Estelle Clifford: The Gorillaz - Cracker Island

Cracker Island is the eighth studio album by the British virtual band Gorillaz. The album was released on 24 February 2023 via Parlophone and Warner Records. It features collaborations with Stevie Nicks, Adeleye Omotayo, Thundercat, Tame Impala, Bad Bunny, Bootie Brown, and Beck 

As a band supposedly made up of cartoon characters, Gorillaz could theoretically do anything: record in outer space; make hip-hop beats out of fish teeth; revive the lambada—an unlimited horizon. Which makes it slightly frustrating that on Cracker Island, their eighth studio album, Damon Albarn and co. do little that’s out of the ordinary. This is ostensibly the group’s Los Angeles album, inspired by a relocation to Silver Lake, and it does have a handful of very Californian guests in the form of Stevie Nicks, Thundercat, and the Pharcyde’s Bootie Brown. Overwhelmingly, though, Cracker Island leans on classic Gorillaz tropes: a handful of attention-grabbing features, a touch of hip-hop, a splash of dub, and great big helpings of Damon Albarn’s big-hearted melodies to bathe the record in misty sunshine. Classic, at least, is one way of putting it. Routine would be another. 

 

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