ok, here's a thread (stolen from @thehurvmeister)

why demon days is fucking incredible, track-by-track

intro:
sets up the album incredibly by unsettling the audience as they take to their seats. this is such a crucial component for the album, setting the tone, and this intro does it perfectly. it's also unconventional. not many albums start with something that sounds like THIS.

last living souls:
this track introduces the themes of the album. it does this with an amazing mixture of interweaving sounds and jangles that slowly build until they snap into this incredible twisted dub.

this is the last album but it feels completely different.

there are those crackles over the top that demonstrate how this song is something different. and so we get the lyric; "are we the last living souls?" it's a perfect line, and a nuanced one. are we the last souls who will live fully or the last souls who will live at all?

and then we get the instrumental break. a real moment of clarity – one of several on the LP – is brought by lovely guitars and then that iconic piano...and then the strings. fucking CHILLS. this song introduces every musical component of the album; each instrument, each palate.

so the dub; the strings; the wonky, off-kilter, alienated guitar; the bass on the bottom. gorillaz draw their previous album's music into different shapes, shapes that creep and build around you.
this song is so fucking underrated for what it does. that bassline is masterful.

we first properly hear the guitar at the break and it's our introduction to the album's creator character too, which is genius. this is cinematic.
and so the juggernaut rolls, with those strings adding urgency to what is essentially a cacophony of different sounds. i love it.

kids with guns:
iconic bass riff. thumpingly played. incredible production on this track, it really shines through. noodle's guitar is excellent once again. the lyrics and detached vocal delivery are really, really bloody good. another juggernaut. perfectly sets the VIBE.

incredible outro. "push it, push it real" with the guitar breaking out of its jittery chords is really genius. a song that had shown signs of cracking explodes into a massive blowout ending. it perfectly establishes panic and bewilderment and the whole thing is just SO GOOD.

o green world:
oh god, this song. so many sounds. all of the sounds. so much sound.

this is the song that best exemplifies the tone. and what lyrics! we are forced to confront the climate emergency and stare it in the face. and we hear 2-D's fears. it's another crazy juggernaut.

dirty harry:
what a PERFECT tonal change from o green world! that bassline. THAT BASSLINE. also, this is absolutely how you use a children's choir on a track.
that opening with the synths is absolutely iconic, by the way. the synths during the chorus are awesome too.

we get our first rap feature! the way the song sets you up for bootie brown's entry is absolutely fantastic. the strings in the background too...this is rap over an orchestra and i fucking love it. those pizzicato strings are iconic. the haywire guitar adds to the war theme.

this is just an absolute anti-war song and i love it. perfect lyrics. it took them one song to make this a pacifist album and i love it.

incredible laughter transition into...

feel good inc:
absolutely bloody brilliant.

EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THIS SONG IS ICONIC. CULTURALLY.

that queasily overdrawn guitar, that advert jingle "fEEL gOOd", the bass. the fucking bass. the drumming, too, is top notch.
the lyrics and their detached delivery is absolutely bloody DEFINITIVE in terms of what gorillaz is.
we surface for air for the incredible, iconic chorus.

this song has overtaken on melancholy hill. it's now my #2 favourite.

the chorus, with its subtle different guitars, is mind-blowingly good. and then it builds back into the verse with so much pent-up energy.

de la soul utterly dab on us with their collaboration, as ever.

aND NOW I FEEL LIKE I'M FLYING.

just that break where you only have the synths? another moment of clarity.

and then the guitar comes in. perfection. i might cry.

that second chorus means everything to me. i might be overusing 'iconic' but that second chorus absolutely is.

amazing outro, absolutely 10/10, amazing lyrics, incredible anti-consumerist message expressed through deliberately aping corporate jingles. it's so fantastic. it's brilliant.

el mañana:
ohhh boy.

we're a third of the way through and gorillaz are a different band. they're beyond recognition. and those synths come in, and they're lovely.

and then noodle picks up her guitar and we're brought into the next part of the album.

parts of this song are genuinely serene.

