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Gorillaz - 'Stylo'

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Fraser McAlpine | 16:39 UK time, Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Gorillaz

If it wasn't transparently obvious that he'd just tell you where to stick it and slope off, giggling, I'd be tempted to recommend that Damon Albarn be given some kind of award. If nothing else, he deserves recognition for services to being clever in a medium where clever is the fifth most useful thing you can be after sexy, charismatic, funny and good with a tune.

It couldn't be anything too orthodox, like a knighthood or an Oscar either. I'm talking about the kind of gong you can hand out to smartypantses without making them smirk. It'd have to come with an all-bases-covered, self-defeating, post-ironic, mock-heroic kind of statuette which is at one and the same time too big, too small, too loud, too quiet, silly, floppy, shiny, smeared, uselessly brilliant and brilliantly useless.

And most of all, it would have to be awarded in full sincerity. No giggling. He'd still lose the trophy on the way out of the ceremony, mind, but at least you'd know the point had been made: clever man, deserves headpat.

('Stylo' has been rush-released after a leak, so, here isn't the video.)

I won't run down his list of achievements here, for reasons of space, but it's worth mentioning that he's just about the only pop star ever whose silly little side project involving cartoons has gone on to become The All-Conquering Day Job. He also has to be the only lead singer/songwriter in popular music history who has not attempted to relaunch himself as a solo act, but that's by the by.

So, what with Damon bringing the weight of expectation and some pretty singybits, Mos Def on muffled rap duties and old school R&B ledge Bobby Womack yowling like a stretched weasel, this has to be the best song which has ever been made ever, ever, surely?

Well, nearly. It's not much more than a four-bar electro bass loop, with some hissy, scrapy noises over the top and a bit of a variation for the chorus. It does not make much of an effort to DO anything, unless you count Bobby W attempting to scream his tonsils onto a nearby wall.

There again, it's Gorillaz, their drooling strut is their most potent asset. The band exists as an outlet for Damon's most stoopid/fresh ideas, which just goes to prove that one of the best things about being clever is knowing when to keep it hidden.

Four starsDownload: Today!
www.gorillaz.com
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

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