It’s been a decidedly long wait for fans of the greatest virtual rock band in history (apologies to Dethklok). Six years to be exact since we last heard from Gorillaz, the pet project of Blur’s Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett that took the world by storm in the early aughts.
We knew there would be new material coming from them soon, they’d announced a brand new album would be coming last year and today we got the first taste of it with their brand new single and accompanying video for Hallelujah Money. Watch it below:
It’s absolutely off-the-wall both sonically and visually. It features the talents of the charismatic British singer-songwriter Benjamin Clementine, a Mercury Prize winner whose baritone delivery here evokes an echoing sermon, the video featuring him singing from Trump Tower, coming the day before the President-elect’s inauguration in a not-so-subtle dig.
It’s a discordant and jarring collection of noise, a tiptoeing bassline here, a rising gospel choir there and heavenly synths swirling all around it. Clementine’s voice wavering beautifully before Albarn takes over at the halfway point. “When the morning comes, we are still human, how will we know, how will we dream” he warbles and it’s oh so good to hear that voice again.
Delightfully strange and wonderful, this first glimpse at the new Gorillaz album bodes well for the future.
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Image: BGR