''Democrazy'' is a 2003 vinyl-only double EP of demos by

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

, frontman of British

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

Blur and the

virtual band In entertainment, a virtual band (also called a virtual idol, virtual singer, virtual group, virtual artists, cartoon group, cartoon idol, cartoon singer or cartoon band) is a band or music group whose depicted members are not people, but animate ...

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in London, England in 1998. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (gui ...

. It was released through Honest Jon's record label.

Background

Albarn recorded these songs, which are little more than demos, during the US leg of Blur's tour for ''

Think Tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

'' in various hotel rooms. He then decided to issue the result, on 8 December that year, in a double 10" vinyl set on his Honest Jon's label. On 22 December Albarn showcased the demos at a live gig in London's Neighbourhood club. Some of the EP's tracks were later finished and repurposed for Albarn's other projects; the track "I Need a Gun" was used as the basis for the

song "

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American action-thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry (film series), ''Dirty Harry'' series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first appearance as San Francisco Polic ...

", which appeared on their 2005 album ''

Demon Days ''Demon Days'' is the second studio album by the British virtual band Gorillaz. It was released on 11 May 2005 in Japan, 23 May 2005 in the United Kingdom by Parlophone, and 24 May 2005 in the United States by Virgin Records. The album continu ...

'', while the track "Half a Song" was repurposed 20 years later as "The Ballad" appearing on Blur's ninth studio album '' The Ballad of Darren'' (2023). The track "A Rappy Song" has often been mis-labeled as an unnamed

' track featuring

Bootie Brown The Pharcyde is an American hip hop group, formed in South Central Los Angeles in 1989. The original four members of the group are Imani (Emandu Wilcox), Slimkid3 (Trevant Hardson), Bootie Brown (Romye Robinson), and Fatlip (Derrick Stewart). ...

and

Cee-Lo Green Thomas DeCarlo Callaway-Burton (born May 30, 1975), known professionally as CeeLo Green (or Cee Lo Green or simply Cee-Lo), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Green came to initial pr ...

, however the song is little more than a remix made by a fan.

Critical reception

The EP received mixed-to-negative reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 45, which indicates "mixed or average reviews", based on 9 reviews. Alexis Petridis of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described the album as "occasionally brilliant and frequently irritating beyond belief" and wrote: "It is packed with interesting ideas, but is founded in an appalling self-importance." Mark Beaumont of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' panned the album, describing it as "the half conceived, cottonmouthed rubbish."

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

critic Jedediah Gilchrist stated: "He's already recorded such a wealth of great material that no mystique remains, leaving no real reason for anyone—including the most dedicated fan—to seek out these poorly produced musical shreds." Scott of ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' wrote: "Serving as nothing more than a temporary diversion or side note to his fully realised work, this is worth a cursory listen for the insight alone."

Track listing

Disc one

# "I Need a Gun" – 1:25 # "Reedz" – 1:22 # "Half a Song" – 1:06 # "Five Star Life" – 2:45 # "A Rappy Song" – 1:40 # "Back to Mali" – 1:04 # "I Miss You" – 2:21 # "Hymn to Moon" – 1:01

Disc two

# "Dezert" – 2:51 # "Sub Species of an American Day" – 2:25 # "American Welfare Poem" – 3:06 # "Saz Theory Book" – 2:35 # "Gotta' Get Down With the Passing of Time" – 2:17 # "End of Democrazy" – 3:39

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2000s demo albums Damon Albarn EPs Songs written by Damon Albarn 2003 debut EPs