"Momentary Bliss" is the first of a number of tracks to be released from Gorillaz' Song Machine music and cartoon series. Each episode sees the animated outfit release a new song and video with previously unannounced collaborators. Every Song Machine episode is also accompanied by a "Machine Bitez" - a short conversation between the virtual Gorillaz members and their live-action collaborators.
The band recorded "Momentary Bliss" in the summer of 2019 at Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn's West London studio. The song features a contribution from punk rock duo Slaves, who Albarn had previously collaborated with as part of the Africa Express project. There is also a verse and refrain from Slowthai. Though Albarn hadn't worked with the English rapper before, Slowthai had previously teamed up with Slaves on his song "Missing."
Damon Albarn, Issac Holman of Slaves and Slowthai all address a girl called "Rita" throughout the song. At one point, Albarn interpolates the chorus of The Beatles' "Lovely Rita." The message they are giving her is an encouragement not to sell her soul for feel good moments. We could do so much better than this Emotionally in fences and momentary bliss The group explained why they close the name Rita to BBC Radio 1's Annie Mac: "It's a lovely name to sing… I sort of think it's about instant gratification, it doesn't last. And there's lots of that around today."
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.