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Which is why, chatting with the band, I open with the question that every person on every dating app has opened with since the world flipped upside down… Given the band’s wildly inventive to pretty much everything, who knows what to expect, but one thing’s for certain: like many of us, they’re adapting, innovating and making creative use of a weird new reality and taking refuge in their imaginations until all of this blows over.

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In mid-December, we’ll have the chance to do that collectively: Gorillaz will stream Song Machine Live, a series of virtual gigs that’ll bring the album to life. And if you’d rather opt for escapism? The record is packed with so many bops that you can just kick back and let it move your feet (simultaneously screaming into your pillow optional). You might have noticed that this year has seen the old certainties upended, the climate receptive to a band-who-are-not-a-band recording an album-that’s-not-an-album via remote collaborations. They called the album ‘Strange Timez’, for goodness’ sake. Which brings us back to the point that the group, long preoccupied with notions of dystopia (and utopia: see 2010 album ‘Plastic Beach’), slot right into 2020. Now the songs, along with a whole heap more, are part of a traditional album, but that experimental approach clearly influenced the innovative music. At the time, Russell described the roll-out as “a whole new way of doing what we do, Gorillaz breaking the mould ’cause the mould got old”.

Seven of the album’s songs were originally released as ‘episodes’ comprised of videos and accompanying skits. The breathless guestlist is indicative of Gorillaz’s enormous star power, while the collection itself is a nod to their endearing eccentricity.

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It was like: close email, open Pro Tools…” The latter says she connected with the band on a personal level, telling NME: “We talked about the future in a way that made me jump out of my chair with excitement.” CHAI, a proper ‘one-to-watch’ band from Nagoya, Japan, who feature on the sing-song ‘MLS’, were similarly enthusiastic: “It’s amazing and we are so honoured.” And Ruban Nielson, frontman with psych-rockers Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who slink through the understated ‘Severed Head’, is unequivocal about his attitude to working with the band: “I had no hesitation when getting asked to work on a Gorillaz track. Vincent assists on the shimmering ‘Chalk Tablet Flowers’. The latest, ‘Song Machine: Season One – Strange Timez’, released last month, is collaboration-stuffed: Elton John and The Cure’s Robert Smith appear, respectively, on the elegiac ‘The Pink Phantom’ and minimalist ‘Strange Timez’ Joy Division and New Order legend Peter Hook and dance-pop titan Georgia groove through the ‘80s-influenced ‘Aries’ and indie hero St. And, somehow, after everything they’ve done, 2020 is Gorillaz’s year.Īssembled by pop svengali Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, the band – bassist Murdoc Niccals, vocalist 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs and guitarist Noodle – have spent seven glorious albums crafting their inimitable alt-pop in a universe all their own. In the almost two decades they’ve been together, from louche 2001 debut single ‘Clint Eastwood’ to recent ska-flavoured tune ‘Momentary Bliss’, cartoon icons Gorillaz have been fine purveyors of apocalyptic pop, head-rattling collaborations and innovative visuals that melt the brain and eyeballs.