A couple of reviews I wrote for Disorder magazine's end of year issue...
Gorillaz - Demon Days (Parlophone/EMI)
Ten years on from Country House, the idea of Damon Albarn still dictating the musical Zeitgeist seems faintly absurd, yet no album in 2005 announced itself with quite such overzealous imagination or radical intent as Gorillaz second opus. The secret weapon here is Danger Mouse, whose dazzling production tricks and deft hip-hop flourishes prove the perfect catalyst for Albarn's scratchy dub-pop melodies to sprout wings. Highlights? Roots Manuva and Martina Topley Bird sparring on discordant electro-racket 'All Alone'; Dennis Hopper's warped Gonzo monologue on 'Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head'; the way 'O Green World' simmers with menacing invention. And that barely leaves time to mention Gorillaz two bona fide summer anthems, 'Feel Good Inc' and 'DARE'. Dismiss them as a novelty band at your peril: 'Demon Days' is a sprawlingly ambitious, dizzyingly eclectic masterpiece which puts the rest of the pop fraternity to shame.
The Go! Team - Bottle Rocket (Memphis Industries)
Anyone who saw the Go! Team live this year will know that the recorded experience can never quite compare to the visceral impact of watching frontwoman Ninja in full flow, but as call-to-arms go "come on everybody let's rock this place" is right up there with the Beasties urging us to fight for our right to party. Heady, intoxicating and drenched in euphoric brass, this sublime slice of mashed-up Motown revivalism is an uncomplicated, unadulterated pop thrill. Somebody should have slipped the Mercury judges an E.
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