Gorillaz – Captain Chicken feat. Del the Funky Homosapien Review

Short, emotionless rumblings from Gorillaz have flittered out from the Cracker Island sessions. No better way to wrap that up than a collaboration with Del the Funky Homosapien. Damon Albarn and the funky legend enjoyed success during their heyday with Clint Eastwood. But as Cracker Island points out often, whether that is with or without awareness, is that those days are long behind. It makes the Plastic Beach and The Fall double pairing look frankly genius. Captain Chicken has the same novelty pop naming as that of an Agadoo track, but to let that light-hearted hell of complacency get the better of audiences of more fool them. Barely two minutes here, a tease of what is, hopefully, to come.  

Listeners would need to be clucking mad to get any firm enjoyment from this. A track that nicks the beat of Bad Club, Bad Drugs, Bad People from Acid Klaus’ monumental debut Step On My Travelator. Held together by the slickness and style of Del the Funky more than anything, Gorillaz once again prove themselves as absent in their own projects. Captain Chicken is the shortest of these three bonus tracks and certainly the best of the trio. It manages to make its loose and useless lyrics slot into the well-layered technical funk rather well. It is stunning that this is the track that is, arguably, the best to come from the Cracker Island days. Put those days behind you as soon as possible, Damo, a track that has chickens clucking away should never be the best track. 

Quite clever lyrics come so close to the end that they barely leave an impression. “Foulest of the fowl” is enlightening for what Captain Chicken sets out to do. It is one of the few Gorillaz tracks to truly nail the point and concept of what the band, in its current iteration is all about. Cracker Island may have failed to build up Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and company with much joy, but at least Captain Chicken, that elusive, foul creature, is ripe for the inclusion on whatever next steps there are. Captain Chicken does bring up those next steps for Gorillaz. Where do they go from here? They headed back to island perspectives, realised they had already collaborated with Lou Reed and Mark E Smith of The Fall and now have no leg of environmentalism to stand on. Where next for Gorillaz? 

Novelty pop, by the sounds of it. Gorillaz is a novelty at this point. Their Demon Days high is far behind them and since then they have gripped to the occasional spots of brilliance they have. On Melancholy Hill to Désolé was a long stretch. Fans will have to wait that much longer for another quality album song that is worth sticking around for, but perhaps Captain Chicken can satiate them for the time being. It is far from finger-licking good, but this is as close to inspired Gorillaz get on their latest release. Worrying that may be considering it’s a throwaway track concerning a character that could slot into a Crash Bandicoot kart racer, it at least is worth listening to. At least once, as a treat.