Gorillaz — Cracker Island — Album Review
Alternative | Indie | Electronic | Pop
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
It was the summer of 2022 when the Gorillaz song titled “Cracker Island” was released. And thus, it would serve as the title track and first teaser for what would be my most highly anticipated album going into 2023.
To see the release of a new Gorillaz album is always an exciting occasion. But in the case of Cracker Island, the virtual band’s eighth studio album, that sense of anticipation was extremely heightened.
I would say that following the short hiatus that Gorillaz had following their first three albums (and The Fall, if you want to count that), the band were in a stage of finding their feet again. While both Humanz (2017) and The Now Now (2018) were enjoyable album sin their own right, they both showed a worrying prospect that Gorillaz were losing their identity.
All of those worries were laid to rest, however, with the release of Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, which saw Gorillaz create another banging album, with the versatility, atmosphere, and energy to confirm that they still had what it takes.
And while it seems that the whole Song Machine series idea became scrapped, as shown by the title of Cracker Island, the album was no less one that I was wholeheartedly looking forward to.
Not only was the track record providing enough reason to look forward to this album, I was also fortunate enough to see Gorillaz perform their only live set in the UK for the whole of 2022, that being their headline set at All Points East, in London. Myself and my mates managed to get an exclusive pre-release peek into the second teaser track for Cracker Island, that being “New Gold” (featuring Tame Impala, who actually made an appearance during the performance of that song).
Not to mention, the other three teaser tracks I heard, “Baby Queen”, “Skinny Ape”, and “Silent Running” were also great tracks that teased a more intimate aspect of the album.
One thing I noticed that all of these tracks shared was a certain “vibe” that felt extremely colourful, bright, warm, and danceable. And what do you know; spring is just around the corner, the perfect setting for said vibe.
Ok, now it’s actually time for me to write about the entire album. I must admit, given the sheer backlog of album reviews I need to do (I still have three left to do before next Friday, ideally), I am actually listening to this album front to back for the first time as I’m writing this review.
Thankfully for me though, a good half of this album is made up of tracks I’ve heard prior, given their nature as teasers. Cracker Island is made up of the perfectly balanced amount of ten tracks, enough to make for an experience without being too long or too short.
Even with the short runtime I’ve had with this album, I’ve still managed to find new appreciation for some of the teasers regarding their input on the album as a whole (a perfect example would be “Skinny Ape”, which I thought was a bit sub-par at first, but I find to be a really sweet and danceable track).
On top of that, I really enjoyed a good chunk of the tracks that were as fresh as the album itself, particularly “Oil” and “Tarantula”. And as a whole project, Cracker Island very much plays into being a consistently energetic album throughout.
So how do I feel about this album as a whole? I think that while I would still prefer Song Machine over Cracker Island, it still manages to serve as a continuation of what I like to call “the virtual band’s second wind”. I would say that it’s basically a far better version of The Now Now, and serves as a marvellously apt album for the spring vibes we have to look forward to.
Favourite Tracks: Cracker Island | Oil | New Gold | Skinny Ape
Least Favourite Track: Possession Island
Parlophone Records
