Roots Manuva drops in next with his bugged out stagger/slugger flow and 12 gauge grumble dominating much of "All Alone," which sounds an awful lot like something from their debut. Musically it's a swirling mixture of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Volatile soul legend Ike Turner even pops up on the piano! MF Doom extracts some of his mental madness onto "November Has Come" which starts off as perhaps the most un-Gorillaz sounding track on the album, except for the lushly floating chorus and autumnal verses sung by Albarn. The overwhelming sense of early '80s d¿j¿ vu continues on "Every Planet We Reach Is Dead" which roils to a strange reggae slumber that brings to mind Sting and The Police's work on Brimstone & Treacle crossed with morphed versions of Bob Marley. Brown effectively kicks off the rap transformation of the album as Strong Island legends De La Soul slip their mind-bending logistics into the next track, "Feel Good Inc." With "El Manana" the tempo is kept low and slow, Albarn practically whispering the lyrics in a sensuous and warmly lit rasp. Yet it strangely works its way under your skin, growing like a slow, well-cultivated lichen to coat the track with oomph! and bump.
The rap from Bootie Brown is initially a bit stiff and awkward, his flow a little too aggressive for the otherwise mellow serenity.
"Dirty Harry," the inevitable "sequel" to the band's previous hit "Clint Eastwood" is a hypnotic shuffle that feels like a dusted outtake from The Police, that is until the bling-bong synth wriggles its way into the equation, worming its way underneath the youthful voices of a choir that saturate the track. Strange Far East dissonance plunks and plongs into blippage galore on "O Green World," which lurches and slogs along at a staggering jag before rusty guitar and floating strains of bass work their way into the structure. Nowhere is this dark and stark tempo motif best elaborated than on "Kids With Guns," which sounds a bit like a recently unearthed and excessively stripped down New Wave tune from twenty years ago (think Human League on heroin and/or 'ludes). From the dark alley ambiance of "Intro" which slips into the electronic metronome syncopation of "Last Living Souls," a minimalistic echo blurb of dub that co-exists between the future and the past. For the most part every track on the album reverberates with a shadowy sense of sultry intrigue. On board for the mix this time around is the irrepressible Danger Mouse, who brings a more intricate and upliftingly Stygian aura to the proceedings. Whereas 2001's self-titled debut broke the chains that had previously bound indie/alt rock and rap with a quick flick of the wrist and deft manipulation of the boards thanks to Blur madman Damon Albarn's brilliant collaborations with the likes of The Automator, the lithe femme fatales from Cibo Matto, Del, and the nucleus of the Tom Tom Club, here the shift seems to be something akin to traveling into the mind of John Malkovich battling the flu with some old school codeine laced Robitussen.
Following one G-side release and one remix release and an almost four year hiatus, the preeminent cartoon band of the new millennium return with a proper sophomore effort that shows them reveling in a much more introspective and murky sense of euphoria.
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