In Defense of 'Humanz'
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- obamna
my instagram: / sahana.draws
00:00 intro
02:02 the politics
08:20 the features
11:14 the music
16:15 the ‘lore’
19:46 the revival
22:33 conclusion
23:23 outro
songs used:
‘northern whale’ - the good, the bad & the queen
‘intro’ - the good, the bad & the queen 
Развлечения
People completely miss the point that the sponsorships became needed after the Plastic Beach budget debacle that lead to Jamie feeling his role had become diminished.
I always saw “We Got the Power” as a satirization of those who promote overly optimistic and simplistic answers to the world’s many complex issues.
How the final line of the song just abruptly stops and quickly fades out just feels so stark to me. Especially with the Deluxe version putting out a post-apocalypse vibe rather than one that’s occurring at the present moment. “New World” signals a kind of rebirth and failure of “We Got the Power. Lines like “too late” and “I’m tired” demonstrate how it failed and the New World will be brand new. “The Apprentice” conjures images of a refuge within a city where people reflect on how things have turned out. “Halfway to the Halfway House” and “Out of Body” make me think of cults and ideologies selling people on a hedonistic or false hope based on shallow indulgences or deceits. “Ticker Tape” reminds me of people on the rural fringe of society waiting on news from the big city and falling into despair. “Circle of Friends” feels like a broken and almost delusional clinging to the ideas of “We Got the Power” in desperate hope.
actually, thats really good
In my eyes, Humanz is THE party playlist.
I agree, those songs are so goddamn fire
Humanz gets way too much hate, imo Momentz, Strobelite, Ascension, and a whole lot of other songs on the album are amazing. It definitely deserves more love. And so do you, Sahana. I love your videos.
submission is way to underrated , idk why danny brown is on there. i think 2d should came on and sung like he did on andromeda instead of danny brown that song could be so fire
Humanz is actually my 3rd favourite album as a whole and my absolute favourite gorrilaz album to play on vinyl. I feel like it flows from one song to the next way better then any other album (in my opinion yes, even better than demon days).
Humanz is “too in your face politically” but no one complained about lyrics like “because we left the taps running for a hundred years”. Gorillaz has always been very on the nose with their politics 😅 there’s many examples of it.
Honestly the people that were crying about the politics probably skip songs like pirate jet. I can assure you everyone complaining about the politics definitely skipped the rap verse in dirty harry.
Well I think there is fair content the reasoning behind that message. It all depends on subject matter and what’s being discussed. As stated in the video HUMANZ through a political sense/overall statement it brung nothing new that hadn’t been already said a million times. I think it’s more so blatant topics and messages not adding anything new to a grater discourse then the whole sentiment that everything they do is on the nose
Plastic beach was the peak of the all (if not most) of the Gorillaz project's sides working in great unity.
The music and visuals and even the writing were complimenting eachother well enough.
The art and characters were doing the most too. (Not just as going through that bizarre, middle of the ocean adventure, but also dealing with their isolation and conflicts, mostly seen through Murdoc who was the unlikely protagonist of the whole thing)
To me it feels like the last time Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, Cass Browne and the rest of the creative team, despite their in-between conflicts, were *truly* collaborating on their idea. The amount of ambition that project had aged like fine wine. (at least with the fans)
Personally, I "blame" a lot of the changes on the sad aftermath of plastic beach and the shifts in the lives and careers of Damon and Jamie during and after the hiatus, for why Gorillaz isn't the same kind of project as before.
But I believe Humanz kind of established the direction of the band as a multigenre, open to all, musical collective. The collaborators being a big element of Humanz shows that idea pretty well. Which kind of gave a breath of new air to the band in a way.
Still, I wouldn't mind seeing the visual side catching up with the shifts in the musical direction.
Also, Damon hasn't been much of "2D" lately, as well.
As a character, many times 2D works less of something of his own (as he's not, imo, the best made out of the 4), but rather as some short of personification of whatever Damon wants to show in his music.
That applies to the other characters to different extents and levels.
Overall, I miss this direction, too. The changes of the characters being influenced from both the changes in both their "personal" stories and the kinds of musical cultures/aspects/ideas they represent.
By the way, many fans will usually point out those three people being the "underappreciated" members of the irl band/project:
1) Former writer and Drummer Cass Browne
2) Remi Kabaka Jr, who, besides the music, has also been the most consistent voice actor of Russel.
3) One of the biggest reasons why the characters aspect is still holding up its charm these days:
the brilliant voice actor of Murdoc:
Phil Cornwell.
