UPDATE: Our speculation was correct. Gorillaz have announced their forthcoming album The Now Now due for release on 29th June and released two new songs. Check it out here.
Just a year after the release of their last album Humanz, Gorillaz look to be readying the release of their new album The Now Now. It seems soon but if you cast your mind back to 2010, the Damon Albarn-led group swiftly followed up Plastic Beach with the instrumental The Fall. It’s unknown whether this record is going to follow suit and be largely instrumental but Albarn’s words about collaboration recently suggest that it won’t be.
Below is a quick guide of what to expect from the record.
What We’ve Been Told
The fact that there’s most likely an album coming should not be a surprise to fans. Albarn already said that there was another album coming “very soon” and also spoke of having plenty more material after Humanz. Some of that eventuated on a Humanz re-release including a Little Simz collab but it seems there’s more.
The first official word came in the form of posters that popped up at All Points East festival in London. They led fans to a website thenownow.tv which featured a very short trailer, teasing the date 29th June. Observant fans also noticed that there was a silhouette of Gorillaz member 2-D in the trailer.
Gorillaz’ Jamie Hewlett’s wife Emma De Caunes then seemingly confirmed that it was a new Gorillaz album on her Instagram story which also included the date 29th June.
Novidades - Parece que são trechos de msicas do novo álbum! Esse cartaz foi localizado no festival All Points East, em baixo de cada descrião podemos visualizar o link para o teaser do novo álbum!
Acesse: https://t.co/vOEETVNYXr#TheNowNow #Gorillaz pic.twitter.com/0X6lR1v6oL— Gorillaz BR (@gorillaz_br) May 26, 2018
Collaborators
Albarn has been very tight-lipped about who he collaborated with for this record. Back in March, the band debuted a new song live Hollywood featuring Snoop Dogg. He told fans that the song would be on the forthcoming album but that’s the only new song they’ve aired so far.
This year, Albarn contributed to Kali Uchis’ Isolation record and also nabbed production credits on Vince Staples’ Big Fish Theory last year. That may give a good idea of who he has been in the studio with but at the moment it’s largely a guessing game.
Lyrics
The posters that popped up at All Points East festival featured a number of words that we can only assume are song titles or lyrics. ‘No more unicorns anymore’, ‘Save us from him’, ‘You gotta have faith’ and ‘G is the magic number’ were all featured on the posters.
The Cover
We don’t seem to have a cover just yet but we’ve had a brief look at the visuals through the trailer and De Caunes’ Instagram story. Hewlett also shared an Instagram earlier in the year that featured one of the phrases showcased on the poster - ‘No more unicorns anymore’. We can only assume that he was thinking about this album when he posted that.
@Emma_de_Caunes instagram story pic.twitter.com/xTglmuhpG6
— Gorillaz Club (@gorillaz_club) May 28, 2018
The Feel
Albarn has previously said that this is a spontaneous record. “I really like the idea of making new music and playing it live almost simultaneously,” he said. He noted that it would be a surprise record like The Fall but we shouldn’t expect something sonically like that. “A more complete record,” is what Albarn has described it as.
Release Date
All signs seem to lead to a 29th June release date - less than a month away.
New Music Before The Album
There’s been no word on whether we’re getting any new music before the album is released. Before Humanz the band dropped multiple singles.
