"Strange Timez" is a song by British

virtual band In entertainment, a virtual band (also called a virtual idol, virtual singer, virtual group, cartoon group, cartoon idol, cartoon singer or cartoon band) is a band or music group whose members are not depicted as corporeal musicians, but animat ...

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...

featuring

The Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith has re ...

frontman, Robert Smith. The track was released on 9 September 2020 as the seventh single for Gorillaz' seventh studio album, '' Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez'', and the sixth episode of the ''

Song Machine ''Song Machine'' is an audiovisual project by British virtual band Gorillaz. It is a music video web series consisting of a collection of music videos and singles that are released monthly by the band as episodes of the series, with each epis ...

'' project, a web series that involves the ongoing release of various Gorillaz tracks featuring different guest musicians over the course of 2020.

Background

The song was first teased at the end of the "Pac-Man" music video, where the opening tune of the song played over an announcement that Song Machine would return in September. It is the first single from Song Machine to be recorded during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, with Albarn mentioning that the track was recorded over email with Smith.

Music video

The video, directed by

Jamie Hewlett Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is an English comic book creator, illustrator, music video director, and songwriter. He is the co-creator of the comic book ''Tank Girl'' with Alan Martin and co-creator of the virtual band Gorilla ...

, Tim McCourt, and Max Taylor, features the band members going on a trip to the Moon. 2-D stares at the Earth, Noodle blows up a billboard on the Moon, Russel performs donuts with the vehicle on the Moon's surface, and Murdoc discovers a

Monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive rock (geology), stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological for ...

on the Moon. When he stepped through it, it teleported him back to Earth, right outside of Kong Studios. The video ends with the message "Be the Change" written out of craters on the Moon's surface.

Track listing

Personnel

Gorillaz *

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...

– vocals, instrumentation, director, keyboards, bass *

– artwork, character design, video direction *

Remi Kabaka Jr. Remi Kabaka Jr. (born 11 April 1970) is a British record producer, art director, percussionist and voice actor best known as the drummer and producer for British virtual band Gorillaz. He became a music producer for the band in 2015 after severa ...

– drum programming, percussion Additional musicians and personnel * Robert Smith – vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass guitar, music box * Etta Albarn Teulon – trumpet * John Davis – mastering engineer * Samuel Egglenton – engineering * Stephen Sedgwick – mixing engineer, engineering

References

{{Gorillaz 2020 songs 2020 singles Gorillaz songs Songs written by Damon Albarn Songs written by Remi Kabaka Jr. Songs written by Robert Smith (musician) Parlophone singles Warner Records singles Song Machine Electropop songs Post-punk songs British synth-pop songs