Gorillaz
The Fall

I know that a review of this album has already been written on DeBaser, but anyway I felt like writing a couple of lines about this record too.

"The Fall" is the Christmas package 2010 that Gorillaz gifted to the fans (those subscribed to the fan club on the website). There had been talk of this album for a few months already. Albarn said, not too long ago, that this is the first album made with the applications of the (at least from my point of view) useless iPad. Okay, I think, maybe this is the new nonsense from Gorillaz from which, after "Plastic Beach," I did not expect much. And indeed, the album in question isn't really anything special. But at least it's honest. The group says 'Okay, this is our new little record that we recorded in a month during the downtime of our tour in America. And we're giving it to you.' No advertising, no single, no pressure from the majors because in fact, no one was waiting for this album.

Listening to "The Fall," you can tell it is a collection of travel notes. I say collection because you can feel it doesn't have the form of an album. It's perhaps a long series of experiments and sensations that might have required a bit more revision and skimming before being released, but perhaps instead we just need to accept them as they are. Let me explain better by making a comparison with the previous album released by the group. While "Plastic Beach" lacked good ideas and good tracks and a remarkable post-production work was done (completely overturning the original demos that had been aired a few months earlier by the BBC) to pull up a decent album; this last one has the minimal straightforwardness of a collection of b-sides with the raw sounds of the first album. And with this statement, I don't mean to criticize it, quite the contrary. However, the flaw of "The Fall" is that it is too long. In my opinion, it should have been trimmed down to become an EP. Let's be clear, we're not talking about Brian Eno. Albarn is a good songwriter but not a great composer. Once you get past the first two songs (Revolving Doors is a really nice track) and the intro, you venture into unordered acid ambient-soundscapes/soundtrack pieces, barely sketched and, in most cases, useless.

The album picks up in the end with two more songs like Amarillo and Bobby in Phoenix, but 'summing it up' you can define this album as stretched and diluted. '‘Okay, but it was made in a short time and it's also free!’', you might say. And indeed you would be right. We must take it for what it is, that is, another musical jerk off by Damon Albarn made in part with a new technological toy that doesn’t really renew much of anything. But at least it sounds like Gorillaz should sound, it has the style of Gorillaz and does not resemble "Plastic Beach" (precisely because "Plastic Beach" really resembled Gorillaz very little).

In conclusion: Albarn did well to publish it if he felt like it, and we, if we feel like it, listen to it for free. Also because, if he put such a thing on sale, the fans would have thrown it at him like a frisbee...