The Fall is the fourth studio album from British virtual band Gorillaz. The album was officially announced on 20 December 2010[2] and soon after released on 25 December 2010 as a "free" download on the Gorillaz website, exclusively to fans in the band's Sub-Division fan club.[3] The entire album was recorded on group founder Damon Albarn's iPad during the American leg of the Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour in October 2010 and mixed in England by Stephen Sedgwick.[4][5][6] The album features fewer guest artists than previous Gorillaz albums; collaborators include Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash and Bobby Womack. The "Phoner to Arizona" music video, a compilation of footage and images taken from the tour and the phase was posted on YouTube on 22 December.[7] The album was physically released on 18 April 2011.[8][9][10]
Reception [edit]
Upon its release, The Fall received positive reviews from most music critics.[11] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 67, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[11]
Lacking the feel of previous offerings, the album was praised for its unique qualities and experimental nature. It did not receive the fame of previous albums but was rather treated as a pet project that resulted from the group's prior North American tour.[25] The album used the iPad to create additional features to the tracks. Other instruments featured on the album include Korg Vocoder, Ukulele, microKORG, Omnichord, Minimoog Voyager, Melodica, Guitar, Piano and Korg Monotron.
Collaborations [edit]
Previous Gorillaz albums featured large numbers of guests. Their previous album Plastic Beach has guests on 13 of the 16 tracks with multiple guests per track, totalling more guest artists than tracks. The Fall includes only four guest artists. Three of these four have worked with Damon Albarn before. Mick Jones and Bobby Womack appeared on Plastic Beach, as did Paul Simonon, who also worked on Albarn’s project The Good, the Bad & the Queen.[26] American rapper Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D also recorded a track with Albarn while touring together, but his track does not appear on the album.[27]
Track listing [edit]
|
| 1. |
"Phoner to Arizona" |
4:14 |
| 2. |
"Revolving Doors" |
3:26 |
| 3. |
"HillBilly Man" (featuring Mick Jones) |
3:50 |
| 4. |
"Detroit" |
2:03 |
| 5. |
"Shy-town" |
2:54 |
| 6. |
"Little Pink Plastic Bags" |
3:09 |
| 7. |
"The Joplin Spider" |
3:22 |
| 8. |
"The Parish of Space Dust" |
2:25 |
| 9. |
"The Snake in Dallas" |
2:11 |
| 10. |
"Amarillo" |
3:24 |
| 11. |
"The Speak It Mountains" |
2:14 |
| 12. |
"Aspen Forest" (featuring Paul Simonon) |
2:50 |
| 13. |
"Bobby in Phoenix" (featuring Bobby Womack) |
3:16 |
| 14. |
"California and the Slipping of the Sun" |
3:24 |
| 15. |
"Seattle Yodel" |
0:38 |
|
Total length:
|
43:28 |
|
Additional personnel [edit]
- Guitar on track 3 by Mick Jones[28]
- Additional keyboards on track 6 by Jesse Hackett
- Bass on track 12 by Paul Simonon
- Qanun on track 12 by James R Grippo
- Vocals, guitar and additional songwriting on track 13 by Bobby Womack
- Vocals on track 15 by The Archie McPhee Yodelling Pickle
Chart positions [edit]
References [edit]
External links [edit]
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