As collaboration-heavy as expected of a Gorillaz track, the supergroup that relies on celebrities and stars from elsewhere has found a strange layer to their music. Either it is fundamentally mundane and loosens something up with an inclusive track without collaboration or there is a grand reliance on those that collaborate on the track. They are immediately tasked with bringing something new. Problem is, there are very few who manage to do that. Tame Impala is not one of them, and whatever he brings to New Gold is drowned out by the dance-track-ready piece and the lyrics of Bootie Brown. Even then, it is not the best outing for Gorillaz and their ever-expanding litter of company.
Awful it may be to come across a song done better elsewhere, but that has been the trouble for Gorillaz for some time now. They have managed to hit their apex with Demon Days, panicked and changed their focus for Plastic Beach and from there have tried and failed to innovate their character. Brown’s return to Gorillaz collaboration is the fundamental part of New Gold, a track that feels like it will inevitably lose its focus once surrounded by album tracks. Tame Impala bring little to the table, although they could barely muster up more than one good track on their own so that may not be as surprising as it is here. New Gold is a clear example of how weak some, if not most, of these collaborations can be.
Sloppy hooks from Tame Impala and some absolutely fine lyrics, it does very little to innovate and even less to offend. New Gold is just there. The “new” at the start of its track feels like a cop-out and not all that truthful. It will certainly work for hardened fans of Gorillaz, though. If they can make it through Song Machine they can make it through the acceptable tones found throughout New Gold. It is not that much more of a challenge, but it is clear to see Cracker Island is going to be a sloppy bit of misery. At least Song Machine had a few flickers of charm on their singles. Not this piece, though, which feels filtered and dull as both a mechanism for characters created over two decades ago and as a fundamental piece of creativity. Still, it doesn’t get much worse than the bass-heavy trivialities of the Dom Dolla remix.
Absolutely acceptable quality from Gorillaz, a run-of-the-mill track that sees the collaboration-heavy stylings of a band running on empty, hoping an outside influence will steer them toward something new. Maybe it will, but for New Gold it feels inherently similar to just about every other overbaked collaboration Gorillaz have made an attempt of. It is either that or a stripped-down bit of in-house dullness. There is no in-between now. They are either trying too much or too little, and neither appears to be working. New Gold is nothing new at all. Gorillaz has been down this road before, and they hope to travel down that beaten track again and again.
