Review Summary: 1D
All the Generation Y parents I’ve talked to hate animation. The process of raising a kid in the nineties and onward involved enduring a barrage of shrill, flashy programming; what parent has the time or energy to try and ‘appreciate’ the legitimate cleverness of a Spongebob Squarepants episode their kid is howling over? Yet cartoons are an inescapable part of millennial childhoods. Inherent in each Gorillaz album cover and music video is a promise: that the music will do justice to our memory of watching characters explore worlds of infinite visual possibility. From Gorillaz’ self-titled debut to “Plastic Beach,” Damon Albarn delivered on that promise as his project blossomed from a lovably dusty fusion of hip-hop, indie rock and electronica to a kaleidoscopic pool flashing shades from pop music’s melodic spectrum. In 2010, it seemed that Gorillaz had transcended their visual carton gimmick completely. The music created Gorillaz’ colorful world all on its own.
It’s easy to forget, seven years later, that Plastic Beach was accompanied by Gorillaz’ most elaborate visual counterpart: “Escape to Plastic Beach,” a beautiful, wonky videogame with a boatload of discoverable Gorillaz-related content. Humanz comes to us with an even more ambitious accompaniment project: a televised cartoon series. The visual charm is as present as ever; Hewlett’s CGI approach to Gorillaz’ “Humanz” phase falls suitably close to the uncanny valley. Such a move could herald the coming of a musical project that, more than ever, reaches for the same colorful sweetspot associated with the cartoon aspect of Gorillaz' identity.
Unfortunately, “Humanz” marks a more one-dimensional shift for the Gorillaz project. Gone with the elaborate animation of “Plastic Beach” is the detailed, dynamic songwriting of Gorillaz’ previous records. The tracks on “Humanz” establish a handful of functional motifs – a synth line here, a drum track there, a vocal hook somewhere in the mix – and repeat them with little to no variation throughout each track’s runtime. With the sole exception of “Busted and Blue,” a lovely callback to Gorillaz’ previous ballads, the songs on “Humanz” are locked into a mid-energy pop/hip hop zone that neither aims for relaxation nor euphoria. “Carnival,” with its promisingly heavy beat and frantic synths, starts too busy and ends too quickly to craft the sky-searing climax it clearly wants to achieve. The wonderfully pleasant vocal melodies over the groove anchoring “Andromeda” are only given room to breathe moments before the song ends. The songwriting approach throughout “Humanz” is to throw all the colors on the canvas from the very beginning and let them run together for the duration from the track. Even when Albarn brings the right colors to the palette, there’s nothing to differentiate one part of the picture from the next.
This evaluation admittedly simplifies “Humanz” a bit more than warranted. “Ascension” hurtles thrillingly to a horrifying “Strange Fruit” reference capped by a bone-chilling scream; “Hallelujah Money” overcomes its bizarre, cluttered arrangement through a beautifully swelling spoken-word bridge that recalls “Stop the Dams.” However, these would-be framing tracks tellingly cede the bookend spots to one of many aimless interludes and the facepalm-worthy “We Got the Power,” both of which are indicative of the record’s worst tendencies. In a record lacking direction in its songwriting, the interludes in “Humanz” double-down on the lack of craft with a distinct lack of humor, melodic interest or cohesive storytelling. Like “We Got the Power,” they feel slapped together to create a quasi-narrative that chimes into the current political conversation. In this case, Albarn does so with the same acumen and coherence as the attention-starved serial hand-raiser in every high school government class.
Thankfully, “Humanz” is still out and out a pop album, and it doesn’t spend too much of its time answering questions. It’s content to throw a nice rhythm on the floor and direct its eclectic set of guests to pull out some of their signature moves; at its best, it recalls the same colorful cartoon rush of Gorillaz’ earlier work. But the best part of any cartoon is waiting for the next big, colorful moment to happen, and the best of a pop song is the dynamic push and pull that keeps a listener asking, “what’s next?” Unfortunately, “Humanz” replies time and time with one answer: more of the same.
