Andromeda
by Gorillaz (featuring D.R.A.M.)

Album: Humanz (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This upbeat track finds Gorillaz lead singer 2-D celebrating good times. The song is set in a nightclub called Andromeda, which was an old soul club in the area where Gorillaz founding member Damon Albarn grew up. "Andromeda was this nightclub in Colchester where they played soul music," he explained to BBC Radio 1's Mistajam. "There wasn't a lot of that around in the '80s in Essex, but there was that Essex soul boy kind of theme that existed… it was a positive thing in a quite grim world."
  • The song features a playful verse by American hip-hop recording artist D.R.A.M, who is best known for his US Top 5 hit "Broccoli."
  • Speaking on the Song Exploder podcast, Damon Albarn credited "two of the '80s greatest pop songs" as inspirations for the tune: Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)." In fact, the working song title was "I Can't Go for Billie Jean."
  • The cover note for this song on the album cover reads "For Ethyl." The track was written in part from a place of grief for "all these beautiful people" that Albarn has known who have passed away." In particular, he had in mind Ethyl, the deceased mother of his partner.

    "She was very ill when I first sat down at the piano," said the Gorillaz co-founder. "And I was just thinking about her. It all came out in one splurge; it was one take, the whole thing."
  • D.R.A.M. was not the first choice for this song. Both Rag 'n' Bone Man and Christine and the Queens had previously come up with versions that Albarn said "didn't work."

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