Gorillaz - Song Machine, Season One

Song Machine, Season One finds Gorillaz turning a year-long episodic experiment into a full album, collected here on a single LP.

Through 2020, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's virtual band released songs as standalone episodes, each one built around a new collaborator, rather than waiting to drop a conventional record. The season gathered those episodes together, and the guest list is remarkable even by Gorillaz standards, reaching from post-punk icons to rising rap talent. Albarn co-produced with Remi Kabaka Jr. and James Ford among others, keeping all the threads tied together.

"Strange Timez" pairs Albarn with The Cure's Robert Smith for a gloomy, gothic shuffle that fit the year perfectly. "The Pink Phantom" unites Elton John and 6lack over a delicate piano ballad, while "Aries" brings in New Order's Peter Hook, whose melodic bass lines give the song an unmistakable Manchester glow. "Momentary Bliss," featuring slowthai and Slaves, bursts with punk energy and a huge chorus.

The variety never feels random; it plays like a curated mixtape from the world's most connected friend.

Two decades after the cartoon band first appeared, this is proof that the concept still has plenty of life and mischief left in it, along with a very full address book.