So far Converse's Three Artists. One Song project has given us the hip-hop funk of My Drive Thru, a collaboration between Pharrell, Santigold and Julian Casablancas, and All Summer, a slice of sun-kissed 60s rock which brought Kid Cudi, Best Coast and Vampire Weekend together. A few weeks ago the trainer company announced details of DoYaThing, the first new Gorillaz material since 2010's low-key The Fall album, and a collaboration with erstwhile LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy and Outkast's André 3000.
To be honest, on first listen it's a slight disappointment. Similar to Gorillaz' Plastic Beach album in its loose-limbed meanderings, it opens with Albarn's laconic drawl as he kind of half-raps his way through the first verse before Murphy's squeezed falsetto arrives for the chorus. It's all perfectly fine and dandy, but it soon becomes obvious what it's missing and thankfully André 3000 comes along to give it a massive dose of weird. First he delivers his own slightly slurred take on the falsetto – Prince probably wouldn't be proud – before his ridiculous, double-speed rap takes the song in a completely different direction. For the last two minutes it's basically the 3000 show, his rhymes taking in everything from chewing gum ("that Juicy Fruit, that splooshy sploosh"), to meteorology ("summer got mad because winter blew me") to inventing brand new words ("revelatious", anyone?). It really does make you yearn for a new OutKast album more than anything else.
You can download DoYaThing for free from here.
