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New Gorillaz Song ft Benjamin Clementine...

Last posted Feb 11, 2017 at 04:48PM EST. Added Jan 19, 2017 at 03:07PM EST
12 posts from 9 users

Not exactly thrilled it had to be a pointed anti-Trump song primarily featuring a live singer rather than the band but hey it's a Gorillaz song.

I know they're not shy about political stuff as "Dirty Harry" showed but it's usually less…on the nose. LITERALLY THE KKK is pretty over the top. It doesn't help that the music sucks. I hope this doesn't reflect the album.

PatrickBateman96 wrote:

I know they're not shy about political stuff as "Dirty Harry" showed but it's usually less…on the nose. LITERALLY THE KKK is pretty over the top. It doesn't help that the music sucks. I hope this doesn't reflect the album.

They're not the KKK, they are the penitents of La Candelaria in Spain.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this but:

People comment about Demon Days being an incredibly political album, but even if that album had such undertones, they were subtle enough to the point where you could still enjoy the music. Here in Hallelujah Money, in both the video and lyrics, nothing is subtle; the references to money growing on trees (Donald Trump having supposedly infinite money), building walls, big corp and industry, the KKK in the background, the silhouette of a Trump puppet, our present R&B singer, and the rainbow in the background, it's incredibly in your face and obnoxious. I respect the production quality of the song, however. I like how simultaneously dark and upbeat the track is; a binary that, while not uncommon, works to the track's advantage of understanding that there is optimism in dark times.

If Gorillaz still want to get political, like how they did in the mid-2000s like what they did with Demon Days, they should try to aim to be more subtle as opposed to sounding like they are catering to one political side. By the way, band member Murdoc somehow now being an advocate for SocJus seems really out of character, especially when the concept of the band itself was sort of a parody of pop culture being bland. Albarn and Hewlett wanted to make something dynamic in response to the drone that was pop culture at the time (i.e. MTV). Now that Gorillaz is sort of conforming to the ideals of pop culture, this could very well have them shooting themselves in the foot.

I hope the rest of the album isn't like this. People are already divided ideologically as is. Something like this can only widen the rift. You can argue this track was only made recently in response to Trump's election as President of the United States, but that doesn't change that they've made the mastermind of the virtual band, Murdoc, as a newly born feminist/SJW type of person. I just hope they don't collab with Talib Kweli, who's SocJus and racism accusations to those who call out racism has him looking like he's spiraling into madness.

TL;DR: Like the production of the song, not the lyrics and hammering in political overtones like a sludge hammer to a nail. If you want to be Anti-Trump, go ahead, but just be more subtle at it.

Last edited Jan 25, 2017 at 12:59AM EST

C_Mill24 wrote:

Maybe I'm reading too much into this but:

People comment about Demon Days being an incredibly political album, but even if that album had such undertones, they were subtle enough to the point where you could still enjoy the music. Here in Hallelujah Money, in both the video and lyrics, nothing is subtle; the references to money growing on trees (Donald Trump having supposedly infinite money), building walls, big corp and industry, the KKK in the background, the silhouette of a Trump puppet, our present R&B singer, and the rainbow in the background, it's incredibly in your face and obnoxious. I respect the production quality of the song, however. I like how simultaneously dark and upbeat the track is; a binary that, while not uncommon, works to the track's advantage of understanding that there is optimism in dark times.

If Gorillaz still want to get political, like how they did in the mid-2000s like what they did with Demon Days, they should try to aim to be more subtle as opposed to sounding like they are catering to one political side. By the way, band member Murdoc somehow now being an advocate for SocJus seems really out of character, especially when the concept of the band itself was sort of a parody of pop culture being bland. Albarn and Hewlett wanted to make something dynamic in response to the drone that was pop culture at the time (i.e. MTV). Now that Gorillaz is sort of conforming to the ideals of pop culture, this could very well have them shooting themselves in the foot.

I hope the rest of the album isn't like this. People are already divided ideologically as is. Something like this can only widen the rift. You can argue this track was only made recently in response to Trump's election as President of the United States, but that doesn't change that they've made the mastermind of the virtual band, Murdoc, as a newly born feminist/SJW type of person. I just hope they don't collab with Talib Kweli, who's SocJus and racism accusations to those who call out racism has him looking like he's spiraling into madness.

TL;DR: Like the production of the song, not the lyrics and hammering in political overtones like a sludge hammer to a nail. If you want to be Anti-Trump, go ahead, but just be more subtle at it.

Again, it's not the KKK, it's a catholic celebration in Spain that hails for centuries.
But I can see they did it on purpouse.

Skeletor-sm

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