This time around the guest spots include contributors from beyond the grave, with the voices of Bobby Womack, Tony Allen and Mark E. Smith showing that death is not necessarily the end (especially in pop). This is not AI but recordings sampled at length to startling effect: Delirium begins with Albarn mournfully staring at the ashes in the shadow of an autocrat ruler, before Smith then bursts back into life, cackling and slurring with inspired apocalyptic lunacy in true Fall style; it just works. Likewise, the central Eastern hip-hop epic The Manifesto begins with Argentinian rapper Trueno but half-way through, with a monumental flourish, hands the mic to D12 rapper Proof, who was killed in 2006; it is an early freestyle during an early Gorillaz session on which he goes, “You aren’t ready for death , until I showed up, hold breath.” Eerie, yes, but in the conceit of the album it feels powerful not exploitative.