"I saw that day/lost my mind/lord I'm fine/maybe in time, you'll want to be mine?"

those lyrics are incredible for transitioning this album into something else. i adore the verses and chorus, with their interweaving melodies. this is a song like no other.

how do you start making a song that sounds like this? el mañana is so different from everything else that gorillaz have done. i think that's why it's so amazing.

the video, by the way, is gorillaz's best. beautiful animation. so much emotion. so perfectly suited to the song.

the first few tracks of the song deal with the rampant issues of post-2001 society;
violence, war, global warming, consumerism

from now on, the songs are about how we, as humans, deal with them. it's about the personal effect. this album examines mindsets.
it's why it's so good.

the outro is amazing and now it's time for the next song

every planet we reach is dead:
i fucking love this band. gorillaz need to remind you they're a band from time to time, and this track does that. it FEELS like a band is playing it. it's what holds this album together.

el mañana has moments where you feel like you're floating. but its outro left up in a darker place than the album had before. and in this song, now it feels like we're sinking.
so many sounds. i laud gorillaz for having multiple components but it's the execution that's stellar.

this song is TRULY big brain time.

the way it all holds together and sways after the incredible lyrics and bluesy verses are complete...and builds in no time at all. what emotion. what anaesthetised, muddied, bloodied, bloody emotion is buried in that building wall of music.

that skittering synth over the fourth refrain of the tune is the cherry on top.

and then it's the keys solo.

this album earned its way into the musical hall of fame halfway through feel good inc. now it's x2.

i love the bow-like sounds that close the track.

just realised i forgot to mention that feel good inc also introduces the theme of revolution, which returns later on. in every planet, the themes of desperation are perfect – "what are we going to do?" is a fantastic lyric. they ask you that question, and that's really important.

november has come:
does anyone else clap in this intro?

the bass here is an incredible and bOOF THERE'S DOOM HE'S DABBING ON US AND I USE 'DUB' IN THE MODERN SENSE OF 'THIS IS A FUCKING DUB' AND HE ABSOLUTELY DEMOLISHES YOUR HOUSE WITH THE OPENING VERSE

HIS NAME'S DOOM THEY WONDER JUST WHO IS HE BUT DON'T WORRY BELIEVE ME HE'LL GET BIZZAY WHEN IT COMES TO POETRY HE'S GOT PLENTY LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA

noodle's off-kilter guitar, positively reeking of young alienation, brings us back on track and then lingers in before artfully becoming the melody. after morphing up to those higher notes like a power ranger, it is still the melody after the chorus, but then melts back in...

...as the higher notes on the guitar part come back in. they melt together and the higher notes are what remains. when the 2nd chorus comes, the guitar is there, but the literal melody has become lost. the skittish high notes remain.

just noodle's guitar part is absolute genius.

2-D's part is perfect. this is still gorillaz's stage.
fantastic, mysterious lyrics...amazing outro...what a song. this album is a monolith.

the anxious energy hasn't gone...

all alone:
the first climax.

a grime feature? not a departure at all. it works ABSOLUTELY fucking perfectly.

the way the music comes together as one chaotic, electrified body, bumping and swaying, bouncing around, suffused with energy...it's terrified and it's on another level and it's so well done.

that shuffling bass...murdoc pULLED OUT HIS MOTHERFUCKING A GAME.

damon does a fantastic job at corralling this chaotic band and wall of sound into a unified track...and now we have the chorus.

noodle's acoustic guitar provides ANOTHER moment of clarity. it's genius.

god, these lyrics are so fucking good. martina topley-bird delivers them amazingly.

the personal arc of the lyrics reach their climax. on a personal level, it reaches desperation 0.

"all alone" is the perfect name for the track. here, we feel utterly alone.

it doesn't feel like there's hope in the long term. the morning looks hopeless. but the night is there. we can still save things from the fire.
the transition to a personal narrative is what elevates demon days from greatness to MAGIC. it's how the album earns its angel wings.

it peaks out here, and – for the first time – we have an element of hope in the main body in the song rather than separated out. noodle's uplifting electric guitar is an intriguing and excellent addition to the main instrumental, and it's perfect in how it cues out the track.

the guitar fades away.

white light:
absolutely necessary tonally. the album needs a gravelly underbelly, and subverting the image of a white light - a hopeful concept - to instead represent substance addiction is a real bit of genius.

musically, this track is great. murdoc's vocals are a shot in the ass, and noodle torments her guitar strings with expert malice. a big gorillaz tune.

this is a counterpart to DARE. both tunes provide different perspectives to 2-D's – but they're also two different responses.

