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Critic Reviews
83
The Fall at first listen seems more interesting as a concept than as music. Still, there are plenty of rough-cut pop gems.
15y
80
The Fall suggests it's wise not to underestimate Damon Albarn's restless creativity.
5y
80
Damon ditches the celeb mates and takes up the iPad for his best cartoon hip-hop album to date.
15y
70
Genius, as you know, is all about the detail. The backing vocal on ‘Revolving Doors’ – if you’re still struggling with the 'song' thing, this and ‘Amarillo’ offer consolation in the form of two of Albarn’s loveliest unfinished melodies.
15y
70
Albarn isn’t trying to say much, but The Fall is pretty consistent, from the country-radio sampling dub of “The Parish of Space Dust” to the Rust Belt planet-rock of “Detroit.”
11y
70
While it is impressive how much Albarn squeezes out of a piece of equipment that most would assume isn’t up for the task, this is ultimately a tour-bus album—several songs are even named after the cities in which they were likely conceived.
12y
70
Scaling back to just an iPad and a few instruments for The Fall is somewhat surprising, and has resulted in a quieter, more singer-songwriter type of album.
11y
70
An electronic album that manages to sound intimate, late-summer warmth turning to autumnal melancholy, and a cartoon band that suddenly seems a little fragile.
15y
68
The Fall is worth spending time with, not only for the quality of some of its material, but also for what it exposes of Albarn’s careful conception of what this band should be.
11y
67
There are a few moments of brilliance, like Bobby Womack’s spirited crooning on ”Bobby in Phoenix.” Hopefully that energy will spill into their next effort — in a studio.
9y
65
The strange, yet awfully satisfying, collection of tracks certainly won’t attract new listeners to the Gorillaz catalogue, but synth-infused pop tracks like “Revolving Door” or “Hillbilly Man” will appease most listeners.
15y
60
Gorillaz' latest is a low-key set made on an iPad on tour. It has a few great flashes.
6y
60
The Fall is best viewed as Damon Albarn's on-the-road notebook rather than a fully fledged Gorillaz affair.
5y
60
Set free from the unwieldy set of expectations that come with a stellar cast of guest stars, ‘The Fall’ could have been Albarn’s undiluted first-person perspective of what a Gorillaz album should be.
6y
60
It's a sequel of sorts to Democrazy, but sounds infinitely more accomplished--undoubtedly part of the technological point that he's making here.
Print Only
3y
60
The Fall is a love letter to—and a journey into—the heart of America.
11y
60
In form as well as content, The Fall is more like a pet project than a full-fledged release.
15y
60
The Fall winds up a little ephemeral, its pleasures as fleeting as the scenery passing outside the windows of a tour bus.
12y
60
There are a lot of innovative ideas, some strong moments, but also a good amount of filler. If you give it a spin, though, you’ll probably find some hidden treasures in these songs as well.
15y
58
For all its highlights, The Fall ultimately feels slight.
7y
58
The Fall may be the most earthbound Gorillaz album yet-- and at times, therefore, the most banal.
15y
50
On this followup to Plastic Beach, Gorillaz bring together some pretty rough ideas and simple demos. Given, the sounds here are much better than what most people can create on a MacBook--never mind an iPad.
8y
50
The sluggish vibe on The Fall was obviously part of Albarn’s intention in creating a meandering sonic travelogue, but you end up wishing he’d pressed the gas pedal a little harder.
12y
40
Gorillas are a threatened species. Gorillaz might be joining them at this rate.
12y
40
As you'd expect, it relies heavily on programmed beats of spare simplicity, and layered dubstep synth riffs over which Albarn sketches his impressions of life on the road.
6y
After creating only the best alternative album of the 2010's... Gorillaz makes their frankly underwhelming reappearance after only a couple months, dropping The Fall. They got the title sooooo accurate, because right after this album, they seemed to be cast with the curse of "mid" and haven't really dropped a true classic since the provocative and beautiful Plastic Beach. This album is mostly instrumental, which is fine, but only if the instrumentals were more revised and ... read more
How did this happen? Such an amazing streak of albums, and then this came along and was like, "Today I will make Gorillaz boring!" and it succeeded. It's not even that it's bad, it's just so disappointing. Humanz better be at least interesting... or else.
Admittedly a bit weird, this album is judged too harshly for what it is. I am glad this exists and you can have a fun time with it.
Es damon albarn jodiendo con su IPad no es mas la verdad se siente bastante mínimo muy melancólico y básico, no entiendo por que sacaron esto la verdad no me queda mas que recomendarles el homónimo de la banda Automelodi que tiene mucho de lo que este disco hubiese sido con una mejor dirección.
5.4
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patton, royalflush, thisisabtlgrnd, philthy, Alejandro González, erik, Leo Aguilar, d_ism, sweertner, OPENblinds, myles, Dani, 𝐥𝐢𝐳Become a Subscriber
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Track List
| 1 | Phoner to Arizona 4:14 | 60 |
| 2 | Revolving Doors 3:26 | 81 |
| 3 | Hillbilly Man 3:50 | 69 |
| 4 | Detroit 2:03 | 66 |
| 5 | Shy-Town 2:54 | 67 |
| 6 | Little Pink Plastic Bags 3:09 | 66 |
| 7 | The Joplin Spider 3:22 | 51 |
| 8 | The Parish of Space Dust 2:25 | 64 |
| 9 | The Snake In Dallas 2:11 | 58 |
| 10 | Amarillo 3:24 | 78 |
| 11 | The Speak It Mountains 2:14 | 38 |
| 12 | Aspen Forest 2:50 | 63 |
| 13 | Bobby In Phoenix 3:16 feat. Bobby Womack | 72 |
| 14 | California and the Slipping of the Sun 3:24 | 58 |
| 15 | Seattle Yodel 0:38 | 30 |
Total Length: 43 minutes
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3w
Lowkey creating something that’s better than actual serious albums on a literal iPad is impressive.
1mo
Damon said this was a demo in a interview and said he wanted to finish it one day. I hope he does.
2mo
I need everyone to remember that this album is not supposed to be viewed with the same consideration as other Gorillaz albums. It's not album #4, it's #3.5; a side-project. Outside of the few vocals, everything on here was made using the newly released iPad. Damon Albarn also says it was just a diary for him when he was on tour in the US. Don't get me wrong, this is still worse than all of the other albums, it's just an album out of a technicality.