Thanks for this. I think it will hold me over until Lady Emily makes her 2 hour long Humanz retrospective in a couple years
I remember reading a comment in defense of Humanz a long time ago that's stuck with me to this day. A lot of fans were complaining about how much more subtle and better Demon Days or Plastic Beach were in their messaging. The point for Humanz was, however, it's a nearly apocalyptic outlook on the state of things where, simply, "subtlety doesn't work anymore." And that really made me rethink the album. It's the end of the world, the guy from the Apprentice is president and everyone is losing their minds. There's no room for subtlety. I'm glad the album has seen a lot of re-evaluation. It's definitely far from my favourite Gorillaz album, but it's still worth it.
Additionally, I feel like the album sounds waaaaaay better live than the studio recordings. I sometimes wonder if the reason Damon and friends made it the way they did was so they had kickass material to play live. A track I considered a sleeper like Sex Murder Party REALLY clicks when you hear it live, and Charger, which is already good, has Damon going insane live (among other things). Humanz is an experience and has many layers as a project that I feel are disregarded too easily.
When I first got to high school in 2014, having lived a pretty sheltered and controlled life up until that point, it was the first time that I sort of had the opportunity to explore different genres of music that *I* liked personally, beyond just the music that my family happened to own. Probably in early-mid 2015, I discovered Gorillaz (I had heard Feel Good Inc. before but that was it), and quickly fell in love with the band.
I had come into the online fan space around that time. 4 full years after Gorillaz' last project, and fan sentiment online seemed to be that Gorillaz was maybe over. When "Hallelujah Money" dropped in January 2017, I was surprised and excited. The song was... very different to what I had come to expect, but the promise of more Gorillaz was exciting. From that moment I followed very closely, and I was so excited when Humanz was officially announced.
I was all onboard with the themes Damon said the album was exploring, and I anxiously awaited the release. I loved the four singles they released (Saturnz Barz, We Got the Power, Andromeda, and Ascension). They immediately felt very different from Plastic Beach, but to me felt like a natural result of the themes and dynamics and vibes that they said they wanted to explore. (I've always disagreed with Fantano's idea that Humanz' sound was too different from the band's signature style, as one of my favorite aspects of the band is how different each album sounds from each other while retaining a core ideal).
I love this album. It was the first Gorillaz album I got to experience from announcement to release and fallout as a fan, and I'll always love it for that. This could just be nostalgia, or primacy bias, or whatever, but out of every Gorillaz album, I actually probably have the fewest skips in Humanz.
I really love Strobelite, Ascension, She’s My Collar and Charger! I have attention issues and personally the interludes really helped draw back my attention (special mentions to the oath and elevator going up)… I think the whole party vibe was pulled off really well and in general it’s one of my favourite albums ever
I loved Humanz when it came out, but the wait never seemed as long to me because I had only discovered Plastic Beach and The Fall a few years before Humanz came out
i unapologetically love humanz and it probably helps that i wasnt there when there was controversy. i love it so much. i adore how political it was, its got that demon days edge, and the weird sounds of Gorillaz and Plastic Beach. i love it so, so much and i will defend it with my LIFE
Humanz definitely had it the worst of any Gorillaz album but this initial mixed reception that takes half a decade to be overturned by the court of public opinion seems to be a common trend with Gorillaz. A lot of people weren't convinced that this was something that could work by their first album or even Demon Days. Since then, it feels like whenever they do something different (almost every album) people don't like it initially. Even Plastic Beach was considered to be good but not great upon its release but seems to be the preferred favorite album now. I don't think Cracker Island will end up being seen as one of their best albums but I also think it will eventually be seen as a good album in a few years. Song Machine is the only album I can think of that was pretty well liked from the start but also seemed like it had the most familiar sound from any new Gorillaz album. Still wish Humanz could have turned out a bit better but there's so many great songs on it so I'm glad to see people are finally starting to appreciate it a bit more.
The worst of Humanz is really bad but the best songs are fucking great Saturnz Barz, She's my Collar, Ascension, Strobelight all really good
It's my third favorite album but some of the songs on it are in my top 10
It makes my day when u post a new video
thank you!! 🧡
I just discovered your channel and I'm hooked, humanz is my 4th favourite gorillaz album and I'm so glad u covered it keep it up!!
As someone from bridger town, it was very crazy to have my country be acknowledged by an American
I'm waiting for the same video about "The Now Now" now!
My 3rd fav album
My favorite album. Athough, it wasn't really criticized, people just thought it's an okay one.
I thought people liked the Now Now?
