It still seems deeply strange that Gorillaz won this year’s Brit award for best group. The “group” is essentially a collection of <person>Damon Albarn</person>’s alter egos, and 2017’s Humanz album wasn’t anywhere near their best work, an overstuffed grab bag of predictably quirky cameos and underdeveloped sketches that slipped quickly from the memory.
Just as 2010’s sprawling Plastic Beach had its introverted companion album The Fall, The Now Now is a breezy calm after Humanz’s storm. Only three guests join the party, and <person>George Benson</person> has the best of it, his beautiful liquid guitar elevating excellent single Humility. The best Gorillaz songs play <person>Albarn</person>’s distant, frazzled croak against a very different, powerful vocal, teetering atop a solid beat. Yet the stoned, lolloping effervescence of <person>Clint Eastwood</person> doesn’t appear, nor any sign of Stylo or DARE’s deranged pop genius. When there’s too much <person>Albarn</person>, there are too many songs shooting for the insidious sadness of On Melancholy Hill, and hitting the pleasant, inconsequential mark instead. Yes, Idaho, Lake Zurich and Souk Eye aren’t bad songs, but you’ll miss the bass and big choruses.