Gorillaz (album)

Untitled

Gorillaz is the eponymous debut album by Gorillaz, released in March 2001. It includes the singles "Clint Eastwood", "19-2000", "Rock the House" and "Tomorrow Comes Today". The album reached #3 in the UK, and was an unexpected hit in the U.S., hitting #14 and selling over 6 million copies worldwide.

Album information

Throughout the album the band experiments with many combinations of genres, including hip-hop, rock, Latin, punk and reggae.

Gorillaz was released as an Enhanced CD that includes a short movie and access to Murdoc's Winnebago via a download at murdocswinnebago.com, which is now accessible by simply going on the Kong Studios online tour.

In 2004, the album was packaged with 2002's Laika Come Home in a limited edition box set as part of EMI's "2CD Originals" collection.

The beginning of the song "M1A1" features a sound clip from the movie, Day of the Dead.

The song "Slow Country" features a sample from The Specials' 1981 single Ghost Town.

A sampled loop from "In the Hall of the Mountain Queen" by Raymond Scott is repeated throughout the song "Man Research (Clapper)." The song's title is a nod to Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research, Inc. [1]

The song "Clint Eastwood (Ed Case remix)" was used in a bump for PBS.

Reception

Professional reviews:

• Rolling Stone (6/21/01, p.78) – 3 stars out of 5 - "A playful piece of genre-squishing art pop. Inspired by the punky reggae parties of Sandinista!-era Clash....running with anything-goes avant-aesthetic."

• Spin (1/02, p.76) - Ranked #6 in Spin's "Albums of the Year 2001."

• Spin (6/01, p.148) – 7 out of 10 -"A multiculti grasp of the sweetest kind....Easy on the ears because they know the difference between calling people up and casting them."

• Q magazine (5/01, p.115) – 4 stars out of 5 - "With its creepily urban feel, and innocent, nursery-rhyme quality of the melodies, Gorillaz couldn't be further from a self-consciously arch 'art' supergroup."

• Alternative Press (2/02, p.65) - Ranked #15 in AP's "25 Best Albums of 2001."

• Alternative Press (7/01, p.68) – 8 out of 10 -"Brilliant"

• Magnet (6-7/01, pp.89-90) - "Nothing short of sheer musical buggery."

• Muzik (5/01, p.66) – 5 out of 5 - "Genre-splicing, sample-collaging, spliffed-out hip hop...standing head and shoulders over anything Blur have ever achieved...and even overshadows much of Dan The Automator's recent output."

• Mojo (4/01, p.98) - "A funky...meld of dub, reggae, hip hop, world music, pop and thrash punk....Electric, upbeat, and actually very good."

• NME (12/29/01, p.59) - Ranked #48 in NME's 50 "Albums Of the Year 2001".

Track listing

1. "Re-Hash" – 3:38
   • featuring Miho Hatori
2. "5/4" – 2:41
3. "Tomorrow Comes Today" – 3:13
4. "New Genious (Brother)" – 3:57
5. "Clint Eastwood" – 5:41
   • featuring Del tha Funkee Homosapien
6. "Man Research (Clapper)" – 4:29
7. "Punk" – 1:36
8. "Sound Check (Gravity)" – 4:40
9. "Double Bass" – 4:44
10. "Rock the House" – 4:09
    • featuring Del tha Funkee Homosapien
11. "19-2000" – 3:27
    • featuring Miho Hatori and Tina Weymouth
12. "Latin Simone (¿Qué Pasa Contigo?)" – 3:36
    • featuring Ibrahim Ferrer
13. "Starshine" – 3:31
14. "Slow Country" – 3:35
15. "M1 A1" – 3:55

Bonus tracks

• "Clint Eastwood" (Ed Case remix, unindexed bonus track on nearly all releases) – 4:29
• "19-2000" (Soulchild remix, bonus track on European release and re-release) – 3:30
• "Dracula" (bonus track on U.S. release) – 3:42
• "Left Hand Suzuki Method" (bonus track on U.S. release) – 3:09

Singles and EPs

• "Tomorrow Comes Today" (EP) released before the album was released, a promo video was also released.
• "Clint Eastwood" was the first single from the album. It was released on 4 March 2001, just a few weeks before the album and peaked at #3 in the UK and #57 in the United States.
• "19-2000" was the second single, released in June 2001. Peaked at #6 in the UK charts.
• "Rock the House" was the third single, released in October 2001. Peaked at #18 in the UK charts.
• "Tomorrow Comes Today" was the fourth and final single from the album, released almost a year after the album, in February 2002. It peaked at #33 in the UK charts. A DVD, a white-label and a CD-single were released. Prior to the release of Gorillaz, "Tomorrow Comes Today" had been released as an EP on 27 November 2000.

Release history

The album was released in various countries in 2001.

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United Kingdom	March 26. 2001	Parlophone	CD	5311380
			LP	5311381
Japan	11 April 2001	Toshiba-EMI	CD	TOCP 65676
United States	19 June 2001	Virgin Records America	CD	7243 5 33748 0 8