my love for Cracker Island

my favorite Gorillaz album as of right now has got to be Cracker Island. i say "as of right now" because it used to be their self-titled album, and i still love that record, but i don't really think that stating my favorite album is an accurate representation of my preferred gorillaz tracks [all of my top 5 songs right now are from different albums]. but my favorite gorillaz phase is by far phase 7, AKA cracker island.

i used to say that my favorite album was gorillaz, and my favorite phase was cracker island, but my love for cracker island was just too strong. i still love their self-titled album of course, but i think i would say that i have two favorite gorillaz albums, and if someone asked me what my favorite was, i would say cracker island.

so i think that a few keen individuals can probably guess my main reason for liking phase 7 so much, and why most of the things i create related to gorillaz are about phase 7, and that is……..because it's pink. hoping that that's not too much of a shock because i'd say that my favorite color makes up a good 64% of my entire personality, and my love for this album. if you take a look at the artwork for phase 7, it's pretty evident what the main color is. there is no other gorillaz phase in which the artwork has that much pink in it, or when the members wear as many pink outfits as they do. if there's any phase whose art i look at the most, it's 7's without a doubt. and i've dubbed all shades of somewhat bright pink "cracker island pink". so much of the merch for phase 7 is pink, too. people love to hate on its album cover, and i actually understand why because the composition is a little strange [and 2D's shirt is really long for no reason, in the original artwork it's not that long], but it still places high on my theoretical ranking of gorillaz album covers because it is pink.

here is a quote from this interview by murdoc on why he chose pink as the color of the last cult:

Some cultures believe that pink, being equal parts red and white, represents the coming together of humans and gods.

Personally, I like it 'cos it doesn't clash with my greenish pallor. I almost went for a maroon red, then I got a cease-and-desist letter from the Sunflower Apostles of Venus.

thank heck for those sunflower apostles. while i'm still writing about visuals, talk about those outfits!!! i have a favorite picture of every gorillaz member [fyi, i have a crush on every gorillaz member too], and every image is from phase 7.

i love 2D's mickey mouse hat, and his shirt which says "i am the lamb" because lambs are fucking awesome. and i know it's a cult thing to have a sacrificial lamb or whatever but it's so morute. so i can forgive his outfit not being pink, plus 2D's just my favourite. i think there's a decent amount of images of 2D wearing pink already, but….he could wear more of it. i adore murdoc's cult robes and the hats he has to go with them. i like the more detailed ones more, though. my favorite gorillaz artwork actually comes from phases 6 and 7 [not saying that to be funny, they actually are], because they're more detailed, and detailed art is exactly the kind that i like to make and look at. but i still totally get the appeal of the earlier phase art styles with their simplicity and grittiness. because i do love the clean look of the more recent artwork, but the edginess and grit of the older art is really cool as well. anyway, i also like the suits that murdoc wore for the cracker island listening party and the skinny ape immersive performance, because he wore pink underneath. as for noodle, i like her spiky black hair more than her new style, but in her new hair i think her baby fringe is cute. and there was also that one tiktok of her with pink hair which i really liked. 2D says in one of his podcasts that noodle designed their pink outfits which is really cool. i love pink so much….. um anyway, as for russ, his pink hospital gown is pretty simple but pink so obviously i like it. but i also really like when he wears pink sunglasses, both the circle and star shaped ones. but in the art of him where he has pink pupils, that doesn't match up with the music video for cracker island where his new pupils are just kind of faded pink circles? i don't know how to describe it but i always thought, if i got to decide what the design for that would be, i would just make russel's eyes completely pink. but i don't know if the 3D model messed up how his eyes were supposed to look or what.

