Gorillaz: Empire Ants (ft. Little Dragon)

Way back in middle school when songs like Stacy's Mom and bands like Green Day were my daily playlist (it was a dark time, don't judge, you were all right there with me jamming out to Cascada), another one of the big songs was Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz. I checked them out and bought the physical CD--remember when that's what you did? Haha, oh the good old days...--of Demon Days and fell in love. They were rap before I knew what rap was, electronic before I found EDM, and cool indie alternative experimental stuff before that was cool. I totally bought that these four cartoon characters made the music, and was utterly enraptured by the wikipedia coined 'extensive fictional universe' that Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett created. I bought all of their other stuff and went on with my happy-go-lucky middle school livelihood, escaping cootie-infested girls and wandering the halls aimlessly on my 'way to find a book in the library'.
Jump ahead to 2010, where my 'oh-so-snobby, high-and-mighty, indie-is-the-only-thing-I-can-be-troubled-to-listen-to' high school self had long ago moved on from all of my mainstream middle school shenanigans. What should resurface from the past? The Gorillaz with a new album! Back were the characters, the epic story lines and animated movies all lurking behind the music, and lo and behold! I still loved the music AND it was just far enough up a side-tributary of hipness that I could be seen listening to it! Plastic Beach (the album) rekindled all that old nostalgia and was damn good as well, seeing the Gorillaz collaborate with different artists on nearly every song. They had also put a lot into the world around the album again, creating games, interactive songs, and numerous videos with the same old cast of band members. Did I mention that it had a climate change theme?
Anyways, long story short, the Gorillaz are pretty sweet (sometimes hit and miss, but their good stuff is really good) and since they came on many times during my two day drive to California and ultimately on to college, it was nice to have some reminders of the old carefree middle school days.

Here's Empire Ants, which features Little Dragon, who absolutely MAKES the album, being featured on another of my favorite songs as well, To Binge. Cool vibe for the first few minutes, and then the song just breaks wide open and takes a turn towards the incredible at around 2:15, where it builds into Little Dragons part. Echo-y, slightly disco-y, and all great-y, the rest of the song is a ride! Enjoy!