Music / Gorillaz

It's a sweet sensation, over the dub.

Gorillaz is the self-titled debut studio album by virtual rock band Gorillaz, released in 26 March 2001 through Parlophone Records (in conjunction with Virgin Records in the US). It's best remembered for the hits "Clint Eastwood," "19-2000," "Rock the House" and "Tomorrow Comes Today."

Followed by Demon Days (Album).

---

Tracklist:

1. "Re-Hash" (3:37)
2. "5/4" (2:39)
3. "Tomorrow Comes Today" (3:12)
4. "New Genius (Brother)" (3:57)
5. "Clint Eastwood" (5:39)
6. "Man Research (Clapper)" (4:32)
7. "Punk" (1:36)
8. "Sound Check (Gravity)" (4:40)
9. "Double Bass" (4:44)
10. "Rock the House" (4:08)
11. "19-2000" (3:27)
12. "Latin Simone (¿Qué Pasa Contigo?)" (3:36)
13. "Starshine" (3:31)
14. "Slow Country" (3:35)
15. "M1 A1" (3:54)

---

I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad, I got tropes in a bag:

• Affectionate Parody: The opening to "Rock the House" is clearly a spoof of the famous trike scene in The Shining, complete with Creepy Twins.
• Ambiguous Gender: Pre-teen Noodle caused a bit of Viewer Gender Confusion on occasion.
• Animated Music Video: Logical Extreme; every single music video is animated due to the nature of the band.
• Aside Glance: 2D, Murdoc, and Noodle in the "19-2000" video.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Latin Simone" has Spanish lyrics, provided by Buena Vista Social Club alumni Ibrahim Ferrer.
• Changed for the Video: The video for "Clint Eastwood" has a short musical intro that isn't on other versions.
• Cool Car: The "Geep" in "19-2000" certainly qualifies.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • "Rock the House," which included the band members but was focused on and sung completely by Del.
  • Music-wise, Gorillaz was almost entirely composed by Russel.
• The Dead Can Dance: The "Clint Eastwood" video features the band — or at least Murdoc — being attacked by "Thriller"-dancing zombie apes.
• Diegetic Switch: In the "19-2000" video, Murdoc switches on the radio and 2D and Noodle sing along to it.
• Ennio Morricone Pastiche: The opening yells in the music video of "Clint Eastwood" reference The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
• Evil Laugh: Murdoc does a pretty effective one at the start of the "Clint Eastwood" video.
• Face on the Cover: The band in a Geep.
• The Future Will Be Better: "Clint Eastwood":
  I'm useless, but not for long
  The future is coming on
• Genre Mashup: Nothing sounds quite like them; a good approximation of their sound is "alternative hip-hop electronica." There's also a bit of Genre Roulette from song to song.
• Gratuitous Japanese: The phrase "get the cool shoeshine" in "19-2000" is subtitled in Japanese in the music video.
• Groin Attack:
  • In the "Clint Eastwood" video, a zombie ape reaches up from the ground, grabs Murdoc's crotch, and yanks him down. According to him in Rise of the Ogre, it hurt. A lot.
  • The "Rock the House" video — at least Murdoc got to wear a protective cup for that one, but 2D didn't.
• Indecipherable Lyrics: 20+ years on and still no one can figure out just what 2D is singing in "Punk."
• Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody: The gorillas in the music video of "Clint Eastwood" at one point perform a small portion of the dancing in Jackson's famous music video.
• Mood Whiplash: The clanging, ominous "Man Research (Clapper)" is followed by the frenzied and upbeat "Punk," which in turn leads into the slow-building, dub "Sound Check (Gravity)."
• New Sound Album: All of them, really: Gorillaz laid the foundation of the band's sound.
• Non-Appearing Title: "5/4" (the time signature of the song), "Clint Eastwood" (its name is derived from a recurring sample from the theme of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), "19-2000," and "Slow Country."
• One-Man Song: "Clint Eastwood."
• One-Word Title: The album is named after the band. The tracks "Punk" and "Starshine" are also one-word titles.
• Sampling:
  • "Tomorrow Comes Today" contains a sample of "Get Out of My Life, Woman" by Allen Toussaint.
