Cracker Island — Gorillaz (2023)

With over twenty years of history, the reputation of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz project precedes it. While this reputation is vastly positive, one sentiment I and many others hold towards the virtual band is they can be rather inconsistent. After their initial strong start with classic albums such as Demon Days (2005) and Plastic Beach (2010), the band exited a long hiatus with the release of Humanz (2017), which was questionable at best. After this came The Now Now (2018), a solid album albeit lacking the punch expected from the band, and then Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (2020). For me, this was what I had been waiting for from the band since their return three years prior; something of the same scale and quality of their pre-hiatus projects.

The release of Song Machine, Season One did come with certain expectations, however. Namely, that it would be followed by Song Machine, Season Two; a follow-up project on par with, or perhaps better than its predecessor. In 2021, the band released Meanwhile EP, a short, charming project that many assumed as a buffer between the two “seasons”, and even went as far as to announce the sequel to their 2020 release. However, come 2022, an entirely different album was announced, and its singles were appearing at a rapid pace; Cracker Island (2023). Needless to say, after the couple of years Gorillaz had been having, I was more than excited at the prospect of a new release from them, regardless of whether it carried the Song Machine title. What I got, however, was an album that cannot even begin to hold a candle to its preceding project.

Don’t get me wrong, Cracker Island is okay, but nothing really beyond that. Its impressive list of features do very little to this album’s sheer forgettability. After my first listen, I found myself struggling to recall absolutely anything about the tracks that weren’t already released as singles, which is a strange thing to be able to say about an album with such an intriguing premise. Although, the album itself even seems to disregard its occult theming set on a remote island inhabited by the acolytes of the “Last Cult” after the first track, so I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised.

On Cracker Island, it was born

The album’s opener, its title track, is arguably it’s strongest point. As previously pointed out, this is definitely where the occult motif is most present; it sets the stage on the titular Cracker Island, where the Last Cult serves as commentary on “Stan” culture and how celebrities are treated in modern times. Listening to this track knowing what follows it on the remainder of the album, however, makes it read more like some sort of self aware meta-commentary on the album itself; “they taught themselves to be occult, they didn’t know its many strategies” summarises well how this theme was more or less abandoned immediately after the three-and-a-half minute duration of the opener concludes.

Theming aside, this is an excellent start to the project; the upbeat instrumental maintains a vaguely spooky and hypnotic undertone, which compliments the song’s eerie lyrics well. The legendary Thundercat was a great choice for a feature here, too; his work on bass and backing vocals uplift the track from a good to great.

Close the wells of poison

Oil is the antithesis of its precursor. While Cracker Island is a catchy, memorable tune that utilises its feature to it’s full potential, Oil is an immediately forgettable slog that even Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks can’t rescue. In fact, I’d go as far as to say she somehow ends up being a detriment to the song; Oil would be better off without her weak vocal performance here.

Please try again

Another of the album’s more dull tracks, The Tired Influencer harkens back to the tiresome, on-the-nose social commentary exhibited in Humanz. I wouldn’t quite place its lyricism on the same level of tedium as a lot of the songs on that project (I Switched My Robot Off comes to mind), I would definitely say this song as a whole is deeply boring and bland. If anything, it should be called The Tired Listener, as that’s certainly how I felt after just three songs into this project.

Seaching for a new world

Silent Running is where, in my opinion, the album takes a somewhat better turn. The commentary on social media is a lot more nuanced here compared to The Tired Influencer, focusing on its addictive nature. While a very standard Gorillaz affair, I’ve definitely found myself coming back to this song for its classic Gorillaz synths and mesmerising chorus quite frequently, especially in comparison to other songs from this album.

Moved to the spot, I’m one of a few

New Gold is, to me, the crown jewel of Cracker Island. To begin with, a collaboration between Gorillaz and Tame Impala is a dream come true to me, not to mention the return of Bootie Brown to the band’s discography, with his last feature being in 2005 on Demon Days’ Dirty Harry. The song absolutely lives up to the expectations set by these features, with another great performance by Bootie Brown over a perfect blend of Gorillaz and Kevin Parker’s own brands of psychadelia.

Similarly to Silent Running, Gorillaz actually provide lyrics that dissect the culture of the social media era in a more subtle way, this time choosing to mock the internet’s current obsession with doomed get rich quick schemes such as pump-and-dump cryptocurrency projects, and rug pull NFT collections.

She kept me in a polaroid

Albarn’s inspiration for Baby Queen came from a dream, in which he reunited with a Thai princess he met in 1997 during his time as the frontman of Blur. The context surrounding this piece really adds to it in my opinion; the nostalgic and dreamy energy the song carries captures the feelings described by Albarn regarding the song’s subject matter really effectively, making this one of the album’s better tracks by a mile.

I know I fantasise

Following the excellent track run of Silent Running, New Gold and Baby Queen comes Tarantula; another largely empty track in the vein of the other non-singles on the album so far. This is probably the least memorable track there is on Cracker Island, which I suppose is somewhat of a good thing as at the very least it isn’t notably bad in any particular way besides its plainness.

The sun in the storm

The most left-field feature on this album comes in the form of Bad Bunny appearing on the song Tormenta. While he does provide a good performance on this track, this was a confusing an out of place for a feature on this album. Besides that, Tormenta falls into the typical Cracker Island trap of being instantly forgettable.

That being said, as of the time of writing, this song has surpassed every single on the album other than New Gold in terms of Spotify streaming numbers, so perhaps this song has a lot more value to people who enjoy Bad Bunny’s music, of which there are many.

Don’t be sad for me

Skinny Ape is without a doubt the track I’m most conflicted about. On one hand, I’m a pretty big fan of the first section of the song, which is a moody yet optimistic lament from the band’s frontman, 2D. I particularly enjoy the “don’t be sad for me” chorus in this part of the track.

However, the song eventually transitions into this weird breakdown, which doesn’t feel earned by the opening of the song, resulting in a jarring moment that left me feeling confused more than anything else, whereas this was clearly meant to be a spectacular climax for the album before it moves into its gentle finale.

From the past in silence

After Beck’s excellent feature on Strange Timez’s Valley of the Pagans, his return made Possession Island my most anticipated non-single on the album. I’m somewhat conflicted on the end result; it definitely fell short of my expectations, but it’s also absolutely my favourite non-single. I think the fact that it invites comparison to Valley of the Pagans is unfortunate for the album, as it further highlights the extent to which it falls flat compared to its predecessor.

Conclusion

Cracker Island was, ultimately, a disappointment to me. I think I would have had more of a positive sentiment towards the project had all of the best tracks not been released months prior as singles, rendering the actual release of the project deeply underwhelming. If I was hearing songs like New Gold and the title track for the first time on the album, I would have walked away a lot more satisfied. These songs are, however, part of the album nonetheless, and as such do work in the project’s favour. Despite this, I still think this is the worst Gorillaz album since Humanz; a forgettable, incohesive release that is forever destined to live in the shadow of Song Machine, Season 1 and what could have been had Season 2 been released instead.