Demon Days [Vinyl]

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  Tammy

  

  Jan 17, 2025

  I l9ve this band so cool 😎

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  Mark Eremite

  

  Feb 6, 2007

  Living in South Korea, I was way behind the buzz when the Gorillaz released this second album. I simply saw the title on my Amazon.com recommendations list. I loved their self-titled debut so much that I immediately ordered "Demon Days." I never heard or read one word about the album. I got the CD in the mail, listened to it, and loved it. So, point number one: if you liked the first one, you'll like this one. What should the rest of you expect? The cartoon side-project that is represented by this group (which is really less of a "group" and more the brain-child of Damon Alburn of Blur) is a heavily experimental affair. Where the first record moved all over the map, toying with new mixes of old sounds, this record has a definite (almost narrative) flow. It starts with "Last Living Souls" in bass-heavy darkness, the music rich and wide with a cavernous feel, a hint of up-swing to the playfully gloomy sound. "Kids With Guns," "O Green World," and "Dirty Harry," in spite of their playground pop sounds, are all similarly creepy. They play with lilting electronica and prodding rhythms, underlaying these things with an addictive, scabrous disonance. Then comes the appropriately mislabled "Feel Good Inc.," the first single of the record, and with good reason. Featuring unsettling back-laughter, penitent lyrics, and De La Soul's invigorating voice, this song courts the album's dark mood with a lighthearded step. That lightheartedness slinks away and hides in the next four tracks (with names like "All Alone" and "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead," that's to be expected). A tapestry of needfulness, lamentation, frustration, and yen-like confusion is woven in songs that are alternately soft and wirey, tender and knuckled. The dreariness is toppped off in "All Alone," which also includes a chorale of hope, leading into the next stellar track, DARE. Easily the centerpiece of this album, DARE is a futuristic world-hopper, an incredibly fun, amazingly crafted soul-massage. Deep driving buzzes mixed expertly with high, stratospheric hums make for a song that is both playful and dreary, a combination that works, and works well. Dennis Hopper's spoken-word "Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head" isn't so notable, although it does segue (thematically and musically) into the album's final key notes of redemption. Church choir joy fills up "Don't Get Lost In Heaven," a song that is like the equivalent of a warm, amber dawn after a cool, ghost-plagued night. The next song, "Demon Days," is hardly another song at all, but the second half of the album's send-off into a brighter and happier world. An inspired musical journey through twilight into day (or, if you prefer, simply a collection of fun, intelligent music), "Demon Days" is a world you'll enjoy visiting.

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