I want to know if I'm alone on this since I haven't really been engaged with the fanbase lately. So I, like many, have really been disconnected from phase 4 ever since I first listened to Humanz, both because I never was into the mid-to-late 2010s music trends that it aims for (trap, "club" music, etc.) and because the characterization and lore was so lackluster. I just almost never put Humanz on compared to the other newer albums. Now, when it comes to the lore and even the quality of the music videos, obviously Now Now sort of picked up the pace again and Song Machine was incredible, but the story didn't amount to much in the long run, HOWEVER, with Cracker Island, Gorillaz are...back? Obviously, there's still much to be desired and the band will never be as good as it was in its heyday, but I feel like the new writers are finally starting to find their footing after all these years and modern Gorillaz are finally starting to have that dreamlike captivating quality that's mostly been missing for me since phase 3, both musically and story/character-wise. I'm asking if I'm in the minority here since this video has quite a few minor "jabs" directed at Cracker Island so I'm wondering if it's just you or if a big part of the fanbase is iffy on it.
was just listening to humanz, it is quite literally amazing to listen to. busted and blue, charger, let me out, momentz are all lifelong bangers
Busted and Blue is genuinely one of my favourite Gorillaz songs
i love charger, one of my fav gorillaz songs
"OH NO AN EXPERIMENTAL BAND IS BEING EXPERIMENTAL"
-Humanz haters
I actually really like a lot of Humanz tracks despite disliking the political messages, weird interlude. etc. i think it has a lot of weird weaker tracks mixed in, but i think the biggest failure of Humanz is just that it would have given Jamie such a good opportunity to make a really cool music video reminiscent of a Feel Good Inc (revistting a strange, dystopian party) but making it so much more over the top. especially something like sex murder party, where the live version of the song is so much better and has this piano that adds a lot to the track that where the studio version sound pretty lacking. But all we got from music videos was Saturn Barz which- should have been a great introduction- but just led nowhere. SO MANY songs in Humanz could have had great music videos and yet we really only got one video, then a 'few motion capture mixed with live action' videos
Horribly reply, but I definitely understand what you mean with the idea of creative mvs. I feel like they had so much more potential to show a dystopian party, an escape of the issues of the world. I just feel like if they wanted motion capture in the mvs they could’ve done it in a creative way.
Now that I fully understand the extreme hate for Trump back when this album first came out, I guess my teacher back then not telling me and my class how Donald Trump was basically going to be the worst president after doing a class vote was for the worse, since it wasn’t until 2020 when I found out how bad of a president he really was…
Your artwork is so cool
Best album
i really enjoy humanz, its like my third favorite album (nostalgia, the music and the concept (i actually didnt know about the party at the end of the world concept until i watched one of your vids actually :P)), and i personally never understood why people didnt like all the features, i really loved a lot of them and i honestly think that for the album the little bits that 2d got during or at the end of the songs enhanced the performances of the features, and it was just like a nice thing to hear (i feel like im not explaining this well so an example for me would be that the entirety of Out of Body is the three features but then at the end 2D gets a verse, and whenever i hear it im like "omg :) hi 2D i missed you!" idk lol). also while i do agree they couldve been executed better, i really liked the interludes! the whole concept just scratches my brain i think its real cool it just creates a lot of cool imagery for me (my fav is elevator going up bc then it leads into andromeda which is my fav standard track) (also the transitions in between the songs make me insane!!). i feel that the deluxe tracks should have been in the standard version bc i feel like it adds a lot more to the concept (i actually got the deluxe edition not knowing it was the deluxe edition until i looked it up lol), and the super deluxe tracks should have been polished and released without an insane price but thats in a perfect world lol. i cant really speak on the writing bc i wasnt as interested as i was in the character writing for phases 1-3, but yeah big agree on everything you said about the whole quote unquote "lore" stuff in the later phases. honestly for me its just like phases 1-3 i care about the music, writing, and art, phase 4 i care about the music and art (bc i really like the phase 4 art style but exclusively for the saturnz barz and strobelite music videos (those specific 3d models are beautiful in my mind idc what anybody else says)), and for phases 5-7 i care about the music. sorry for the whole paragraph lol this was a great video! love your art also i think they turned out really well :D your art style is super unique!! very cool, keep up the amazing work
It might seem a bit flat as a take, but sometimes when I think about the "messaging" aspect of Gorillaz (and mostly Damon Al.), the overly direct approach (of certain albums and topics they discuss) isn't always *that* bad or weak.
At the end of the day, "he" seems to just state the obvious and despite how simplistic it may look, it's not that he's entirely wrong or that he completely misses the point he's trying to make.
I once read somewhere that albums like Humanz, Plastic Beach and even Cracker Island to an extent, might work better as a "capturing the general gist of things" type of works.
