El Mañana

El Mañana
El Mañana (Demon Detour)
El Mañana (Demon Days Live)
El Mañana (Escape To Plastic Beach Tour)
El Mañana (Damon Albarn live with Demon Strings, acoustic version, 2014)
El Mañana (Damon Albarn live with backing band The Heavy Seas, 2014)
El Mañana (Humanz Live)

"The track provides a moment of internal dialogue, laid over a staccato ballad. This composition was one of the very last to be written, and provided the necessary feel for the mid-point of the record, the calm at the centre of the storm."
- Noodle

"(One of the ideas we wanted to do in the Gorillaz movie was) the world being trapped in an endless night"
- Jamie Hewlett

Ok, before we get started, let's address the elephant in the room...

No, this song is not about Noodle's death, at least that's not what it was originally intended for. This song is among one of the deepest inner monologues Damon has ever put on a record. Damon Albarn, despite being in full 2D glory on this song, is clearly writing in his own voice on a theme that often goes unnoticed in his writing, the unspoken conversation between a man and his messiah, his god.

Damon Albarn, while not being overly traditional or outspoken about it, is a very religious man. He has been quoted saying that one of his first musical interests was hearing his local church choir sing throughout the streets of Leytonstone. Damon Albarn is a religious songwriter in the same way that an artist like David Bowie is a religious songwriter. Both writers don't commit to their religion entirely and indulge in behaviors and thoughts normally thought of as "sinful", but in the end they always question themselves, often dedicating some songs to the inner dialogue of a man who knows he's not the best he can be. Both only come to god when they are in a time of need, making for a more modern look on the average Christian as opposed to the traditionalists often represented in the media. One of the beautiful things a mask or persona can do is unleash sides of someone that they couldn't before, which in a way makes 2D a better representation of Damon than his "real" voice in Blur. So with "Demon Days", Damon Albarn finally got to fully commit to making a record with gospel overtones, even going as far as using The London Community Gospel Choir as the in-house choir of backing vocalists for the record and it's respective tour.

The composition for this song is amazing and it just might be one of the best instrumentals the group has ever made. While being a soft art rock song centered around Damon's synthesizers, a string section and Simon Tong's acoustic guitar, the song has many elements that take the listener out of their comfort zone. The song has heavy flirtations with all types of "soul" music, from the classic electric piano countermelodies to the use of gospel backing vocals. On top of all this are weird experimental electric slide guitars played by Damon, a drum machine loop programmed by James Dring that is definitely meant to mimic a drum line of Damon Albarn collaborator and legend, Tony Allen, a heavy distorted bass guitar played by Jason Cox and a whooshing siren which always communicates a sense of danger and fear in the track. It's a soul record for those looking for answers to their paranoia and turmoil. Then as the instrumental is fully built up, Damon comes into the picture...

In Damon's first verse he talks about how he has lost all the sense of joy in his life. He uses the season of "summer" as a double entendre. Summer is not only a season where joy is abundant within all of it's sunshiny glory, but it is also a common name for girls. He says that "summer don't know me no more" as if he was in a relationship with the weather-girl, making the use of the word ambiguous. Damon's lyrics in this song are muddled and confusing, but the one thing we can make out is the common usage of the word "Lord". He's talking to god, in a continuation of the brief interlude of conversation they had on the album's opener, "Last Living Souls". The chorus, the song's main feature, states, "Saw that day. Lost my mind. Lord, I'm fine. Maybe in time, you'll want to be mine." He's remembering the better times, possibly the happy times he used to have in (or with) summer. But then he states it's gone now, it went with his mind, but he's doing fine, he's just hoping he can see those days again, when he was happy. Maybe god can help him find his lost soul, I mean that's the point of religion, right? Those that need guidance seek it from their savior, their lord, the all knowing one.

The English translation of the title is "the morning". The world of "Demon Days", the post-9/11 wasteland the world was in, the world that was trapped in an endless night, has now woken up. The morning marks the start of the new day, only nothing has changed. Damon hasn't found his answers, "what are we going to do?"

Of course, the song takes on a new meaning now. "El Mañana" became the last single released for the album, and the video featured Noodle being killed in a tragic crash by the villains of the phase, Jimmy Manson and his army of helicopter pilots. The video set up for a plot line in another attempt to do a Gorillaz movie in 2006 which got farther off than their original attempt in Phase 1, having big names like Terry Gilliam and Harvey Weinstein involved in the project. However, the project was eventually cancelled due to more unwanted studio tampering. In the movie Noodle would have turned out ok, but with the movie cancelled, Jamie Hewlett and Cass Browne quickly wrote it off saying that she ended up being trapped in Kong Studios' gateway to hell and would eventually make her way out. For a while though, everyone thought they actually killed off Noodle, and for good reason. Jamie and Cass purposefully built the character of Noodle up in the band's then story. They gave her more lines, she no longer said a word or two here or there, she was speaking in full English sentences.  She became the center of the band's new thematic statement, a musical presence on par with that of the singer 2D. The video, along with Damon's continued statement that "Demon Days" would be the band's last record, made fans think Noodle was actually and truly dead. Making the title a play on words, "the morning" becoming "the mourning". Regardless of what the song means to you, it is an emotional centerpiece in the band's catalogue. Damon obviously loves this song, putting it near the end of the band's setlists and going all out on the vocals with the choir during the last minute of the song. As someone who saw the band play this track live, I cannot begin to tell you how emotionally the band delivers this song on stage. "El Mañana" is a tribute to what the band is capable of and the power they have over their listeners.