Gorillaz

I'll admit I was stumped when I first saw the iPod commercial featuring "Feel Good Inc.," from Gorillaz's new Demon Days. That lazy Britpop vocal sounded so familiar atop the pretty acoustic strumming, and yet I couldn't place it. Then, before my brain could compute that, of course, it was Blur's Damon Albarn, there dropped this Cameo-esque booty-funk groove that segued into a dirty Southern bum-shake rap. Was this some obscure mash-up between a Blur B-side and OutKast? Nope. But I wasn't entirely off track. Turns out the arguable godfather of mash-ups, Danger Mouse, known for 2004's The Grey Album, a clever combining of the Beatles and Jay-Z, was at the helm with Albarn in creating this latest from the supposed cartoon band Gorillaz. Like the aforementioned song, the rest of Demon Days employs swift genre changes, with help from the likes of De La Soul, Ike Turner, and Dennis Hopper, among others. But unlike the unfortunate results (if not sales) that bands like Linkin Park have had with this similar technique, Albarn and his little Mouse friend have created a vibrant mood swing of a record that's as dark as it is danceable.