they're also both big tunes!

and now we get ANOTHER moment of clarity. this is very important in maintaining a tonal balance throughout the album that isn't just [depressing].

the track reaches a kind of rhythmic despairing plod as we reach the end of the song. coming up...

it's coming up
it's coming up
it's coming up
it's coming up
it's coming up
it's coming up
it's
DARE:

an absolutely genius touch. this song is basically a revolutionary call to arms, and it comes from a teenage girl. i love it.

don't think; act. the time for thinking has passed.

noodle picks up the theme of revolution that her chorus in feel good inc. established. and so gorillaz build an incredible BANGER that snuck some serious rebellion into the UK no. 1 spot. this is a song with undertones of revolution, and it made number fucking one!

noodle's first "oHHh" before the tune kicks in is a strong contender for the greatest moment in gorillaz history.

i don't get it when people say that 'people' is better than DARE. i love them both but DARE is an evolutionary step forward or two.

those twinkling keys are great, the vocals are fantastic, shaun ryder adds that little bit extra...it's a tune – a fantastic tune, a nostalgic tune, and it's incredible, and i love it. YOU'VE GOT TO PRESS IT ON YOU.

and then it leaves, leaving only the winds. thanks noodle.

i now need to prepare myself for a remarkable three-song suite, so i'll resist the urge to plug my
*cough*
FIRE COMING OUT OF... x INTRO by THE XX mashup
(find it under my pinned by clicking on 'tweets i don't want to lose' and scrolling down)

and listen to radiohead

actually no let's dive straight in!

fire coming out of the monkey's head:
the biggest risk on the album. gorillaz have been around for an album and now they're pulling out an off-kilter spoken-word track starring dennis hopper.

this is a masterpiece.
this is one of their best.

it works SO fucking well. bossman dennis nails a perfect story but it's the orchestration and the chorus that elevates this thing to godlike levels.

that swaggery guitar cues in the ending of the guitar. as the song goes on, noodle outright tortures her guitar strings.

she repeats the same pattern.

i had to repeat this opening too to pick up on everything that was going on! twice.

the way that the bassline takes off and the synth comes in for the tonal change is perfect. those wind noises too.

the wind blows away leaving only 2-D and Noodle.

THE DANCE OF THE DEAD

and we're thrown back in for more of noodle torturing her guitar strings.

russel holds the tune in his fingers here. it's the drums that keep everything moving. demon days, as an album, quietly has gorillaz's best drumming of all.

those drums at "shadowy figures" are incredible. and THEN the wind sounds again. and THEN the humming. THE HUMMING.

i'm bopping out to this at home.

and now i'm not.

now, the cautionary tale is predictable. you know that the happyfolk are absolutely fucked. but you don't know how.
and this isn't a failing. it's an asset.
it contributes to the relentless sense of dread which the plodding instrumentation provides.

but here's the thing:

i still get chills when dennis hopper tells us their fate.

that moment is fucking terrifying.

it's not far from the feeling you got when you were a child and saw a really scary and shocking PSA.
it stares right into your bones.

british oomfs, do you remember the network rail advert where the family are playing I Spy and the girl stops on the track?

it is like watching that for the first time, EVERY time.

and the chorus capitalises perfectly on that tone.

"oh little town of usa, it's time for you to see..."
iconic lyrics.
2-D and Noodle play us out and leave with only the wind there to howl in our ears. and it's perfection.

this song and the final two are truly contiguous. they are the third and final part of the album.

everything we've learned is summed up perfectly – and then unpacked for us.

don't get lost in heaven:
here we go. the incredible two-part finale.

the inclusion of this track before demon days is exactly what the album needs to ensure that the hopeful ending doesn't sound glib. it's also aided by the numerous moments of clarity...

...that are present within many of the album's gloomiest moments.

this album is perfectly pitched and scaled emotionally from start to finish. it's the best-structured album ever, probably. there's not even a single wasted SECOND on the tracklist.

having these extra two minutes before the incredible finale is genius. it's exactly the kind of thing which shows that damon albarn truly is masterful. in an all-time supergroup, i would want damon there as its keyboardest & acoustic guitarist.

i've been writing this thread while listening to the songs. but for these final two, i am doing writing in advance, THEN i'll listen to them and write some more.

they're that kind of songs.
there is so much to say about them.