Following the release of ‘Cracker Island,’ Gorillaz‘s co-creator Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett set off to promote their latest album. In a recent Q&A session with Alan Carr, Albarn talked about some of the songs in it and revealed that it was relatively easy to convince Stevie Nicks to collaborate.
The virtual rock band’s eighth album features the contribution of several artists like Thundercat and Beck. Still, Jamie Hewlett believes that the best song on the album is the second track, ‘Oil,’ featuring Stevie Nicks. According to him, it becomes more beautiful as you listen more.
In the interview, Hewlett explained:
“The more you listen to it, the more beautiful it becomes. The voice of Stevie Nicks is f*cking beautiful.”
Following the artist’s statement, Damon Albarn explained that Stevie Nicks was not the name in his mind while working on this song. He had initially considered Julian Casablancas from The Strokes to feature on the track, but their producer suggested Stevie Nicks, which he accepted. However, Albarn was surprised when Nicks immediately agreed to the project since the song’s lyrics and content were a bit unusual. Mentioning that, despite the song’s ‘weirdness,’ she understood what it referred to, Albarn expressed that they were lucky to work with her.
The musicians recalled the time as follows:
“I still haven’t really got my head around that song. I was working with [super-producer] Greg Kurstin, who happened to know her. In my mind, Julian Casablancas from The Strokes was the person I was going to ask to do that song but Greg said, ‘Can I just try Stevie?’ ‘Well, of course.’
I didn’t think for one second she’d want to do it, because it’s a weird song. The lyrics start with ‘interlocking clusterbombs’ which isn’t necessarily the first thing you share with somebody but she got what the song was inferring. It’s about man, it’s about war but she loved it. We were very lucky to get her involved.”
Although the band’s creators are happy with the overall album and the contributions of the other artists, their collaboration with Stevie Nicks in ‘Oil’ is one of their favorites. Jamie Hewlett is impressed by Nicks’ vocals, and Damon Albarn is pleased to see that she got the song’s content and agreed to work with them. Still, ‘Oil’ is not the only good song in ‘Cracker Island.’ The other songs in Gorillaz’s new album are also worth listening to.
