The Fall (Gorillaz album)

The Fall
2-D of Gorillaz sits in a darkened room, turning his head to stare blankly at the viewer.
Studio album by
Gorillaz
Released25 December 2010
Recorded3 October – 3 November 2010
Genre
Length43:28
Label
Producer
Gorillaz chronology
Plastic Beach
(2010) 		The Fall
(2010) 		The Singles Collection 2001–2011
(2011)
Damon Albarn chronology
Plastic Beach
(2010) 		The Fall
(2010) 		Kinshasa One Two
(2011)
Singles from The Fall
  1. "Revolving Doors" / "Amarillo"
    Released: 14 March 2011[3]

The Fall is the fourth studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. It was announced on 20 December 2010 and released as a download for members of the Gorillaz fan club on 25 December 2010. This was followed by a wider physical release of the album on 19 April 2011.

Co-founder Damon Albarn recorded The Fall during the North American leg of the Escape to Plastic Beach Tour using an iPad and a few additional instruments. The album features fewer guest artists than previous Gorillaz albums; collaborators include Bobby Womack, and Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash. Critics praised the album's experimental qualities but felt that it lacked the feel of previous Gorillaz albums. It charted in various countries and peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200.

Recording

The Fall was recorded on group co-founder Damon Albarn's iPad over 32 days during the North American leg of the Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour in October 2010 and mixed in England by Stephen Sedgwick. Other instruments that were used includes a qanun, a Korg vocoder, a ukulele, a microKORG, an Omnichord, a Minimoog Voyager, a melodica, a guitar, a piano and a Korg Monotron.[4] 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."[5]

The album includes four guest artists, three of which have worked with Albarn before. Mick Jones and Bobby Womack appeared on the previous Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, as did Paul Simonon, who also worked on Albarn's project The Good, the Bad & the Queen.[6] American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D. recorded a track with Albarn while touring together which did not appear on the album.[7]

Release and promotion

The album was first announced on 20 December 2010 as a holiday gift to fans.[8] On 22 December, the music video for "Phoner to Arizona", which consists of a compilation of footage and images taken from the tour and the phase, was posted on YouTube as a way to promote the album.[9] The album was first released to stream for free on the Gorillaz website on 25 December; it was available as a download for paying members of the band's Sub-Division club, a premium access campaign the band ran throughout 2010.[10] The album was given an official release on 19 April 2011.[11]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?6.6/10[12]
Metacritic67/100[13]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[14]
The A.V. ClubB+[15]
Consequence of Sound[16]
Entertainment WeeklyB−[17]
The Guardian[18]
NME8/10[19]
Pitchfork Media5.8/10[20]
PopMatters[21]
Rolling Stone[22]
Slant Magazine[23]

The Fall received mixed to positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, The Fall has an average score of 67, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[13] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[12] Praise focused on the album's unique qualities and experimental nature, with Rolling Stone stating that the album was "a wistfully spaced-out, subtly cheeky spin on the road-trip epic"[22] and NME calling it "quiet but ambitious".[10] However, some critics felt that it lacked the offerings of previous Gorillaz albums, with The Guardian stating that it was "oddly out of character" compared to Plastic Beach.[18]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Damon Albarn

The Fall – Standard edition
No.TitleRecordedLength
1."Phoner to Arizona"3 October, Montreal4:14
2."Revolving Doors"5 October, Boston3:26
3."Hillbilly Man"10 and 11 October, Camden and Fairfax3:50
4."Detroit"13 October, Detroit2:03
5."Shy-Town"15 October, Chicago2:54
6."Little Pink Plastic Bags"16 October, Chicago3:09
7."The Joplin Spider"18 October, Joplin3:22
8."The Parish of Space Dust"19 October, Houston2:25
9."The Snake in Dallas"20 October, Dallas2:11
10."Amarillo"23 October, Amarillo3:24
11."The Speak It Mountains"24 October, Denver2:14
12."Aspen Forest"25 October and 3 November, Santa Fe and Vancouver2:50
13."Bobby in Phoenix" (featuring Bobby Womack)26 October, Phoenix3:16
14."California and the Slipping of the Sun"30 October, Oakland3:24
15."Seattle Yodel"2 November, Seattle0:38
Total length:43:28

Sample credits

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes for The Fall[4] and Tidal.[24]

Musicians

  • Damon Albarn – vocals (all tracks), synthesizers (tracks 2–11, 13), vocoder (tracks 9–11), piano, guitar, Omnichord, ukulele, melodica
  • Mick Jones – additional guitar (tracks 3, 10), additional conversations (track 14)
  • Jesse Hackett – additional keyboards (track 6)
  • Darren "Smoggy" Evans – additional conversations (tracks 7, 14)
  • Mike Smith – piano (track 12)
  • Paul Simonon – additional bass (track 12)
  • James R Grippo – additional qanun (track 12)
  • Bobby Womack – vocals, guitar (track 13)
  • Jamie Hewlett – additional conversations (track 14)
  • Tanyel Vahdettin – additional conversations (track 14)

Technical

  • Damon Albarn – production (all tracks), recording (tracks 9–10, 13, 15)
  • Stephen Sedgwick – production, recording, mixing
  • Mike Smith – additional recording (track 11)
  • Geoff Pesche – mastering

Artwork

  • J. C. Hewlett – artwork, design, photography
  • Zombie Flesh Eaters – artwork, design
  • Mike Smith – photography
  • Seb Monk – photography
  • Oswald Lee Henderson – photography

Charts

References

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  2. ^ "Review: Gorillaz - The Fall". Slant. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  3. ^ "Revolving Doors / Amarillo: Gorillaz: Amazon.co.uk: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d The Fall (liner notes). Gorillaz. EMI Records. 2010. [1], [2].{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  5. ^ Sean Michaels (10 December 2010). "Gorillaz to release new album free on Christmas Day". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited 2010. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  6. ^ "The Believer Interview with Damon Albarn & Paul Simonon". The Believer. 1 October 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
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  14. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "The Fall – Gorillaz | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  15. ^ Martins, Chris (23 April 2011). "Gorillaz: The Fall". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  16. ^ Young, Alex (31 December 2010). "Gorillaz – The Fall | Album Reviews". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  17. ^ "Music Review: The Fall, by Gorillaz". Entertainment Weekly. 27 April 2011. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012.
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