It's not that their quality changes with time, by getting better or worse. It's just that they serve the purpose of summarising an idea to its extreme.
In Humanz, it was more about the initial anxiety and chaos a lot of people felt about the possibility of something like Trump's election, being turned up to 11/10.
Which is why it might've included moments that seemed half baked or even oddly and blindly "wholesome", like we've got the power and (imo the "darker" version of it) circle of friends.
(darker because to me it sounds like a desperate and failing attempt to cling to a sense of connection and community before it all falls down into social division and chaos).
Idk, maybe I'm giving it too much credit.
this video perfectly summarizes my thoughts on phase 4 and modern gorillaz in general
So I'm not really involved in the fandom and don't really read up on music critics and stuff, I've listened to every Gorillaz album and it's always been somewhere in my top 3 or 5 and I genuinely didn't know people disliked it until recently.
Very surprising to me because I find it so catchy and unique, maybe the lyrics aren't as strong as most of their other album, but just as music to listen to I really love it. Had no idea about the whole "Anti-Trump" thing but I think the "party at the end of the world" theme still holds up decently, especially in today's climate as things just seem to get worse and worse.
I fell away from Gorillaz around the time of Humanz because it wasn't really giving me what I wanted, music wise. Plastic beach was good, but I'd always secretly hoped it was a one-off and we could go back to sounding like Demon Days. But, that was naive of me. After all, the debut was a dub-pop album: gorillaz always shifts genres.
I really should listen to Humanz properly and give it a fair judgment.
Humanz is one of my favorite Gorillaz albums! It’s a bop
This video is great! Would you be able to do a breakdown on other Gorillaz albums too? I'd love to hear you talk about all of them ❤
It's an album that needed more editing and "time in the oven" as you put it. Reduce the tracklist, keep the bangers including some from the deluxe edition (the live Humanz presentation concert in Germany is close to my ideal tracklist, just remove SMP) and bring the composition close to the live versions of the song (like adding the whole middle part and the DRAM verse to Andromeda, for example, and more "live" instrumentation) and it would probably be one of my favourite Gorillaz albums.
For me, my main problem with Humanz was the instrumentation. The reverb drum they used was especially annoying and just made the music have a fake sort of sound. Stuff like that is why I prefer to hear Humanz songs preformed live since they sound more authentic.
Hot take, but I think Cracker Island is the best album from the Gorillaz revival
The deluxe edition turns the album from a 9.5/10 to a 11/10
Can not wait to hear the video where you tear modern Gorillaz apart mainly because I started to see the most of the issues that fans saw.
i feel like more people hate humanz more than they hate the fall, for me i quite like humanz and i’m not really bothered about the fall
This is their best album imo lol
I've always liked it. But the tracklist needed to b better balanced with the bonus songs and more 2d. Out of body , apprentice and garage palace should have been on the album. Always loved submission
I personally would have shortened strobelite heaps or even removed it
I only listened to the album about a week ago and I don’t think it’s quite as bad as most people said it was but I also don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as people who think it’s underrated say it is. Ascension and moments are dope tho.
Loved what you had to say and I can agree with many of the points you make, but on an unrelated note, the outro felt just too fitting for this video
Don't forget us in Australia!
Humanz... Get a lot of the criticism it deserves... BUT it's not awful, has some bangers on there that stand up to some of Gorillaz best
I quite like humanz I’ve been a fan of it for a while I mean I was first shown gorillaz around when this came out maybe about a year and a half before it was released also strobelight and saturns barz kinda slap
You definitely have a lot of good points here. I actually don’t have any problems with the politics of the album, my main issue with the album is the music itself. It just feels so sloppily put together, at least for me. Though it is a bit overhated sometimes, as there are still some great moments. But it’s still not that great overall
Humanz is a really good album, not for everyone but is really a good album, maybe too many songs but i love things like the interludes
oh my gosh sahana i’ve been watching your videos for MONTHS now on my pc and i love them but im not logged in on there so i cant comment but i just realized (for some reason??) i can literally just watch and comment on my phone or wait i can just literally log in on my pc ?? ok whatever anyway thats all hope all is well bye
I love Humanz. It's absolutely sloppy, and way too in-the-face with its politics, but I generally try to just focus on how good a song sounds, and don't really focus too hard on message or theme, this helps you actually enjoy stuff without getting mad if you disagree. I generally consider myself a conservative, I disagree with the anti-Trump messaging, but that's the great thing about music! They can express how they feel about anything, and put it on a good track. When it comes to the heavy feature list, that's just Gorillaz, I see them as "the opportunity." They bring on people they tell have potential, and it is indeed, a good opportunity. And finally, I like how weird the tracks are, Sex Murder Party I actually really like for how weirdly vacant it is at times, Momentz is harsh and intense, and Busted and Blue is beautiful.
