ALBUM REVIEW: "Humanz" by Gorillaz

Back in 2000 not many people would have said they expected what was widely seen as a novelty act to still be around in 17 years. But here we are in 2017 with a new collection of songs from Gorillaz, in the form of Humanz. This is very much an album from 2017, too, with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's virtual band pushing down fresh electronic avenues and addressing important issues from mental health to military intervention. By far the most impressive and cohesive Gorillaz album, Humanz is often exciting, other times haunting, and occasionally darker than anything we've heard from them before. It is a long slog to get through in one sitting, being almost 70 minutes, but taken in smaller doses Humanz is a great collection of pop songs set on dismantling pop sensibilities.

Favourite Tracks: Ascension, Saturnz Barz and Submission

Least Favourite Tracks: Andromeda

Rating: B

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A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal ...

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For those who read both top 20 albums lists that I did - one here on thatmusicnerd and one over at Kill Your Stereo - you will have noticed, I'm sure, that one had The Ongoing Concept's album Places at number 1, and the other had Brand New's Science Fiction at the top. Full disclosure, I initially had Brand New at the top of just the one list, but the readership of Kill Your Stereo reacted very strongly against the allegations of sexual misconduct against Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey and so I removed it entirely. In fact, none of the KYS contributors' top 20 lists featured Science Fiction at all. Of course I was happy to follow the general consensus in regards to whether or not an artist accused of such things should be promoted by a music publication, but I still stand by my opinion that Science Fiction was the best album of 2017 and as such it was number 1 on my thatmusicnerd top 20 list. 2017 has been a pretty crazy year in terms of the ...

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