Gorillaz HUMANZ

Audio Mixer: Stephen Sedgwick.Recording information: 4220 Feng Shui Studios, Hollywood, CA; Chicago recording Company; Geejam Studios, Port Antonio, Jamaica; Studio 13, JM Jarre Studio, Paris, France; Studio 13, Mission Sound, Brooklyn; Thomas Crown Studios.On 2017's Humanz, Damon Albarn returns to Gorillaz after a seven-year hiatus -- a period when he busied himself with two operas, a solo album, and a Blur reunion -- and reconnects with the collaborative instincts that drove the band's first two albums. Plastic Beach -- the 2010 album that served as the group's last major opus (The Fall, released just months later, was that LP's bittersweet coda) -- found Albarn stepping toward the center stage but on Humanz he recedes, giving his collaborators the spotlight and softening whatever complicated narrative he and illustrator Jamie Hewlett devised for their cartoon group's fourth phase. Maybe this is why Humanz feels wild and unruly in a way Plastic Beach never did: the emphasis is on the