Gorillaz are currently gearing up to drop their newest album, The Now Now, in just a few weeks, but it seems that the group can’t wait to let fans hear what they’ve got in store for them, with the band premiering a bunch of new tracks while performing in Germany over the weekend.
As Consequence Of Sound notes, Gorillaz headlined Germany’s Rock Am Ring festival on Sunday where they delivered a marathon set full of classic hits. However, it was a few new tunes that have people talking.
Sandwiched between tracks ranging from their self-titled 2001 debut and 2017’s Humanz, Gorillaz gave fans a sneak peek at four new tracks, including ‘Tranz’, ‘Magic City’, ‘Sorcererz’, and ‘Souk Eye’.
Their huge set also featured a number of songs set for the new album, but had been given a run-through previously, including ‘Humility’, ‘Hollywood’, and ‘Lake Zurich’, meaning that 63% of The Now Now’s tracklist has been previewed to fans in the lead up to its release.
Gorillaz’ last album, Humanz, was released in April of 2017 following a period of time which saw frontman Damon Albarn reunite with Blur, and leaving fans wondering whether or not a follow-up to 2011’s The Fall would ever be released.
While Hewlett revealed last year that Gorillaz were planning to release a new album rather quickly to avoid falling into another period of inactivity, the group kept rather quiet about everything until earlier this month, when it was reported that Albarn had left the new album in a London taxi.
Then, just last week, it was confirmed by Jamie Hewlett’s wife that The Now Now is set for release on June 29th.
The new album comes months after Damon Albarn announced that the band had been in the studio with Flume, though the extent of his collaborations are not yet known. While the details of the new album’s tracklist are slowly being confirmed in regards to feature artists and songwriters, it’s not clear what role Flume has had on the new album, or whether his collaboration will make onto the finished project.
Either way, we’ll find out June 29th when Gorillaz’ sixth studio album is released.
Check out Gorillaz’ ‘Sorcererz’ and ‘Souk Eye’:
Gorillaz @ Rock Am Ring Festival, Germany, 03/06/18 Setlist
‘M1 A1’
‘Tranz’
‘Last Living Souls’
‘Rhinestone Eyes’
‘Tomorrow Comes Today’
‘Every Planet We Reach Is Dead’
‘Humility’
‘Superfast Jellyfish’
‘On Melancholy Hill’
‘El Mañana’
‘Magic City’
‘Strobelite’
‘Andromeda’
‘Hollywood’
‘Stylo’
‘Sorcererz’
‘Dirty Harry’
‘Feel Good Inc.’
‘Souk Eye’
Encore:
‘Lake Zurich’
‘Saturnz Barz’
‘Kids With Guns’
‘Clint Eastwood’
