In Defense of 'Humanz'

obamna

00:00 intro
02:02 the politics
08:20 the features
11:14 the music
16:15 the ‘lore’
19:46 the revival
22:33 conclusion
23:23 outro

songs used:
‘northern whale’ – the good, the bad & the queen
‘intro’ – the good, the bad & the queen

[blenderuser]

People completely miss the point that the sponsorships became needed after the Plastic Beach budget debacle that lead to Jamie feeling his role had become diminished.

[Glitch_Comicz]

In my eyes, Humanz is THE party playlist.

[lonniegabbie]

Humanz is “too in your face politically” but no one complained about lyrics like “because we left the taps running for a hundred years”. Gorillaz has always been very on the nose with their politics 😅 there’s many examples of it.

[Freewill_Moder]

I always saw “We Got the Power” as a satirization of those who promote overly optimistic and simplistic answers to the world’s many complex issues.
How the final line of the song just abruptly stops and quickly fades out just feels so stark to me. Especially with the Deluxe version putting out a post-apocalypse vibe rather than one that’s occurring at the present moment. “New World” signals a kind of rebirth and failure of “We Got the Power. Lines like “too late” and “I’m tired” demonstrate how it failed and the New World will be brand new. “The Apprentice” conjures images of a refuge within a city where people reflect on how things have turned out. “Halfway to the Halfway House” and “Out of Body” make me think of cults and ideologies selling people on a hedonistic or false hope based on shallow indulgences or deceits. “Ticker Tape” reminds me of people on the rural fringe of society waiting on news from the big city and falling into despair. “Circle of Friends” feels like a broken and almost delusional clinging to the ideas of “We Got the Power” in desperate hope.

[nafsikaeuripi]

Plastic beach was the peak of the all (if not most) of the Gorillaz project's sides working in great unity.
The music and visuals and even the writing were complimenting eachother well enough.
The art and characters were doing the most too. (Not just as going through that bizarre, middle of the ocean adventure, but also dealing with their isolation and conflicts, mostly seen through Murdoc who was the unlikely protagonist of the whole thing)
To me it feels like the last time Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, Cass Browne and the rest of the creative team, despite their in-between conflicts, were *truly* collaborating on their idea. The amount of ambition that project had aged like fine wine. (at least with the fans)
Personally, I "blame" a lot of the changes on the sad aftermath of plastic beach and the shifts in the lives and careers of Damon and Jamie during and after the hiatus, for why Gorillaz isn't the same kind of project as before.

But I believe Humanz kind of established the direction of the band as a multigenre, open to all, musical collective. The collaborators being a big element of Humanz shows that idea pretty well. Which kind of gave a breath of new air to the band in a way.

Still, I wouldn't mind seeing the visual side catching up with the shifts in the musical direction.

Also, Damon hasn't been much of "2D" lately, as well.
As a character, many times 2D works less of something of his own (as he's not, imo, the best made out of the 4), but rather as some short of personification of whatever Damon wants to show in his music.
That applies to the other characters to different extents and levels.
Overall, I miss this direction, too. The changes of the characters being influenced from both the changes in both their "personal" stories and the kinds of musical cultures/aspects/ideas they represent.

By the way, many fans will usually point out those three people being the "underappreciated" members of the irl band/project:

1) Former writer and Drummer Cass Browne
2) Remi Kabaka Jr, who, besides the music, has also been the most consistent voice actor of Russel.
3) One of the biggest reasons why the characters aspect is still holding up its charm these days:
the brilliant voice actor of Murdoc:
Phil Cornwell.

[bubmusic]

Humanz gets way too much hate, imo Momentz, Strobelite, Ascension, and a whole lot of other songs on the album are amazing. It definitely deserves more love. And so do you, Sahana. I love your videos.

[harrywilson-wright]

Humanz is actually my 3rd favourite album as a whole and my absolute favourite gorrilaz album to play on vinyl. I feel like it flows from one song to the next way better then any other album (in my opinion yes, even better than demon days).

[chrismic]

I remember reading a comment in defense of Humanz a long time ago that's stuck with me to this day. A lot of fans were complaining about how much more subtle and better Demon Days or Plastic Beach were in their messaging. The point for Humanz was, however, it's a nearly apocalyptic outlook on the state of things where, simply, "subtlety doesn't work anymore." And that really made me rethink the album. It's the end of the world, the guy from the Apprentice is president and everyone is losing their minds. There's no room for subtlety. I'm glad the album has seen a lot of re-evaluation. It's definitely far from my favourite Gorillaz album, but it's still worth it.

