February 21, 2012

Gorillaz, James Murphy, Andre 3000 - 'DoYaThing'

Failing at ‘normal people’ jazz, but they do their thing so well

Converse have laced together some impressive line-ups for their ‘Three Artists. One Song’ project over the years (such as Vampire Weekend, Kid Cudi and Best Coast in 2010). This though, has to be top of the pile, featuring the three weirdos you’d most like to gatecrash your party. With Blur back, Albarn’s on a creative roll, so Gorillaz are going about ‘quitting music’ as speedily as LCD Soundsystem did – ie, not very.

Nobody cares about that though, as this bit of robo-funk gets going, Albarn doing a more animated (ho!) version of his listless, drawling rap. Then LCD’s primary-coloured synths fizz and Murphy slips in a creepy, falsetto chorus. And then, an update from Planet Andre. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were just normal people...?” he croons before a double-speed rap tumble of weird wordery, assuring us, “I’mma rock my pyjamas in the daytime, I promise” and inventing a new word (“Our days are revelatious”) before the track comes to an abrupt end. Our three funkateers may be failing at ‘normal people’ jazz, but when they do their thing so well, that’s cause for thanks.

Emily Mackay

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