how much I missed as a result. Mostly in the music department. I was vaguely aware of trending bands like Green Day, Black Eyed Peas, Pussycat Dolls etc., but at the time I was listening to godawful meme songs like Bananaphone. My tastes in music hadn't solidified yet, being mostly limited to whatever sounded good to me in the moment... including Bananaphone.
It's taken a long time and a lot of forcing myself into new experiences for me to start clearing that fog out of my head and actually form solid opinions on things, including music. So now that I'm the ripe old age of 33, with a much firmer grasp on things, I figure now, more than ever, is a good time to go back and listen to as much of the music that came out in the 2000s-2010s that I actively ignored. And I'm gonna talk about it on here, so all of you can follow me on this journey.
There is one tiny flaw in this plan. I don't want to just limit myself to the music I heard, because that would still be somewhat insulating. I didn't even listen to that much to begin with, and there isn't much value in talking about the stuff you know you already like. I want to experience as much of it as I can. And I fear I'm going to struggle at some points, especially with genres I don't normally like or in eras that were considered a generally bad time for popular music. But damn it, I owe it to myself to make up for the mistakes of my shitty teenage self, so I have to commit to this.
Having said that, I'm now going to come across as a massive hypocrite by talking about a band I listen to almost constantly.
On the off chance you don't know - Gorillaz are the pet project of Blur frontman Damon Albarn and comic artist Jamie Hewlett. The four cartoon band members - surly satanist Murdoc, eyeless himbo 2D, Brooklyn spiritualist Russel and Japanese supersoldier Noodle - are a deliberate mockery of the manufactured stars and starlets of the mainstream pop industry, and their antics are deliberately nonsensical chaff. Because the point is the huge pool of global talent that Albarn pulls in to create sounds that you simply can't do with your B*Witched's or your Backstreet Boys. Names like Bobby Womack, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Peter Hook and Elton John grace their tracklists. And their sound is never consistent, either, roaming between the rooms of trip hop, electronica and world music like a drunken frat boy trying to remember where he left his kebab.
Of course, anyone with a passing knowledge of music, especially British acts, will know who Gorillaz are. You don't need me to introduce you to them. And you definitely don't need me to explain Demon Days, their second album, or why it was such a massive hit. The moment you hear Feel Good, Inc. blasting over a speaker, you know it's Gorillaz - it's one of those all-time classics, on an album that's dripping with so many good tunes you could moisturise yourself with them.
Where was I during this? As I said, in secondary school, being a shithead living in his own shitty head, wallpapering the living room with shit and watching shit on a shit TV. My brother and mother were definitely more into this than me and played this album a fair number of times. They were fans enough of the project to buy Plastic Beach when that dropped, although I don't recall them liking that as much. But me? I certainly heard the music, but I didn't make the attempt to absorb it.
Having listened to the album in full some months ago, I can honestly say that it's one of my biggest regrets.
It's a complicated album, this one. And that's by design. The entire project is reflective of the dark time period in which it was written and composed. We were well into the War on Terror, and the cynicism of the times was leaking into every facet of media, from TV shows to movies to music itself. Demon Days is no different; the song tackles themes of not only the personal demons that drag us down, but the demons that affect human society. I've heard this album described as being akin wandering through the post-apocalyptic world, wondering what the fuck happened and wherever it's going to get any better - can't remember where I read that, though, but it's an apt comparison.
And like all of Gorillaz's output, it wavers between sounds and concepts - but its not random. Every track is deliberately arranged to form the loose idea of a journey of sorts, exploring the troubles that affected us - and still affect us now - in a variety of moods and tones. It's one of those albums that works best as a whole, when you listen to it back to back and get the whole point of it, rather than listen to just the singles alone. Although I genuinely wouldn't blame you if you did that, because there's a lot to love on here.
I guess the best way to go about this would be to just list every track and give some scattered thoughts on each one. I don't really have the acumen of vocabulary to talk about music in proper, technical terms, so I can only really go on gut feeling on this one. This is probably the format of this little series going forward - I didn't have anything in mind when I started, but I didn't want to just copy the myopic ramblings of most so-called music critics, so this is the best I got.
