Description
When Blur frontman Damon Albarn and his comic-book artist friend, Jamie Hewlett, created Gorillaz in 1998, they could scarcely have imagined how much mileage there was in cartoon creations Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2-D. Unlike the members of conventional groups, they do not age, burn out or fall out. Albarn turns 50 next year, but Gorillaz helps to keep him relevant. The virtual band has always been an adaptable vehicle for his most up-to-the-minute ideas, and so it is with Humanz, the band’s fifth album, and the first since 2011’s The Fall. Big on the contemporary sounds of urban black America and Jamaica, it is at its roots a sprawling and dystopian-sounding record exploring a wide range of issues, from racism to western military intervention in the Middle East.