the color scheme isn't the only reason why i like cracker island so much by the way. actually, i'm not going to [at least i'm going to try not to] talk about pink for the rest of this entry. so, during phase 7, gorillaz shared their lore and advertised on tiktok. these tiktoks featured the new 3D models of the characters, which lots of people think look kinda…goofy. and at first, i didn't think much of them, and then i saw other people hating on the models, saying stuff that they looked like they were NFTs, and therefore ugly, and others said their look with the combination of their tiktok marketing made the band seem like they were pandering to children or trying to paint themselves as if they were made for children [poor wording, i don't know how to word it]. ..and then my view of the phase changed. this is a pretty selfish reasoning so you might wanna skip this part, but anyway, i like liking media that makes me seem like i have "childy" interests because i like when people view me as someone who is young and needs to be protected and taken care of [but not treat me like i'm an idiot, that's a whole other entry, and one that's nowhere as lighthearted as this one]. it's kind of hard to put it into words, but basically i age regress a lot [involuntary] and the fact that the 3D models look like something that could be used in a children's movie is endearing to me. so now i think that the models are cute as hell. their tiktok videos only help my case…if you watch them you'll know what i'm talking about. they make those reaction videos where they barely even react to the video and i don't know if that was intentional but i think it's hilarious. there are also videos of them using random filters, and dancing murdoc content, and 2D making "poems" with 3 random words.

one of my two complaints for this phase though, but i guess it's not really specific to this phase, is that i don't like how fluorescent murdoc is. he looks like a highlighter, and i understand that his whole shtick or defining that makes him stand out is his green skin, but it's a little much sometimes, don't you think? in my opinion, he was the perfect amount of green in phase 2 [and maybe phases 3-4], but he should've stopped getting greener at phase 5. phase 5 to 6 marks the most noticeable jump in the saturation of murdoc's skin colour… he's green screen levels of green now. but i suppose i'll just have to live with that, since it feels kind of discriminatory to keep talking about this

there's also kind of another "selfish" reason why phase 7 is my favorite phase, and that's the characterization of murdoc and 2D. to start with 2D, yes, he gets "lobotomized" a lot. and i dislike stupidity in humans but i like the fact that 2D is stupid [stu pot more like stu pid]. and people don't like the fact that he was the chosen one because his soul was so pure, but in phase 2 he was so…impure. those are true, and yes he was supposed to "grow up" during phase 2, but like…he was still dumb and aloof. not completely dumb because he went to get a law degree…but you know he could just be really smart when it comes to that stuff, i digress though. when gorillaz flanderizes 2D and portrays him as a sweet, dumb, innocent and somewhat childish 47-year-old man, fine they may be pandering, but they're pandering to me. so obviously i would like that. but FYI, i don't like to "baby" him [or anyone, because that's the treatment i want], i just take his [phase 7] personality at face value.

in phase 6 of gorillaz, murdoc seemed to begin to go through some sort of redemption arc after he escaped prison in phase 5. in some scenes, mudz seemed to show remorse for his actions of the past, but…then in other scenes, he just turned around and did bad shit again [truth serum thing]. i heard someone say that it feels like the writers don't know what to do with murdoc, and whether they should make him stop being such an asshole or what. but if there were any phases where mudz "got better," it'd be phases 5 and 6. and then in phase 7, he's back to his evil antics, AKA he gets worse. and if there's anything in a character which i like, it's when they get worse. yeah, when they get better that's cool, but like i said this is a personally selfish reason for me. i don't like getting better. i want to get worse because i could always be worse. and when i say that i'm talking in terms of emotional wellbeing/psychology, not in any skills i'm trying to develop, by the way. because i feel like if the characters i like get better and i get worse, i can't relate to or project onto them anymore 'cos it'll be less fitting, or i get attached to their older self. this is somewhat unrelated but part of why i like the watamote anime so much is that tomoko barely makes any progress in her mental health and doesn't get any better. it's depressing yes, but it's also realistic, and i like seeing myself in other characters because i don't get that in real life. i've never met anyone who shares my same sentiments. so uh, yeah, i like the fact that murdoc becomes a cult leader, and he's the reason why the rest of the band gets into the chaos of the silent running and cracker island music videos. and though he is a dick, i also hear people saying that the band members have become "soft". i can't deny that, but you also gotta realize that that is also something that makes me only like this era more.

but mentioning those two, i can't forget about noodle and russel…except it's kind of easy to do that here. that's actually my main grievance about cracker island. i guess i kind of guess why russel was so absent, and that was because his brain basically turned into t.v. static, but his story could've had so much more. as far as i'm aware, we didn't hear noodle or russel talk at all during that phase, even though in the previous one they talked in the machine bitez and the song machine radio. i mean like actually getting to hear them talk by the way, because i know they had a discord server where they technically talked but there wasn't voice acting. murdoc did most of the advertising which i suppose he sort of always has since like phase 3, and i don't dislike that [i would willingly listen to him talk all day, and i absolutely hate listening to people talk, so you know that's how much i like his voice], but i do wish noodle and russel had bigger roles in the story. noodle's role is basically just to save the rest of the band from the trouble they get into now. but as i'm writing this, the lore for the new phase the mountain hasn't come out yet, but i'm anticipating that russel's going to play a larger role in this story [not just me who thinks that], and there have also been theories floating around for what's going to happen to noodle, and that she's going to be more involved too. okay back to the cracker island glazing now..

