Just as 2010's sprawling Plastic Beach had its introverted companion album The Fall, The Now Now is a breezy calm after the storm of 2017's overstuffed Humanz.
Only three guests join Damon Albarn's party, and George Benson has the best of it, his beautiful liquid guitar elevating excellent single Humility.
The best Gorillaz songs play Albarn's distant, frazzled croak against a very different, powerful vocal, teetering atop a solid beat.
Yet the stoned lolloping effervescence of Clint Eastwood doesn't appear, nor any sign of Stylo's or DARE's deranged pop genius.
When there's too much Albarn, there are too many songs shooting for the insidious sadness of On Melancholy Hill, and hitting inconsequential instead.
- Damien Morris/Guardian News and Media
