The Most Gorillaz-Sounding Blur Song

This article was originally published on Far Out

The earliest traces of Gorillaz manifested only a few miles outside Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon universe, tucked between some of Damon Albarn’s most expressive songs for Blur.

The English songwriter’s ability to transform his scatterbrained impulses into a virtual band that he is solely in charge of turned out to be an unanticipated blessing that practically everyone is grateful for. Even in 2025, the animated quartet feels like the most groundbreaking concept of the 21st century.

Despite the project’s enormous scope and far reach, the fact that it all traces back to a musician-cartoonist duo is still something most people aren’t privy to, which in turn has helped sustain the excitement surrounding the audio-visual package.

Long before “Did you know Tame Impala is just one guy” became a go-to icebreaker, “Did you know Gorillaz is just the singer from 'Song 2'?” was doing numbers in the trivia space. This revelation truly is a thrill, because going back in time and exploring Blur after ‘Feel Good Inc.’ is one of the rare, incomparable experiences that make music worth living for. The whole process of observing just how different the Britpop years sound compared to Demon Days, realising what a pretty boy Albarn used to be and learning about how the group was shoulder to shoulder with the lads behind ‘Wonderwall’ is akin to traversing a parallel dimension.

Ultimately, though, tracing the growth of a genius mind is what makes the whole exercise so much fun. Albarn’s brilliance lies in how he outgrew Britpop right when his fans did, prompting him to embrace a level of creative maturity that ensured his band’s permanence while making more room for urges that were specific to his busy mind.

Listening to Blur albums that were released after the self-titled debut by Gorillaz is fascinating because a chronological side-by-side illustrates how he was starting to compartmentalise his ideas. Here and there, some even sounded like they may have been released under the wrong banner. ‘Caravan’ from Think Tank (2003) is one such example, although it is discoloured by a sense of defeat that still makes it a deserving Blur cut.

Then, there are songs from before the cartoon band even went public that demonstrate how Albarn was itching to express himself in a different format. While it is certainly a key element of Blur’s 1997 self-titled LP, 'Country Sad Ballad Man' is easily the single most Gorillaz-sounding tune that wasn’t attributed to the fictional four-piece. The lethargic vocal delivery and its fuzzy processing would go on to become 2D’s trademark vocal texture, not to mention the falsetto that was also a distinct trait of the singer’s animated avatar during his first few albums as a one-man army.

Of course, the sound effects and distortion heard on the track were also the product of Blur’s departure from the risk-averse pop tunes that prevented them from being taken seriously at the time, so the changes in their style weren’t just about their frontman’s evolving sensibilities.

All four members were leaning more into their emotions and experiences back then, which resulted in a grungier record that was far less sprightly than their previous releases, and the song in question played a key role in establishing their metamorphosis. So, despite its Gorillaz-like essence, ‘Country Sad Ballad Man’ is still very much a Blur (the album) song because it fits the overarching theme of the tracklist.

While 'Country Sad Ballad Man' is perhaps too human a composition for Gorillaz (although pieces like 'To Binge' a decade later suggest otherwise), it certainly had a lot of traits that would take on a richer and more developed form when their singer teamed up with Hewlett soon after. Less than a year after the song was released as part of Blur’s fifth studio album, Albarn began working on and recording his debut project as Gorillaz. 

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