Damon Albarn says the falsetto heard on Gorillaz’s debut album was “definitely related” to the drugs he was taking at the time.
- READ MORE: Gorillaz – ‘Cracker Island’ review: conventional, but richly satisfying
The band – helmed by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett and made up of bassist Murdoc Niccals, singer 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs and guitarist Noodle – are currently in the midst of a four-night London residency at the Copper Box Arena to mark their 25th anniversary as a band.
To kick off the four-night run, the band played their debut album in full on Friday night (August 29), playing the full set of songs from their 2001 self-titled LP, with tracks like ‘Double Bass’ and ‘Ghost Train’ getting their first ever live outing, while ‘Starshine’, ‘Slow Country’, ‘Sound Check (Gravity)’, and ‘Man Research (Clapper)’ were performed for the first time since 2002.
Albarn and Hewlett recently sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss the anniversary, with Blur singer Albarn reflecting on the demands of its vocals and joking that he couldn’t “quite believe” he hit the falsetto heard on the record.
“That first record has a crazy amount of falsetto,” he said, explaining it was “definitely related to the drugs I was taking. I was a much more irresponsible human being. I was hitting some notes I really didn’t think coming back I’d be able to hit again.”
Having now played their debut and follow-up ‘Demon Days’ in full at the Copper Box, the band are set to play their 2010 third album ‘Plastic Beach’ in full on Tuesday (September 2).
The fourth and final show falls the day after (September 3), is pegged by the band as a ‘Mystery Show’. It isn’t yet clear if there will be any special guests joining Albarn, nor has it been shared which songs fans can expect.
This year has also seen Albarn tease a new Gorillaz album, and suggest it will be arriving later in 2025. “I’m finishing a new Gorillaz album. One opera and one new Gorillaz album seems like enough for 2025,” he told French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. “Unless someone accuses me of taking my foot off the gas!”
Hewlett then added fuel to the fire, writing in an Instagram comment: “Yes, the new album is coming out this year.”
Then, in an interview with Channel 4 earlier this month, Albarn seemed to further tease new music. When asked, “So might there be something new there?”, the musician responded, “There might. I mean, yes. In that sense, yeah,” while Hewlett mimed his throat being cut.
Gorillaz’s last album, 2023’s ‘Cracker Island’, was given a four-star review by NME and described as “a consistently enjoyable record that shows why they remain relevant so far into their career.”
“A band that was once considered mucking about on the periphery of pop are now very much defining the present and inspiring the future. You could be doing much worse for album eight, eh?” it read.
