Artist: Gorillaz
Album: Demon Days
Label: Virgin Records
Rating:
Reviewer: Lauren Robbins

It's strange when one of the most punk-rock musical statements of the year comes not from any of the darlings of underground hardcore or the adorable, multi-dyed pseudo-miscreants of the Warped tour, but from one of the most unlikely and innocuous of sources: cartoons. But that is exactly the state of music and punk today, obsessed with meticulousness, self-awareness, and a fashion sense that seems to override the music. It can often seem that the hellions of today are too busy checking their lip-gloss to bring the noise. It is here that Gorillaz steps to the plate, representing the bold experimentation and "anything-goes" mentality of such punk-rock acts as The Clash, Sonic Youth and Public Image Limited. Even if Gorillaz sounds nothing like those daring provocateurs, they are kindred in spirit.

The music of Gorillaz represents limitless borders, bold experimentation, and more than a little cheeky humor. Their debut record bum-rushed the music scene with songs that seamlessly fused Britpop with hip-hop without pandering to the weaknesses of either. Though the tracks themselves were more than enough to get music geeks and hipsters in a tizzy, it was their image (taking the cartoon-band aesthetic of old Hanna-Barbera standby "Josie and The Pussycats" and running it through the post-apocalyptic gutter-punk lens of Jamie Hewlett, cartoonist and creator of "Tank Girl') that sealed the deal, creating a satirical statement about the permeation of "manufactured pop music" while ironically being creating just that.

But now it is two years later, an eternity in a pop world where fourteen-year-old girls are the dominant cultural force and the attention spans can barely sustain the viewing of an entire music video, and now it falls on Gorillaz to prove whether or not there was

The band, made up of veterans from such acts as Cio Matto, The Talking Heads, Blur, and Del The Funkee Homosapien, find themselves often torn between the two. On the title track, they warn "You can't even trust the air you breath/ because mother Earth wants us all to leave," before moments later imploring us to "lift yourself up, it's a brand new day." The album is both hopeful, even uplifting, and brutally cynical. The dichotomy between these themes is most apparent in one of the standout songs of the record, "Feel Good, Inc." In this two-toned pop Frankenstein, they return to the format that made them famous, trading off lightly strummed acoustic guitars and willowy melodies with a fat dose of straight-up boom-bap, courtesy of old schoolers De La Soul. They manage to return to their signature territory but somehow make it seem fresh, with lead singer Damon Albarn opining quixotically for a "windmill, Windmill for the land," only to have De La literally laugh in his face.

Most of the songs on Demon Days don't sound very much like the above-mentioned chart-topper, though many are just as catchy. Dennis Hopper lends his voice on "Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head" which is a haunting spoken narrative with music that grips you by the eyeballs and sends you on your way to the wonderfully melodic "Don't Get Lost in Heaven." Demon Days will take a few listens to settle before opening up and letting you sink into its sticky soul and wrapping you up in its helplessness and faith. A somewhat concept album, it takes the listener for a ride which few records, especially in this day and age, are capable of. But give it a few listens before making your final judgments and you'll feel yourself grow from the experience. It's not as accessible as some records, but it is better than most.