GORILLAZ ARE BACK WITH A NEW SINGLE

The world’s most successful virtual band, Gorillaz, is back and moving into the new decade with a brand new single, “Momentary Bliss” – and the title seems appropriate.

Finally returning to action in 2017 after a six-year hiatus, Gorillaz seem to be back in full force, having released an album roughly every year since. And now, as of Jan. 28, a new project titled “Song Machine” has been announced via the band’s social media, along with a short introductory track and an accompanying video that teases additional music videos and songs to be released throughout the coming year.

Two days after that announcement, the band’s new project debuted the group’s first official track, Momentary Bliss.

Coming after two – unfortunately – underwhelming album releases the previous few years, does Gorillaz’ latest song continue this trend of mediocrity?

Thankfully, if you’re a fan of the group, I’m happy to report that the song is itself a bit of momentary bliss, and a seeming return to form.

Momentary Bliss brings memories of Gorillaz’ most endearing early albums. The song is full of lo-fi synthesizers and stuttering Brit punk guitars, all of which defined the band’s unique sound in their early albums.

While Momentary Bliss is by no means the most “punk” track they have released, as the song is still appropriately alt-pop in that particularly Gorillaz sort of way, it does keep up an energy that makes you want to get up and thrash along to the beat.

This is, in part, thanks to the two guest artists who appear on the track: Slowthai, a 2019 breakout political hip-hop and Grime rap act from England, and the Sacramento post-hardcore band Slaves. For those who disliked 2017’s “Humanz” for its overuse of guest artists, and “The Now Now” for its lack of them, they should be happy to hear that Damon Albarn, Gorillaz creator, seems to be going for more of an equilibrium this time around. Although this is still to be seen as a whole, unlike Humanz the band’s new project seems to feature more consistent collaboration between the guest artists and Albarn. 

As Albarn is both the creator and only consistent musical contributor of the Gorillaz, some of the band’s previous albums have suffered either from an inconstant tone or a lack of variety, at times. But, so far, things seem promising for Song Machine. The contrast between Albarn’s dreary vocal melodies and Slowthai’s aggressive English rap turns Momentary Bliss into an exciting pop-punk explosion, espousing the duo’s wish for a more aspirational society, one that desires more from life than its moments of fleeting bliss.

According to their social media, Gorillaz will be releasing the rest of the album episodically, at random points throughout the year, along with a series of music videos.

A number of guest performers have also been teased, Such as SchoolBoy Q, Sampa The Great, and excitingly, Australian band Tame Impala. The rest of guests will remain unannounced until their related Song Machine track is released.

Until then, listeners can enjoy Momentary Bliss and keep an eye out for future “episodes” of Song Machine. If you’re a fan of Gorillaz, especially their early work, you’ll appreciate their return to tradition with this new debut track. Momentary Bliss is definitely worth checking out.