Intro: Last Living Souls (thanks to reddit user Michelangelo_Jenkins for link to full version of song)
This wasn't supposed to happen...
Gorillaz were supposed to have a couple hits and then fade into obscurity, becoming a novelty to the mainstream, a one hit wonder, a tiny blip on the pop culture radar, a side project of a washed up artist whose prime had past him by. But then the band came back with more hits, one of them becoming Damon's most world conquering song ever. Not only that, but the band's new record would be a commentary on the world around them and would top the charts for it. It would be not only the band's highest artistic feat, but the record the world would know them for. There aren't even many "real life" artists whose best works are also their most commercially successful. An album championed by both die-hard fans and the populous masses.
Yet somehow, Damon managed to do it with "Demon Days", Gorillaz greatest achievement
Intro
"Dark Is Good Dark Is God"
- an anecdote written on the walls of Damon Albarn's 13 Studios circa 2005
"Demon Days" starts off where the first album left off, with samples of George A. Romero's "Dawn Of The Dead" consuming the instrumental. The band have gotten off from their journey on the M1 A1 to find the world in an apocalyptic type rubble. The world is consumed by fear after terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and pointless, never-ending wars such as Afghanistan and Iraq. During this pitched up voices murmur, "who put the chemicals in the food chain?" (we'll address what this lyric means in a later entry). Soon the voices consume the track making for a cacophonous noise. The world of the characters is now becoming a distorted and fucked up mirror to the chaos that the real world has become. As the noise stops, a deep voice tells us that we are now entering "the harmonic realm", and the album begins...
Last Living Souls
Last Living Souls (Humanz Live)
"Last Living Souls" opens with a drum machine preset from a Cha Cha Rhythm Ace (the samba setting I believe). This drum machine sounds like it's setting up for a chilled out groove, but instead we get a dark anthem that is the final goodbye to the dub reggae sounds of the first album. The band for "Demon Days" brings re-introduces a key element to this band, co-producer/mixer/engineer Jason Cox. He plays a lot on this album including the dubby bass guitar here. It also introduces drummer, James Dring, who also is a co-producer of this album, he is a monster of a drummer who would work with Damon throughout the decade. As the track builds, Damon adds various synthesizers to provide melodic counterparts as well as an electric guitar playing chords that ring with feedback.
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A lot of people don't understand the irony of the lyrics, calling the constant questioning of the band being the last living souls as pretentious. But the lead singer 2D is a character consumed by fear and anxiety, in a world where the others around him exhibit the same traits, his are only increased. 2D and his anxiety are now one and the same, making him less articulate. So Damon is channeling 2D throughout this record, speaking in the lingo only someone with a messed up mind like his could muster in dark times like these.
"Last Living Souls" opens with a drum machine preset from a Cha Cha Rhythm Ace (the samba setting I believe). This drum machine sounds like it's setting up for a chilled out groove, but instead we get a dark anthem that is the final goodbye to the dub reggae sounds of the first album. The band for "Demon Days" brings re-introduces a key element to this band, co-producer/mixer/engineer Jason Cox. He plays a lot on this album including the dubby bass guitar here. It also introduces drummer, James Dring, who also is a co-producer of this album, he is a monster of a drummer who would work with Damon throughout the decade. As the track builds, Damon adds various synthesizers to provide melodic counterparts as well as an electric guitar playing chords that ring with feedback.
A lot of people don't understand the irony of the lyrics, calling the constant questioning of the band being the last living souls as pretentious. But the lead singer 2D is a character consumed by fear and anxiety, in a world where the others around him exhibit the same traits, his are only increased. 2D and his anxiety are now one and the same, making him less articulate. So Damon is channeling 2D throughout this record, speaking in the lingo only someone with a messed up mind like his could muster in dark times like these.
The song comes to a stop in the middle of the song, revealing an orchestral sound new to the Gorillaz catalog. The London Community Gospel Choir reveal themselves as the in-house choir for this album as they chant "get up" as an echo to Damon while the track's dub groove slowly dissolves. Soon it's just Damon singing with a piano and an acoustic guitar played by Simon Tong, guitarist of Britpop band The Verve and a musician who will continue to make appearances on this album. Damon's lyrics talk about all he's done wrong ("cos all I've sung, I got it down wrong"), he's wondering if God will still accept him when his time has come. Only Damon can take a track from a latter day Specials type groove into a Paul McCartney esque prayer on piano and make it sound as brilliant as it does here. Soon, another addition comes in, this being Gorillaz in-house string section, Demon Strings. The dub sounds of the beginning merges with the more orchestral and rock oriented sounds that this album will deliver. Damon realizes he's all alone, his prayers did'n't work, we are doomed. He then screams the song's title question as a duel between a drum machine and the dub groove of Cox and Dring play us off, it's a battle between the authentic and the mass produced, a battle Damon will continue to fight throughout his whole career.
The song became gradually more unhinged and dubby as the band continued to play it live. By 2017, the drum machine was no longer the song's center focus and the drum and bass's dub groove plays us off as Damon's screams echo throughout the arena. Only a band like Gorillaz can turn a track like this into a live constant that fans love to sing along to. For some bands, a track like "Last Living Souls" would be their greatest achievement, their grand finale. But for Gorillaz, it is only the beginning of their quest.
The song became gradually more unhinged and dubby as the band continued to play it live. By 2017, the drum machine was no longer the song's center focus and the drum and bass's dub groove plays us off as Damon's screams echo throughout the arena. Only a band like Gorillaz can turn a track like this into a live constant that fans love to sing along to. For some bands, a track like "Last Living Souls" would be their greatest achievement, their grand finale. But for Gorillaz, it is only the beginning of their quest.
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