''The Fall'' is the fourth studio album 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 (character), 2-D (Singing, vocals, Musical keyboard, keyboards), Murd ...

. It was announced on 20 December 2010 and released as a download for members of the Gorillaz fan club on 25 December 2010. This was followed by a wider physical release of the album on 19 April 2011. Co-founder

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 ...

recorded ''The Fall'' during the North American leg of the

Escape to Plastic Beach Tour The Escape to Plastic Beach Tour was a concert tour by the British alternative rock virtual band Gorillaz in support of their third studio album '' Plastic Beach''. During the tour, Damon Albarn recorded '' The Fall'', described by Albarn as ...

using an iPad and a few additional instruments. The album features fewer guest artists than previous Gorillaz albums; collaborators include

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack (; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guit ...

, and Mick Jones and

Paul Simonon Paul Gustave Simonon (; born 15 December 1955) is an English musician and artist best known as the bassist for the Clash. More recent work includes his involvement in the supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen and playing on the Gorillaz alb ...

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...

. Critics praised the album's experimental qualities but felt that it lacked the feel of previous Gorillaz albums. It charted in various countries and peaked at number 24 on the ''Billboard'' 200.

Recording

''The Fall'' was recorded on group co-founder

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...

over 32 days during the North American leg of the Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour in October 2010 and mixed in England by Stephen Sedgwick. Other instruments that were used includes a qanun, a

Korg , founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners. Under the Vox brand name, th ...

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was i ...

, a

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

, a microKORG, an

Omnichord The Omnichord is an electronic musical instrument introduced in 1981 by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation. It typically features a touch plate known as "Sonic Strings", preset rhythms, auto-bass line functionality, and buttons for ma ...

, a

Minimoog Voyager The Minimoog Voyager or Voyager is a monophonic analog synthesizer, designed by Robert Moog and released in 2002 by Moog Music. The Voyager was modeled after the classic Minimoog synthesizer that was popular in the 1970s, and is meant to be a su ...

, a

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

, a guitar, a piano and a Korg Monotron. Albarn said of the recording: "I literally made it on the road. I didn't write it before, I didn't prepare it. I just did it day by day as a kind of diary of my experience in America. If I left it until the New Year to release it then the cynics out there would say, 'Oh well, it's been tampered with', but if I put it out now they'd know that I haven't done anything because I've been on tour ever since." The album includes four guest artists, three of which have worked with Albarn before. Mick Jones and Bobby Womack appeared on the previous Gorillaz album ''

Plastic Beach ''Plastic Beach'' is the third studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. It was released on 3 March 2010 by Parlophone internationally and by Virgin Records in the United States. Conceived from an unfinished project called ''Carousel'', t ...

'', as did Paul Simonon, who also worked on Albarn's project

The Good, the Bad & the Queen The Good, the Bad & the Queen were an English art rock supergroup composed of singer Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz, bassist Paul Simonon of the Clash, guitarist Simon Tong of the Verve, and Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen. They released th ...

. American singer-songwriter

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom ...

N.E.R.D. N.E.R.D. (stylized as N⋆E⋆R⋆D and N.E.R.D, a backronym of No-one Ever Really Dies) is an American hip hop and rock band, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1999. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin Reco ...

recorded a track with Albarn while touring together which did not appear on the album.

Release and promotion

The album was first announced on 20 December 2010 as a holiday gift to fans. On 22 December, the music video for " Phoner to Arizona", which consists of a compilation of footage and images taken from the tour and the phase, was posted on YouTube as a way to promote the album. The album was first released to stream for free on the Gorillaz website on 25 December; it was available as a download for paying members of the band's ''Sub-Division'' club, a premium access campaign the band ran throughout 2010. The album was given an official release on 19 April 2011.

Reception

''The Fall'' received mixed to positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc D ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''The Fall'' has an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 67, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Praise focused on the album's unique qualities and experimental nature, with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...

'' stating that the album was "a wistfully spaced-out, subtly cheeky spin on the road-trip epic" and ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' calling it "quiet but ambitious". However, some critics felt that it lacked the offerings of previous Gorillaz albums, with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

'' stating that it was "oddly out of character" compared to ''Plastic Beach''.

Track listing

Sample credits * "The Parish of Space Dust" contains samples of " Cowboy Town" as written by

Ronnie Dunn Ronald Gene Dunn (born June 1, 1953) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record executive. Starting in 2011, Dunn has worked as a solo artist following the temporary dissolution of Brooks & Dunn. He released his self-titled deb ...

Larry Boone Larry Eugene Boone (born June 7, 1956) is an American country music artist and songwriter. Between 1985 and 1993, Boone recorded five major label studio albums, in addition to charting several singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles ch ...

and Paul Nelson and performed by

Brooks and Dunn Brooks & Dunn are an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. The duo was founded in 1990 through the suggestion of Tim DuBois. Before their formation, both members were solo ...

, "

Wichita Lineman "Wichita Lineman" is a song written by the American songwriter Jimmy Webb in 1968. It was first recorded by the American country music artist Glen Campbell with backing from members of The Wrecking Crew and was widely covered by other artists. ...

", as written by

Jimmy Webb Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including " Up, Up and Away", " By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "MacArthur Park", "Wichita Lineman", "Worst ...

and performed by

Glen Campbell Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting '' The Glen Campbell Good ...

, and " Hawaiian War Chant (Ta-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wai)" as written by Prince Leleiohoku and performed by

Spike Jones Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gun ...

. *"Seattle Yodel" features the Yodelling Pickle, made by the novelty retailer Archie McPhee.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes for ''The Fall'' and Tidal.

Musicians

– vocals , synthesizers ,

, piano, guitar,

* Mick Jones – guitar * Jesse Hackett – keyboards * Darren Evans – vocals * Mike Smith – piano *

– bass * James R Grippo – qanun *

– vocals, guitar

Technical

* Damon Albarn – production , recording * Stephen Sedgwick – production, recording, mixing * Geoff Pesche – mastering * Mike Smith – recording

Artwork

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 Gorillaz ...

– artwork, design, photography * Zombie Flesh Eaters – artwork, design * Mike Smith – photography * Seb Monk – photography * Oswald Lee Henderson – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fall, The 2010 albums Albums free for download by copyright owner Albums produced by Damon Albarn Gorillaz albums Parlophone albums Virgin Records albums Record Store Day releases