All Gorillaz Albums Ranked From Worst To Best
Let's take a look at the history of the world's most successful virtual band!
In 1998, the lead vocalist to the band Blur, Damon Albarn, teamed up with comic book artist Jamie Hewlett to create the concept for a revolutionary new genre of music, a virtual band. Appearing at the dawn of the digital age of music, Gorillaz showed an alternative to the traditional idea of a band by portraying the band as animated characters in their music videos, interviews, and other media.
The band's fictional members, 2-D, Noodle, Russel, and Murdoc, all have fleshed out backstories and chemistry with each other, which we can see portrayed in their classic music videos. The character and world design, first developed by Jamie Hewlett, is incredibly unique and mixes with Albarn's often somber voice and lyrics to help draw us into this fictional dystopian universe that Gorillaz's videos take place in.
Since their debut in 2001, Gorillaz have released nine full albums and, although they are all very high-quality projects, some fail to reach the level of commercial success and cultural impact of others. This list will be respectfully looking back at all of Gorillaz's albums and ranking them from worst to best. Profits will be considered, but more important is the quality of the lyrics, music, and story.
8. The Fall
The Fall was recorded by Damon Albarn using his iPad and a few other instruments during the North American leg of Gorillaz's Escape To Plastic Beach Tour. Because he was touring at the time, not as much work was put into the story and themes as their previous album, the highly acclaimed Plastic Beach. He recorded the songs over a 32-day period and sent them to Stephen Sedgwig to mix the final product.
In Albarn's own words, "I literally made it on the road. I didn't write it before, I didn't prepare it. I just did it day by day as a kind of diary of my experience in America." Unfortunately, though the project is impressive for its experimental elements and for having been completed so quickly, the rushed nature of the project does show when compared to the band's other work.
The Fall contained some tons of funky, experimental beats, but the lyrical depth Gorillaz became known for after Plastic Beach seemed to be lessened. Overall, The Fall is a fun alternative album that helps to explain Albarn's thoughts while travelling through America, but fails to live up to the complexity of their other work. The lack of good music videos for this project is also slightly disappointing.