Gorillaz: Cracker Island — where’s the colour and bounce?

For such a driven character, Damon Albarn is intriguingly drawn to the topic of ennui. We find it secreted into his band Blur’s first hit in 1991, “There’s No Other Way”, which was backed by an attractively hazy B-side called “Inertia”. The theme has prompted some of his finest work, such as the 2007 debut from his side-project The Good, the Bad & the Queen, which depicted Britain as a ghostly post-imperial backwater. Here was a superbly orchestrated flipside to the “Cool Britannia” boosterism that had enveloped Blur a decade earlier.

Albarn and his Blur bandmates are reuniting this summer for a series of dates, including two nights at Wembley Stadium. Meanwhile, the other main outlet for his work is back with its fourth album since 2017. Gorillaz is the cartoon band that he launched with illustrator Jamie Hewlett in 1998. Initially conducted by Albarn in a semi-clandestine fashion, this loosely construed virtual group enabled him to fly the shores of Britpop. New styles were added to his songwriting palette, especially hip-hop and funk. Link-ups were brokered with an audaciously cosmopolitan cast of collaborators, from Snoop Dogg to the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music.

The inspired recruitment policy continues on Cracker Island, albeit with fitfully inspiring results. Stevie Nicks sings with Albarn on “Oil”, a rhythmically smooth but melodically dull electronic rocker. Los Angeles bass virtuoso Thundercat adds a lithe accompaniment to the title track’s pressing disco bustle. Reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny makes a charismatic appearance on the sweetly mellow ballad “Tormenta”. 

These varied personalities inhabit a less sprawling album than its predecessor, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez. Co-produced with Greg Kurstin, a stalwart LA-based hitmaker, Cracker Island also lacks the exuberance of the best Gorillaz releases. Proficiency trumps colour and bounce. Worse, Albarn’s preoccupation with the theme of ennui has itself become tiring.

Technology is the cause of his discontent on this occasion. Oblique references to screens, influencers and alternate realities mount up as the singer glumly croons about being lost and feeling sad. The lyrics are scattershot, but Albarn’s vocal timbre is the real problem. The passing years have caused his voice to get lower in pitch, giving it a drizzly, downbeat quality that sucks energy from its surroundings. Amid the busy action and guest stars, he sounds as though he is succumbing to the lethargy that has always haunted his indefatigable musical imagination.

★★☆☆☆

‘Cracker Island’ is released by Parlophone