Additionally, I feel like the album sounds better live than the studio recordings. I sometimes wonder if the reason Damon and friends made it the way they did was so they had kickass material to play live. A track I considered a sleeper like Sex Murder Party REALLY clicks when you hear it live, and Charger, which is already good, has Damon going insane live (among other things). Humanz is an experience and has many layers as a project that I feel are disregarded too easily.

[donedrko]

If Humanz has 1 million fans I'm one
If there is one fan I'm that one
If there are none I'm am dead

[Zazisntreallymyname]

i unapologetically love humanz and it probably helps that i wasnt there when there was controversy. i love it so much. i adore how political it was, its got that demon days edge, and the weird sounds of Gorillaz and Plastic Beach. i love it so, so much and i will defend it with my LIFE

[emmetbayne]

When I first got to high school in 2014, having lived a pretty sheltered and controlled life up until that point, it was the first time that I sort of had the opportunity to explore different genres of music that *I* liked personally, beyond just the music that my family happened to own. Probably in early-mid 2015, I discovered Gorillaz (I had heard Feel Good Inc. before but that was it), and quickly fell in love with the band.


I had come into the online fan space around that time. 4 full years after Gorillaz' last project, and fan sentiment online seemed to be that Gorillaz was maybe over. When "Hallelujah Money" dropped in January 2017, I was surprised and excited. The song was... very different to what I had come to expect, but the promise of more Gorillaz was exciting. From that moment I followed very closely, and I was so excited when Humanz was officially announced.

I was all onboard with the themes Damon said the album was exploring, and I anxiously awaited the release. I loved the four singles they released (Saturnz Barz, We Got the Power, Andromeda, and Ascension). They immediately felt very different from Plastic Beach, but to me felt like a natural result of the themes and dynamics and vibes that they said they wanted to explore. (I've always disagreed with Fantano's idea that Humanz' sound was too different from the band's signature style, as one of my favorite aspects of the band is how different each album sounds from each other while retaining a core ideal).

I love this album. It was the first Gorillaz album I got to experience from announcement to release and fallout as a fan, and I'll always love it for that. This could just be nostalgia, or primacy bias, or whatever, but out of every Gorillaz album, I actually probably have the fewest skips in Humanz.

[Beetlebumbum]

I really love Strobelite, Ascension, She’s My Collar and Charger! I have attention issues and personally the interludes really helped draw back my attention (special mentions to the oath and elevator going up)… I think the whole party vibe was pulled off really well and in general it’s one of my favourite albums ever <333

[PrjectFM]

Thanks for this. I think it will hold me over until Lady Emily makes her 2 hour long Humanz retrospective in a couple years

[jaehurd]

I loved Humanz when it came out, but the wait never seemed as long to me because I had only discovered Plastic Beach and The Fall a few years before Humanz came out

[thecrows]

As someone from bridger town, it was very crazy to have my country be acknowledged by an American

[deku]

personally i love the fact that theres so many features. many small artist will do this where they heave lots of big features to help bump up their streams, but gorillaz was already an established band. it just shows that they wanted these people to help push the vision forward. i mean, how amazing it is that vince staples, kali uchis, and grace jones are on an album tgt. it shows how versatile gorillaz sound was, this album was ahead of its time tbh. most of the songs could be released today and not feel out of place

[zipzorf]

was just listening to humanz, it is quite literally amazing to listen to. busted and blue, charger, let me out, momentz are all lifelong bangers

[thoonalia]

I just discovered your channel and I'm hooked, humanz is my 4th favourite gorillaz album and I'm so glad u covered it keep it up!!

[oofnoise]

For me, my main problem with Humanz was the instrumentation. The reverb drum they used was especially annoying and just made the music have a fake sort of sound. Stuff like that is why I prefer to hear Humanz songs preformed live since they sound more authentic.

[jordanromesburg]

The stuff about Cass Brown and the lore was really revealing information for me. I still fw the lore but there was definitely a shift in how the characters felt. It's good to know there's at least a coherent explanation, but now i do wonder if Cass being present on Humanz might have resulted in a more thematically coherent project