Gorillaz kicked off the Halloween season today (October 1st) with a brand new song from their upcoming musical instalment, Song Machine: Season One. Gorillaz enlisted 6LACK and Sir Elton John for their latest offering, which is punnily titled The Pink Phantom.
The Pink Phantom, also named Song Machine: Episode 7, is one of the 17 tracks that will feature on Song Machine: Season One. Ahead of its arrival on October 23rd, Gorillaz have dropped various gems from their upcoming instalment, namely Pac-Man featuring Schoolboy Q, Strange Timez with Robert Smith, and Friday 13th with Octavian.
Naturally, Gorillaz dropped The Pink Phantoms’ video companion to YouTube today, the episode in question reaping over 444,000 views. After a brief opening of the Song Machine: Theme Song, the contemplative track begins.
Gorillaz frontman 2D gave his thanks to Elton John saying: “Thank you for being so generous to us, Mr Elton Sir John, with your time and genius”
Episode 7 starts with 2D sitting at the piano, playing a low-tempo, solemn riff amongst huge pink fluorescent lights. The animated keyboardist croons the despondent lyrics: “You’ve more or less forgotten me this summer/I can’t hide my disappointment/I was on my way in the phantom five/The one you gave away”
6LACK spins across the animated screen coated in a bright orange hue, singing the heartbroken “Try to tell you that I love you but I’m choked up/You forgot and that makes me feel like no one”. As the lyrics flash across the screen, an animated Elton John plays his signature piano, fitted in a perfectly dashing pink suit.
Elton John spoke on the killer collaboration, saying that “Damon reached out and asked me to do something and the way the song has turned out is just great. I was in the studio in London and he was at the other end in Devon, but even remotely it was such an engaging and creative process.”
Elton elaborated on his admiration for Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn, gushing “I’ve always loved Damon because he encompasses so many different sorts of music. He has his fingers in so many pies and although he’s achieved so much, he never sits still creatively.”
Albarn, who is about to release the seventh creation from his virtual band, is “constantly pushing forward and embracing the new, which is admirable and rare”, according to Elton, “He’s always working – he’s always doing something…I’ve always been a Gorillaz fan anyway, so when he asked me to do a Gorillaz track – it was a no brainer. I’m so very happy that that’s come about.”
Gorillaz will unveil Song Machine in full in a live stream performance with LiveNow on December 12th-13th. Airing across three times zones, more information regarding Gorillaz’ upcoming Livestream can be found here.
The virtual band is set to release their first hardback annual, The Gorillaz ALMANAC, also on October 23rd. The annual is a collaboration with Z2 comics and will feature over 120 pages of artwork, games, puzzles for those die-hard Gorillaz fans.
The Pink Phantom is out now.
