When it comes to musical acts that defy genres, Gorillaz is a perfect fit for this anti-label. Their music can barely be confined to one sound, let alone one concept. Although the group’s new album “Humanz” demonstrates the band’s versatility, some of its non-cohesive and jumbled moments cause it to fall short of success.

The subject matter of the album attempts to center itself around different political and societal issues, but in reality, most tracks only scratch the surface of actual commentary. For example, the song “We Got the Power” is a poor attempt at a feel-good, unifying album-closer that mostly comes across as corny, as a good portion of the album does.

One song that actually does a decent job of displaying any kind of relativity is the track “Ascension,” which features rapper Vince Staples. Staples never fails to deliver hard-hitting lyrics on racial tensions, and his appearance on the album comes as a pleasant addition to the extensive cast list included on the project.

Features dominate the album, ranging from the likes of De La Soul and D.R.A.M. to Grace Jones and Carly Simon. While the inclusion of these artists adds a wide arrange of styles in the album, some of them are misplaced and do not mesh well with the tracks they are featured on, taking away from Gorillaz’ own style.

As for the overall sound and of the album, it includes some of Gorillaz’ signature space-like electronic rock sounds, now mixed in with hip-hop beats. Most of the instrumentals on the album are produced with quality, but not created well musically. There are multiple different songs on the album that are nearly unlistenable due to their odd sounds and poor structure. For example, the booming, repetitive beat on the track “Momentz” becomes old fast, which really dampens the track’s potential.
In conclusion, “Humanz” offers some decent highlights, but is overall marred by its own inconsistency. I would give this album a rating of 2/5.