The Fall (Gorillaz album)

The Fall
Studio album by Gorillaz
Released 18 April 2011
Recorded 3 October – 3 November 2010, Various locations across the U.S. and Canada
Genre Electronic
Length 43:28
Label Parlophone, Virgin
Producer Gorillaz, Stephen Sedgwick
Gorillaz chronology
Plastic Beach
(2010)
The Fall
(2011)
The Singles Collection 2001–2011
(2011)
Damon Albarn chronology
Plastic Beach
(2010)
The Fall
(2011)
Kinshasa One Two
(2011)
Singles from The Fall
  1. "Phoner to Arizona"
    Released: 24 December 2010
  2. "Revolving Doors/Amarillo"
    Released: 14 March 2011[1]

The Fall is the fourth studio album[2] from British virtual band Gorillaz. The album was officially announced on 20 December 2010[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] The album was physically released on 18 April 2011.[6][7][8]

Recording

The entire album was recorded on group co-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. Albarn said of the recording: "I literally made it on the road. I didn't write it before, I didn't prepare it. I just did it day by day as a kind of diary of my experience in America. If I left it until the New Year to release it then the cynics out there would say, 'Oh well, it's been tampered with', but if I put it out now they'd know that I haven't done anything because I've been on tour ever since."[9][10][11]

Gorillaz fictional lead vocalist 2D stated on episode 5 of the Pirate Radio broadcasts on the band's website that he wrote "Revolving Doors" after he saw a set of revolving doors in a hotel and it reminded him of how far he was from home and how out of place he was.[12]

Apps used

As adapted from the Gorillaz website.[13]

Speak It! Text to Speech / SoundyThingie / Mugician / Sylo Synthesiser, Sylo Synthesiser Pro / Synth / FunkBox Drum Machine / gliss / AmpliTube for iPad / XENON Groove Synthesizer / KORG iELECTRIBE / bs-16i / Mellotronics M3000 for iPad / Cleartune – Chromatic Tuner / iORGEL HD / olsynth / StudioMini XL Recording Studio / Bassline / Harmonizer / Dub Siren Pro / Moog Filtatron

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic67/100[14]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[15]
The A.V. ClubB+[16]
Clash8/10[17]
Consequence of Sound[18]
Entertainment.ie[19]
Entertainment WeeklyB−[20]
The Guardian[21]
NME8/10[7]
Pitchfork Media5.8/10.0[22]
PopMatters6/10[23]
Rolling Stone[24]
Slant Magazine[25]

The Fall received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics.[14] 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".[14]

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.[26] 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

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.[27] American singer-songwriter 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.[28]

Track listing

No. TitleRecorded Length
1. "Phoner to Arizona"  3 October, Montreal 4:14
2. "Revolving Doors"  5 October, Boston 3:26
3. "Hillbilly Man" (featuring Mick Jones)10 and 11 October, New Jersey and Virginia 3:50
4. "Detroit"  13 October, Detroit 2:03
5. "Shy-Town"  15 October, Chicago 2:54
6. "Little Pink Plastic Bags"  16 October, Chicago 3:09
7. "The Joplin Spider"  18 October, Joplin 3:22
8. "The Parish of Space Dust"  19 October, Houston 2:25
9. "The Snake in Dallas"  20 October, Dallas 2:11
10. "Amarillo"  23 October, Amarillo 3:24
11. "The Speak It Mountains"  24 October, Denver 2:14
12. "Aspen Forest" (featuring Paul Simonon)25 October, Santa Fe and 3 November, Vancouver 2:50
13. "Bobby in Phoenix" (featuring Bobby Womack)26 October, Phoenix 3:16
14. "California and the Slipping of the Sun"  30 October, Oakland 3:24
15. "Seattle Yodel" (featuring The Archie McPhee Yodelling Pickle)2 November, Seattle 0:38
Total length:
43:28
Additional personnel
Sample credits

Chart positions

Chart (2011) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart[29] 41
Belgium Albums Chart[30] 28
Canadian Albums Chart[31] 24
Dutch Albums Chart[30] 21
Irish Albums Chart 21
Italian Albums Chart 43
Mexican Albums Chart 80
Scottish Albums Chart[30] 12
Swiss Albums Chart 95
UK Albums Chart[32] 12
US Billboard 200 24

References

  1. "Gorillaz iPad album: How it was made". T3. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  2. "Gorillaz : The Fall". News - Gorillaz. gorillaz.com. 20 December 2010. Retrieved 25 December 2010.
  3. "Damon Albarn reveals Gorillaz' free Christmas album details". NME News. IPC MEDIA. 16 December 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  4. "Gorillaz - Phoner To Arizona". Gorillaz Youtube. Youtube. 22 December 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  5. "Gorillaz announce tracklisting for free album 'The Fall'". NME News. IPC MEDIA. 21 December 2010.
  6. 1 2 "NME Reviews - Album Review: Gorillaz - The Fall (Parlophone)". Nme.Com. 2011-01-17. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  7. Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. Sean Michaels (10 December 2010). "Gorillaz to release new album free on Christmas Day". guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian News and Media Limited 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  9. Ann Lee (10 December 2010). "Gorillaz to give away free album on Christmas Day". Metro.co.uk. 2010 Associated Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  10. "Gorillaz are to release a free album on Christmas Day". BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat. BBC MMX. 10 December 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  11. "Revolving Doors by Gorillaz Songfacts". Songfacts.com. 2010-10-05. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  12. "Gorillaz - The Fall". Thefall.gorillaz.com. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  13. 1 2 3 "Critic Reviews for The Fall". Metacritic. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  14. Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "The Fall - Gorillaz | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  15. Martins, Chris (2011-04-23). "Gorillaz: The Fall". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
  16. "Gorillaz - The Fall | Reviews | Clash Magazine". Clashmusic.com. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  17. Young, Alex (2010-12-31). "Gorillaz – The Fall | Album Reviews". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  18. "Music Review | Gorillaz - The Fall". entertainment.ie. 2011-01-07. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  19. "Music Review: The Fall, by Gorillaz". Entertainment Weekly. 27 April 2011.
  20. Petridis, Alexis (2011-04-14). "Gorillaz: The Fall - review". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
  21. Deusner, Stephen (2011-01-06). "Gorillaz: The Fall". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
  22. Nelson, Dylan (2012-05-03). "Gorillaz: The Fall". PopMatters. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
  23. Dolan, Jon (2010-12-29). "Gorillaz The Fall Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  24. "Gorillaz: The Fall | Album Review". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  25. "Album Review: 'The Fall' by Gorillaz". ...ology. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
  26. "The Believer - Interview with Damon Albarn & Paul Simonon". Believermag.com. 2007-10-01. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  27. "NME News Damon Albarn enlists NERD's Pharrell Williams for new Gorillaz song". Nme.Com. 2010-11-25. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  28. Steffen Hung. "Gorillaz - The Fall". australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  29. 1 2 3 Archived 17 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  30. "Gorillaz - Chart history". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
  31. "Official Albums Chart Top 100 | 22-02-2015 - 28-02-2015 | Official Charts Company". Theofficialcharts.com. 2015-02-22. Retrieved 2015-02-27.
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