In our 20:12 series, we are celebrating 20 years of the release of an artist/group’s debut album by compiling the top 12 songs they’ve released since then. The series’ name format takes inspiration from the year POD was founded, 2012, and it follows our tradition making “top 12” lists.
We’re kicking off our 20:12 series with our favorite animated band, the UK’s Gorillaz. Their self-titled debut album came out on March 26, 2001 and they became an instant hit. A couple of decades later, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are still adding to the immersive and multimedia universe in which bandmembers 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs exist thanks to a catalog that sees the virtual band consistently innovate and reinvent itself.
Check out our picks below, listed in alphabetical order, of the best Gorillaz songs of the past 20 years.
“19-2000” – Gorillaz
One of the biggest strengths of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz is the production, and this cut from the debut album is one of the finest examples of that. Centered around a quirky and well-crafted looping beat, its earworm quality will find its way deep in your subconscious and you’ll be playing it in your mind at random parts of your day. The joyful chorus is ironically just as catchy, with the track literally asking the listener to “Stop dancing to the music / Of Gorillaz in a happy mood” and instead pay attention to the problems around them, which sets the tone for what the animated band will be all about.
“Andromeda” – Humanz
The celestial name clues you in right off the bat that this song will take you out of this world. The deep bass provides a funky groove while the keys and other effects add bit of sci-fi on top of it, and when you combine those with smooth vocals from 2-D and Shelley (FKA DRAM) you get this modern Disco jam. Let the stars be your mirror ball and dance the night away.
“Aries” – Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez
The highlight of this one is undoubtedly the iconic Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order), whose thick and boxy bass part helps set the mood for this track. It’s a modern Post-Punk anthem that will get you high thanks to those honey vocals from 2-D and the twinkling synths.
“Aries” is the newest song on this list, featuring on the group’s 2020 album. While I wasn’t selecting songs on a per-album basis, this track just barely beat out another Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez cut to be on the top 12 Gorillaz tracks: “PAC-MAN” feat. ScHoolboy Q
“Ascension” – Humanz
There are two main things Gorillaz do in a brilliant fashion on the musical front: producing captivating, experimental tracks and collaborating with rappers. This song does both, with Vince Staples taking the reins on the mic and dropping ferocious bars featuring socio-political and even religious references. With the world seeming like it’s coming to an end, Vince provides some sage advice on how to approach life: “Drop that ass ‘fore it crash (higher)”
One of my favorite bars on the entire Gorillaz catalogue is Vince Staples’ second verse, during which he gives you a piece of his mind on life in the self-entitled “best country on Earth”:
All these liberated women sitting in my lap
I’m finna catch a body like I got a gun and badge
I’m finna turn {Obama} to my partner ‘fore he dash
Pull up to the pad, wipe my ass with the flag
I’m just playing, baby, this the land of the free
Where you can get a Glock and a gram for the cheap
Where you can live your dreams long as you don’t look like me
Be a puppet on a string, hanging from a fucking tree
(Aghh!)
“Clint Eastwood” – Gorillaz
The song that started it all. I still remember vividly when “Clint Eastwood” was released and loving everything about this composition from the very first listen. The lo-fi and genre-defying aesthetic, the unforgettable bass and piano beat, the strings, the melodica, 2-D’s care-free hook, and Del the Funky Homosapien rapping over all of it. It turned heads and instantly made fans of people of all sorts of backgrounds (well, at least from what I could perceive in my south side of Chicago bubble). If I had to pick a signature Gorillaz track, it would have to be this one.
“Dirty Harry” – Demon Days
Demon Days was the moment Gorillaz reached a whole new level and this album is arguably the best they’ve ever put out. “Dirty Harry” can best be appreciated as two sides of the same coin. Like any great Pop song, it starts off with a catchy chorus sitting nicely on top of Electronic production that makes you feel like this is a feel-good dance tune – the chorus should give it away that that’s not the case, but that’s the beauty (and the objective) of these Gorillaz songs because they know you may ignore the reality of the subject as long as you have something fun to distract you.
Once you flip to the other side, the heavier boom-bap beat starts droning in for the Pharcyde’s Bootie Brown to lay down a verse critical of how the West uses war to fuel its comfortable living, from the perspective of a struggling soldier that’s stuck in the middle.
Doncamatic – Doncamatic EP
“Doncamatic” is the only song on this list that was released only as a single and not featuring on a proper album. The synths in this track are everything and it’s the type of song where you can feel yourself letting loose as it builds towards the chorus until you can’t do anything but to dance. The virtual band take a backseat here, with 2-D providing minimal vocals behind the main lyrics on the chorus, allowing Manchester singer Daley to take the spotlight.
Empire Ants – Plastic Beach
This Plastic Beach highlight is one of the band’s most beautiful songs. The instrumentation paints a beachy scene with the delicate strumming of an acoustic guitar and light synths, 2-D adding soft vocals about finding comfort even though your world may be falling apart around you. It then kicks into a barrage of synths and Little Dragon’s sweet hook. You’ve got to love the vibes of this Synth-Pop bop.
“Feel Good Inc.” – Demon Days
If I had to pick the best song by Gorillaz, without a doubt or hesitation, my obvious choice is “Feel Good Inc.” De La Soul not only provide a vintage Hip Hop flow but that cackle is a force to reckon with on its own. Murdoc’s bass has undeniable sex appeal, Noodle’s rhythm guitar work is pleasantly methodical throughout and then it gets its shining moment in the musical break before the outro, while Russel Hobbs keeps things simple but effective on the skins so the focus remains on the rest of the band. This song also features 2-D’s best work, with a cool delivery in the opening verse and a melodic chorus that can get a reaction out of anyone as it builds you up to get hype for De La’s swaggy flow.
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett joining forces with producer Danger Mouse on Demon Days feels like one of the best album partnerships of the modern age.
O Green World – Demon Days
I love the twists and turns you get in the production on this track, starting with something like a mechanical malfunction set to music that then breaks into hypnotizing oohs and aahs. Lyrics about a dystopian existence, harrowing harmonies, and the delectable one-two punch of a thick and crunchy guitar riff complemented with the machine-like efficiency of its bass line. It’s fuzzy, chaotic, and noisy – this song has a real presence to it and it’s massive.
Rock the House – Gorillaz
Gorillaz’s earlier records sure had a quirky quality to them, but it’s that experimentation that made you break and pay more attention. “Rock The House” is a celebration and appreciation of Hip Hop music and culture. The creative use of the piano and horns for the hook provide a fun counterpart to the smooth rhymes of Del the Funky Homosapien. That flute is a real treat, too. The same formula that made “Clint Eastwood” such a fine song is applied once more, and it.doesn’t.miss.
Submission – Humanz
Perhaps the only song on this list that wouldn’t be known by most of the general public, and those who do know it would deem it more of an album deep cut, but this track deserves its place on this list. “Submission” shines thanks to the dynamic between Kelela and Danny Brown on this pulsating production. Both of the song’s protagonists share personal troubles affecting the relationship. Kelela struggles with feelings of allowing herself to move on at the same time as seeing the tiny glimmer of hope that may still be there. On the other side you hear Danny Brown let it all out, defeated and hopeless about life. The music keeps building up and intensifying as each artist pours their heart out, but there’s no resolve – it just ends. Ain’t life a bitch like that sometimes?
If you’re in your feels, I can tell you from personal experience, this will get you there.
