"Strange Timez" is the sixth single from Gorillaz's Song Machine music and cartoon project. In each episode, the animated outfit release a new song and video with previously unannounced guest musicians. In this instance, the collaborator is Robert Smith of The Cure, who contributes vocals, guitar, keyboards and bass.
This slice of galloping art-rock is the first single from Song Machine Gorillaz recorded during the Covid era; its lyrics reflect both the pandemic and some of the other extraordinary events transpired during 2020, including the Black Lives Matter movement and climate change protests. Battle war of the worlds, surgical glove world, bleach thirsty world I'm twitching in the grimy heat, I think I might be spinning Smith's head is spinning at all the terrible stuff going on in the world right now.
Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn explained to Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6 Music that the collaboration with Robert Smith was done by email during lockdown. When The Cure received the demo he immediately fell in love with it. He recalled: "I thought it was excellent. I felt ripples in the force and I thought, 'I better get this done.'"
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