It’s been four years since Gorillaz dropped their trippy, electro-funk-hop, Dan The Automator-produced debut on an unsuspecting world. Now, menacingly dashing frontman 2D, break-savvy rap-spouting drummer Russel, innocently charming guitar whiz Noodle and satanic bassist/bandleader Murdoc are back to foil the sophomore jinx with the ambitious Demon Days. (Or—if you’re too cool to play along and insist on spoiling the bizarro cartoon fun—the album marks the return of chief project visionary, Blur’s Damon Albarn, this time with a fresh supporting cast including De La Soul, Ike Turner, Dennis Hopper, MF Doom and a slew of anonymous collaborators.)
With Gorillaz enlisting the underground-infamous Danger Mouse (creator of controversial Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up The Grey Album) as producer this time, the sound is more psychedeli-danceable than ever. And single “Feel Good Inc.”—with its undulating Bernie Worrell-via-Talking Heads whammy keyboards, Prince-worthy funkiness, slammin’ rhymes and whispered-through-megaphone snippets of Becknik poetry—is every bit as brain-burning catchy as the debut’s “Clint Eastwood” and “19-2000.”