All Alone

All Alone
All Alone (Demon Detour, with Roots Manuva & Martina Topley-Bird)
All Alone (Demon Days Live, with Roots Manuva & Martina Topley-Bird)

"If Jesus came back today and saw what was going on in his name, he would never stop throwing up."
- Woody Allen

"All Alone" begins with the sound of 2D ending his conversations with his god. On the first half of "Demon Days", 2D tried talking to god several times in the world's hour of horror and fear, but nothing changed. So at the start of this song, 2D gives up finally realizing that he is, indeed, "all alone".

First before we take a look at the lyrics, lemme just say that the beat is phenomenal on this track. The catchy yet sinister synth riff Damon uses as the main riff of this song is fantastic. It gets even better when Morgon Nicholls' heavy bass guitar & Damon's synth bass drops along with James Dring's signature layer of electronic drums and live drums (once again they seem like they are mimic-ing Tony Allen), it becomes a jaw dropping banger in the style of "trap" and UK "grime". Damon chants "all alone" in his classic stuffy nosed 2D voice, accompanied by malformed and misshapen voices which echo him. After a quick break during which off tempo claustrophobic synths come in, Roots Manuva makes his way towards centerstage.

Before Roots Manuva begins, he gives a shout out to two Bible books, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, two things which Roots will prove to you in his verse, don't matter in the world we are living in. Now Roots Manuva is a very talented rapper who Damon & Jamie wanted to get on a Gorillaz record since the early days. However it wasn't until the second record that Roots could finally make some time to come into 13 Studios. And lemme tell you something, Roots Manuva fucking destroys this track (and I'm using this expletive to convey my point). His rapid-fire flow conveys a sense of anger and disappointment in the world, he mentions these two Biblical books at the beginning as if he is projecting his angry verse towards the world around him. He quotes the books a couple more times during the verse ("The cup then runneth over"). He mentions this inside a verse which addresses issues like nukes ("chemical cutthroats") to communicate how people only interpret the Bible to justify whatever bigotry or wrong doings they believe in. What Roots Manuva is saying is that maybe there is a god, but he abandoned us after all the wrong we did in his name like persecuting gay people and blowing up other countries because they believed in other religions. Therefore since god abandoned us after all our heinous acts, he left us "all alone". Roots Manuva's last couple lines sum up this completely saying, "cut to the brain, this ain't no game. I'll show no shame, I'll birth this blame. I'm twisted cain, I'll twist a gain. No to what these sayers sayin. No to what these doers do. It's you and who and you-know-where we about to take it there. We's about to make it clear, we happy or we lonesome. The long jump, the beatin heart from start to finish. Ten spoons of spinach, the soul and it's spillage. The cup then runneth over, return of the ogre."

As we approach the middle of the song, the anger Roots Manuva and 2D are feeling is calmed down by the soothing voice of Martina Topley-Bird. Her voice is accompanied by some atmospheric synthesizers and Simon Tong's calming acoustic guitar. In the song's video, the image of the "windmill" is used again, 2D's happy place during the atrocities that took place with "Feel Good Inc." Martina Topley-Bird tells the crew to "close your eyes and see, where there ain't no light". She's asking to step back for a minute and calm down. She remains unaffected by the endless night the world around her is trapped and remains blissful saying how "when the morning comes, it doesn't seem to mean an awful lot to me". However her point doesn't get through to the boys, and the angry beat comes back in. This time however the beat is fighting for center stage against the atmospheric synthesizers that came with Martina's calmness. But as 2D chants his mantra of pessimism, "all alone", the beat slowly fades, leaving only a mournful electric guitar played by Damon. The band and the world are finally left alone to deal with their personal demons as the world around them falls more into chaos.

"All Alone" must be one of Damon & Jamie's favorite Gorillaz songs, as they named the band's autobiography after one of the song's lyrics (albeit being a slight mis-quote). It was the only non-single track from the then new record (aside from "Last Living Souls") to be played on the band's "Demon Detour" and was planned to be played on the "Escape To Plastic Beach Tour" despite the fact that neither Roots Manuva or Martina Topley-Bird were touring with them (it was never played but was written on multiple setlists). At the "Demon Days Live" showcases the track faired very well amongst the album's other pieces. While at the early shows in Manchester, Roots and Martina were a charismatic presence on stage, at the later shows in New York, the pair often seemed out of it or under the influence of some kind of drug while performing it. "All Alone" is a great track that serves as one of the end points of the "Demon Days" album and was probably an influence on the band's fifth record, "Humanz", which had more songs done in the style that this track takes on.