Extra tracks are usually a gift, but Gorillaz and their Cracker Island haul are as dry as that aforementioned food product. Crackpot island, with bits of driftwood now bobbing up to the surface. Careful of Crocadillaz, the gummy bite of a loose collaboration between Damon Albarn and the legendary Dawn Penn is a golden opportunity for the former to engage the talents of legacy. But, much the way Stevie Nicks was shunted to the side on Oil, so too is Penn on Crocadillaz. Dull trap beats left over from some cut track somewhere that takes on the form of The Tom Tom Club deep cuts, De La Soul at least leads the charge. Pooling talent like that to rattle out a bonus track. Fascinating. Still quite dull, but very fascinating.
Damon’s drum machine peddles on through and it does very little for the split of talent here, who are given a quick X Factor-like minute to demonstrate their worth for potential collaborations down the line. Completely empty and another slow and unmoving ballad, but dependent on Penn and Soul, ironic since the track itself has none of the latter. Albarn’s groupings for Cracker Island are stuffed full of talent but the constant trouble for Gorillaz is figuring out what to do with the people they pull together. Holding that drawing power is nothing short of incredible after the decade-long stretch of poor quality. Mediocre rumblings Crocadillaz may be, it is a standout track that lets the featured artists play around on their own time.
But then that shunts the trouble of Gorillaz and their identity into the other woeful originals they offer. Neither with or without special guests do Gorillaz have any form of image anymore beyond that of their luckily established characters, who have traded moody hand-drawn characteristics for Xbox Avatar displays. Simple drum-heavy beats with empty synth may give De La Soul a “taste for destruction” but all it gives the listeners is a half-finished track that, should it have been fleshed out with another verse or two, would have made the Cracker Island cut. Nostalgia ebbs through more for De La Soul and Penn’s inclusion here than the beat laid down below their lyrical interpretations. Solid work, just utterly forgettable and failing to elevate either themselves or the listener to that glorious next level.
Crocadillaz is nobody’s fault. Thankfully short, vaguely sweet more for who the track compiles than anything else. Decent work and a fine mix are not enough, though, even for an extra track which feels rushed out and missing those definitive pieces. Barely stretching itself over that two-and-a-half-minute mark, Crocadillaz makes the bold move of calling itself a bonus track. Gorillaz fans can back this one for the revival of collaborations with De La Soul, but their inclusion here is nowhere close to their Feel Good Inc days. Reminiscence and nostalgia are what matters most now, and if Gorillaz can continue to strike on through with memories of the past, be it in their collaborations or their song structure, then they will keep dwindling and forming themselves into a track where the lyrics promise to bounce off the walls, but Gorillaz don’t have it in them anymore.
