Hot on the heels of their 2017 record Humanz – a guest-star-strewn collection of gloomy dance music – comes the sixth album from Damon Albarn’s animated outfit. Unlike its predecessor, The Now Now enlists few collaborators: jazz guitarist George Benson supplies opener Humility with a gorgeously funky riff, and Snoop Dogg and house producer Jamie Principle contribute vocals to the spiky strut of Hollywood, but that’s it. Instead, Albarn supplies the bulk of the vocals, largely minus the effects that have previously characterised his voice as Gorillaz front-cartoon 2-D.
This isn’t an entirely new mode for the group. In 2010 they released two albums: the first, Plastic Beach, sported hordes of big-name musicians; the second, The Fall, just a handful. The latter has much in common with The Now Now. Both were recorded during North American tours for the band’s previous album, and include numerous songs named after US locales. Yet while The Fall exhibited a slightly gentler side to Gorillaz, The Now Now provides more comprehensive respite from the occasionally stressful maximalism that has characterised their work. It has a welcome sense of calm, with Albarn falling back on his knack for writing songs that manage to be both heartrending and casually conversational – the trick that made Blur’s classic ballads so beautiful.
Idaho and One Percent are slow, stripped-back showcases for that particular skill, while Humility pairs Benson’s guitar figures with a nonchalantly lovely vocal. Even the more characteristic Gorillaz creations – Lake Zurich, a fidgety near-instrumental spurred on by a breakbeat and sprightly cowbell, and Tranz, with its snappy groove and squelchy synths – exude a peaceful warmth.
On a literal level, the record is harder to engage with. Gorillaz have traditionally dealt in bewilderingly abstract lyrics, and while Albarn dubbed producer James Ford the “sense police”, due to his insistence on intelligibility, it doesn’t seem to have been a particularly effective edict. Even so, The Now Now is capable of beguiling despite the babble – a Gorillaz album that, for once, acts not as loudspeaker for the cacophony of modern life, but a salve instead.