Honestly in my opinion the album is fine.
Not the best but not the worst.
Actually like the policial themes in Humanz.
Really my only problem I have with this album is the album cover.
Just looks like Demon Days 2.
Wish they did something different with the album cover art.
i gotta say i disagree lol. I found myself to really enjoy the album art after a bit of just looking at it. I think the surreal, uncanny artsyle to draw these cartoon characters really stand out and it just really goes well with the album it's supposed to represent. but ofc you do you, i just had to say something cuz i am a sucker for the art
Girl slow down... You're slaying too hard
except of course for song machine which features an artist, except of course for song machine which has a guest artist for every single song
Except of course the songs are actually good and Damons vocals are largely dominant.
Humanz is insanely overhated. It's not my favorite album but i dont hate it at all, theres really some bangers on there and although i dislike some of the songs on the album, its still a great album
obamna
Obamna
@@GHOSTLOVINGTOAST Obamna
SODA!!!
I appreciate the sound of Humanz amongst the greater humanz discography but the album did feel half done at some points, 'we got the power' is a lame closer that doesn't add anything to the album and comes off as a worse copy of the last two tracks of demon days. Modern gorillaz utilisation of the characters is disappointing, I don't need much story for the characters, I just want them to feel like people in a band. Doing interviews, radio shows, even tiktoks of them talking would do it. Just so I can believe that they made the music. What I would really like is a form of g-bitez but I don't know how feasible that would be.
Number 1
humanz was my number 1
humanz good
This is my second favorite gorillaz album and I’m sick of the hate
humanz is definately one of my favorite albums, it has a lot of political messaging, but in my opinion some of it can be seen as moral like human rights stuff. I do think the album as a lot of faults, but some really couldn't be fixed like the timing of the release
although I myself am not the biggest fan of Humanz I 100% see why a lot of people love it and the potential it had just for me personally I do fall under the camp of preferring the songs to be a damon centric thing with a bunch of features helping to lift up the song rather than carrying it
At first i didn't like this album it just upest me too much and it was mess to me. After 6 years I do enjoy the album and appreciate it for what it has even tho i still don't like that its a mess. I never really complained about the political parts because it's Gorillaz they're gonna do that. Looking at it now yes it was late but now i don't care I enjoy it, it's on my Spotify and that deluxe version of humanz (the album cover) is cooler than the original album cover
Humanz isnt my favourite by far but it isnt bad if im being honest. It’s just there, and thats okay!!
What does a red flannel mean?
anthony fantano is a dude who reviews music on youtube, and he wears red flannels when reviewing albums he dislikes. he wore a red flannel when reviewing humanz :(
@@sahana.speaks aw man🙁 thanks for the info
what happened to your noodle video
I honestly think Humanz got too much hate. The reason behind it is understandable to some degree, but the backlash the fans started was ridiculous
Imo Humanz is good but compared to other more succesful albums like Demon days and Plastic Beach Humanz is always looked down unfortunately.
Great argument, sadly it still stank 😪
Humanz is the last good album they released
Humanz is a mess but I still have a small space for it in my heart I'd say it's in the middle somewhere I don't think it's good or bad to be honest
It’s a bloated mess of a bunch of great ideas, the biggest issue for me is… it’s all one colour, so to speak.
To me the first 3 albums are an incredible mix of all these different colours and sounds, but as good as most of the tracks on Humanz are… they all have the same set of sounds.
It gets dull for a returning fan.
I know it’s good, I just don’t like the sound
If humanz isn't their worst , tell me what is
Most people think The Fall is the worst one. How weird.
cracker island, easily
Do u guys know what an opinion is or nah??
Laika Come Home
I love the album but do not agree with the statements, also non Americans do not get a say on our politics
I think it's okay. Just sort of underwhelming. I like it better than Cracker Island, as that one completely doubled down on the "pop" angle which made it feel far less inspired musically, though more accessible, I find more to enjoy or appreciate on Humanz.
It doesnt need defending, its a great album and i dont understand where this opinion came from.
I personally dont think anthony fantano should be taken to his word on musical opinions most of the time, because most things he reviews that i check in on he gives a stupid score.
i definitely agree with the brand deals point but then again its also quite sad that making gorillaz airpods and 200 shades of pink vinyls is what they have to do now to stay afloat since being a self funded project 🥲