I don't think Gorillaz ever came near to topping their first hit Clint Eastwood which I recently read was written after buying a book called 'How To Make A Hit Song' which I can well believe given it's combination of originality, style and most of all simplicity.
For those who don't know the song consists of a dub reggae beat and baseline which is catchier than herpes, with Damon Albarn from Blur singing...
"I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad - I got sunshine, in a bag
I'm useless, but not for long, the future is coming on..."
This is bookended by a splendid rap from a little known Del the Funky Homosapien who I always imagined as a large, black man with glasses but in actual fact is a skinny black American rapper with the apparent token arrogance of all the others. It was he that said he wrote the song after buying the book but I think that's a bit of an audacious claim that implies he wrote the lot when I suspect he just wrote the rap, a very well written and slick piece yet the one part of the song that is completely different when performed live.
The rap is in two parts, the second of which is halved by a spendid drum fill in. A spooky harmonica and organ complete the track and though the album version does take a little too long to fade out; the song, almost seven years on, does not seem to tire even to the easily bored like myself.
I still don't really know what the song is about but as in most cases its the music that makes a song, without which a song would merely be a poem with a chorus.
What posessed Gorillaz to name the song after an overrated, one dimensional, Hollywood coffin dodger is beyond me.
9.5/10