O Green World

O Green World
O Green World (Demon Days Live)
O Green World (Escape To Plastic Beach Tour)

"The words are a little reminder to keep a little greenery in your heart.."
- Noodle

"O Green World" is probably one of the darkest things Damon Albarn has ever written. The track itself is a monstrous track that delves into no wave electronics, post-punk noise guitars and horror movie type orchestration ("Psycho" in particular comes to mind). The track was likely written during the early stages of recording (the "Reject False Icons" sessions) due to Jamie's use of images and Damon's use of thematic ideas from the rejected Gorillaz movie, "Celebrity Harvest". Danger Mouse heard the track (either from a possible demo that was recorded or just by Damon playing it for him) and decided to make it into something astoundingly grandiose.

The song begins with Damon de-tuning his ukulele. Danger Mouse adds distortion to the production making the ukulele sound like a noisy feedback guitar that could have been found off of a Sonic Youth record. This leads to the first section of the song, which is centered around various strange Damon synthesizers, a drum machine played by Danger Mouse and Jason Cox's distorted bass guitar. As the song progresses, the sound of a raven (Cortez, Murdoc's pet) screaming becomes the central focus of the song. It's eery, it's dissonant, it's brilliant, but this isn't the whole song's sound.

The song changes suddenly the song is centered around two electric guitars played by Damon Albarn and Simon Tong noisily tearing through chords. A choir of vocals chant into the night as Damon starts to sing. He seems to be singing about the pollution around us on first glimpse, praying the "green world" doesn't leave him ("o green world, don't desert me now"), but he is also singing about the music industry around him. Like the first album, Gorillaz are still fighting for the end of meaningless pop music ("fighting for something new in this, when no one needs the heart of me") and wants music to go into new untraveled territory ("somewhere I've never been before"). As the lyrics progress the drum machine kicks back in, as does the bass but they are chased by a cavalcade of synth noises and hysterical screams of pain.

This part ends with a cacophonous noise from Simon Tong's guitar and soon we are back to the song's synthetic beginnings. The transition between the two give the sense of there being another duel between the real and the authentic, like there was on "Last Living Souls", the album's intro. Just then we are sucked back into another verse from Damon. This time the verse gets more explicit about the anti-pop culture themes as Damon is purely ad libbing this section. Damon went into the booth for the second verse without anything written and just sang what came to his head and it's among one of the most personal and darkest things he's ever put out. He questions existence in the world we live in now ("where are we?"), he says it's all a lie for profit ("sells to lie") and that pop stars make those with creativity unable to compete without selling their souls to the corporations ("from the darkest stars that force you"). Damon is talking about his own experiences in music here and uses 2D as a vocal puppet to soften the blow. As the verse progresses it gets uglier, saying that sex and drugs are the only thing that make him feel good anymore ("Hope sex and drugs will rust myself, it feels holy, it feels holy") in a world that makes him feel so "little". Soon he stops singing and the guitars disappear, and the choral melody becomes doubled by a synthesizer. The music stops, a bell tolls, the industry won, taking another spirit down with them.

"O Green World" was played live in the "Demon Days Live" showcases where the orchestration became grander, Cass Browne pounded on the drum beat, the guitars and bass became rawer, and the strings played a new countermelody which gave the track even more of a "Psycho" vibe. It became a regular on the "Escape To Plastic Beach Tour" where the song's environmental undertones fit right in among the themes of the band's then new album. The song has been absent from the band's recent performances (they seem to be avoiding a lot of "Demon Days" deeper cuts as of late) but hopefully it will make a return soon. "O Green World" is one of the darkest tracks the band has made and is yet another classic delivered from the "Demon Days" album.