  • "New Genious (Brother)" contains samples of "Attention" by Head West and "Hit or Miss" by Bo Diddley.
  • "Man Research (Clapper)" contains a sample of "In the Hall of the Mountain Queen" by Raymond Scott.
  • "Rock the House" contains a sample of "Modesty Blaise" by John Dankworth, from the soundtrack of Modesty Blaise, as well as a sample of a live performance by Biz Markie and MC Shan sourced from a bootleg vinyl.
  • "Sound Check (Gravity)" contains a sample of a live performance by the Force MD's from the same bootleg vinyl as the above-mentioned Biz Markie & MC Shan sample.
  • "Latin Simone (¿Qué Pasa Contigo?)" contains a sample of "Incidental Backcloth No. 3" by Keith Mansfield.
  • "19-2000" contains a sample of "If I Needed Someone" by Bit 'A Sweet.
  • "19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)" contains samples of "Sing a Simple Song" from Stand! by Sly and the Family Stone and "Soul Power '74 - Part: I" by Maceo and the Macks.
  • "Slow Country" contains a sample of "Ghost Town" by The Specials.
  • "M1 A1" contains a sample of "The Dead Suite" by John Harrison.
  • "Dracula" contains sound clips from the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Transylvania 6-5000" (1963).
  I am a vampire!
  (...) Rest is good for the blood
  • "Left Hand Suzuki Method" contains samples of "Mannish Boy" by Muddy Waters and "Long, Long Ago" by Thomas Haynes Bayly.
  • "Ghost Train" contains a sample of "The Sound of the Crowd" by The Human League.
• Scatting: "19-2000" features a lot of this.
• Self-Titled Album: Their only album to do this.
• Solo Side Project: Falls under this for Albarn, since Blur were still active and touring at the time - though Albarn obviously continued to put out Gorillaz albums after Blur officially broke up in 2003.
• Shout-Out:
  • "5/4" is a reference to the time signature of the guitar riff used in the song.
  • In the music video of "Tomorrow Comes Today" we can spot graffiti by Banksy.
  • "Clint Eastwood" references Clint Eastwood in the title and the yelling at the start is a shout-out to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In the music video 2D's T-shirt says T Virus and the zombies dancing is very reminiscent of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Murdoc being grabbed by the crotch by a zombie references Braindead. And the opening quote at the start of the video is from Dawn of the Dead (1978):
    Every dead body that is not exterminated, gets up and kills. The people it kills, get up and kill.
  • "M1 A1" features a sound clip from Day of the Dead (1985).
  • "Rock the House" features Del tha Funkee Homosapien dressed as Mr. Freedom from the experimental film Mr. Freedom.
• Singer Namedrop: "19-2000" features an interesting example that doubles as an allusion to the Lyrical Dissonance that tends to be present in some of the band's songs.
  Stop dancing to the music of Gorillaz in a happy mood...
• Special Guest: Del tha Funkee Homosapien raps during "Clint Eastwood" and "Rock the House," where he plays the ghost of a friend of the drummer. Ibrahim Ferrer (Buena Vista Social Club) performs on "Latin Simone."
• Surreal Music Video:
  • "Clint Eastwood": Features a ghost friend of the drummer rise from the dead and making zombie gorillas do the same.
  • "19-2000": The band drives a jeep, making amazing loops with it until they encounter a giant moose, which they try to destroy with rockets. The animal sneezes and blows the rockets back, causing the car to explode.
• Time Marches On: At the time, the fact that the album's original CD version gave you access to exclusive content on the band's interactive site was revolutionary. Now, if you play that movie that pops up when you put the disc into your computer all the way through, your browser opens up... to an error message. Indeed, the whole "Enhanced CD" fad was on its last legs around the time the album was released.
• Title by Number: "19-2000" and "5/4."
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: "Gorillas" —> "Gorillaz."

---