cracker island the album is shorter than the others, but it does have deluxe tracks and in my opinion, there is no bad song on the album. so cracker island is my favourite phase and album, but favourite to me is not the same as best. i acknowledge that cracker island is by no means their best album, i would give that title to demon days or plastic beach. it's just my favourite, which is completely dictated by my opinion. if someone recommended me a gorillaz album for them to listen to, it wouldn't be this one, but the songs are perfectly listenable. they did take some time to grow on me though. my bias towards this phase made me like the songs more though, like i really wanted to like the songs my love for them would match the love i have for everything else regarding the phase. as i'm writing this i'm listening to my favorite track off the record, which is skinny ape. and right now that's my 4th or 5th favorite gorillaz song overall. there are some tracks which i don't think people talk about very often [the tired influencer, tarantula, possession island] that i just think are incredibly chill. as a whole, one of the words i'd use to describe the album is "chill". that also applies to tormenta. people who hate tormenta are forcing it. even i don't like listening to overly mainstream music because the people who like it are mean to me, but people hate this song because it features bad bunny, who is popular i guess. i don't know because i hadn't heard of him until i heard his gorillaz song. and to be fair, i don't know about of any of the people gorillaz collaborate until…well, they collaborate. like i only know who those people are because of their connection to gorillaz. anyway, cracker island is the most pop sounding album out of gorillaz' discography, which pisses people off because they don't like mainstream music. and yeah, neither do i, but my dislike for it isn't solely because it's popular. if i think a popular song sounds good, then…i'll say i like it, you know. even though cracker island is less alternative, you can't deny that their musical talent is really strong and therefore they've crafted real masterful sounds on their tracks.

i love how so much of the artwork for phase 7 is connected to the lore in some way. also, there's an illustration of 2D with a grocery bag adding ingredients into murdoc's holy bath, which 2D references in his podcast. his podcast is very unserious but i love how that, along with the tiktoks, were some of the ways they revealed the lore for the phase. phase 7's lore was the best story they've had in a while [and yes, i am very biased when i say that]. but it had so much, though it could've had more including noodle and russel…but each member's role in the lore was pretty fitting of their personalities for lack of a better word. albeit that is their flanderized personalities. murdoc being a cult leader, 2D being a sacrificial lamb, noodle being the one who finds out all the information about the forever cult, and russel ….um….uh…..watching the static channel all the time. ok i know i should've put this in the other paragraph, but nothing interesting has happened to russ in 15 years. the most interesting thing to happen to him was during phase 3/plastic beach when he got really huge, and then north korea kidnapped him. but back to phase 7's lore now. murdoc staring at moon flower from the balcony and being in love and making her go on a date with him at the end was such a murdoc thing to do, as were his obsessive text messages to her. him selling his bath water was outrageous in a good way.

finally i will talk about the music videos. there are only two sadly, but they are cinematic masterpieces. like i've mentioned, i love the 3D models. the lighting is really nice, like in the cracker island music video, you can feel the rainy air. a lot of gifs which come from those videos are really iconic, or maybe they only are to me because i've watched them so much. like noodle on the phone, russel's mindless static channel face, murdoc walking into the scene all powerful-like, and 2D acting super tired because his peppermint tea was drugged. but that's just the cracker island video! i haven't decided for sure yet, but i think i like the silent running video more, it's just incredible [BTW, that would make my top three gorillaz music videos rock the house, silent running, and humility]. the lighting in this video is so atmospheric, and the shots where 2D is on that wheel thing and is being lowered into the pit with the demon are really beautiful. i'm just so in love with how all the characters move, too. i love that scene where murdoc looks at moon flower all in love, and when noodle and russel fight the forever cult members with their funny looking hats.

so yeah…i think that pretty much sums up everything i love about cracker island. if i haven't convinced you to give it a listen by now, what are you even doing?