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Intro
Nothing to say here, just a sample of the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack with Roots Manuva screaming about chemicals in the food chain layered on the top of it. Not a song, therefore not worth considering.
Last Living Souls
The first real track on the album is Last Living Souls, and it's an immediate banger. Halfway between paranoia-inducing and melancholic, Albarn's echoing voice bemoans his - and the listener's - status as the only compassionate beings left in an increasingly cynical world. I still get honest to god chills listening to this.
Kids With Guns
Carrying on the melancholic feeling of the previous track, Albarn goes on to lament the desensitisation of our children to violence and warfare in the media. Yet another great track, and that bass riff will get stuck in your head for days. Unfortunately, Splatoon means I can't take it seriously anymore, because I keep hearing the title as "Squids with Guns" and laughing.
O Green World
I genuinely don't know if I like this one or not. When it's playing, I shudder at the horror movie strings and the scratchy vocals pleading against environmental collapse. But when it's over, it vanishes from my memory like a prawn cocktail flavour Skip on the tongue. A hesitant recommend, but still a recommend.
Dirty Harry
A brutal yet catchy anti-Iraq war anthem, with Bootie Brown killing it on the rap section as a weary soldier frustrated by his inability to connect with his fellow man. Albarn once got in trouble in America for having an all-black kid's choir sing this - I'll leave it to you as to what that says about who.
Feel Good, Inc.
THE Gorillaz song. No further notes.
El Mañana
I genuinely can't tell if this is meant to be about depression, lost love or what, but fuck. The saddest song on an entire album dedicated to being dark, and that's saying a lot. I struggle to get through this sometimes.
Every Planet We Reach Is Dead
That guitar riff will stick in your head for days. Slightly marred by the presence of known piece of shit Ike Turner, though.
November Has Come
MF Doom fans will like this one (R.I.P. Doom), but I have trouble pinning down what this one's actually about. I do agree that November sucks as a month, though.
All Alone
Roots Manuva and Martina Topley-Bird can't keep this track from being also mostly forgettable.
White Light
Okay, this one fucking sucks. Damon Albarn snarls like a bear with strep throat about alcohol for two minutes or until you hit the skip button. By itself, it's merely mediocre, but in an album with the likes of Dirty Harry, DARE and Feel Good, Inc. on it, that's almost insulting.
DARE
Thank God this song comes right after White Light so I can actually enjoy myself. Fun, catchy, poppy, and also Shaun Ryder's on it.
Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head
Dennis Hopper narrates a parable about callous greed clashing with blind, good-hearted naiveté and the literally volcanic fallout of it. A fun listen, but I'd be hard-pressed to seriously recommend this one.
Don't Get Lost In Heaven
I think this one's meant to be about how organised religion sucks? Not sure. It'd make a good Stand name, though.
Demon Days
The aural equivalent of a reassuring mug of orange juice after a hangover. The reassurance that the dark days are behind and we still have a future to fight for.
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And that's it. That's the album. And it rules. For a few stumbles, its an album that's a classic for a good reason. And that reason being, well, fucking listen to it.
Listening to it now makes me sincerely hate my past self - more so than usual, I mean. Because it really highlights how I was living in my own head by actual choice, and how fucking stupid I was for it. I could have been actually absorbing all of it and enjoying it, and all this other culture going on as well, rather than viewing it as a distraction from the outside world keeping me inside my bubble of self-loathing. If I had a time machine, I'd go back, kidnap my past self and lock him in a room with this album on loop until he could tell me what it was all about. And I'd slap him with a wet fish every time he got it wrong.
And that, I guess, is also the end of this first instalment of whatever this is. Not sure if I'm going to continue it or not, but it might be worth continuing if my explorations into the music I missed also continue. Stay tuned for partial excitement, and feel free to suggest music from around the time period. No novelty acts, though - I could go my entire life without hearing the Cheeky Girls ever again and be the happiest man alive.
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