Charger
by Gorillaz (featuring Grace Jones)

Album: Humanz (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This features the voice of Grace Jones and is the result of four months of trying to pin the diva songstress down with plenty of false alarms. When Jones finally turned up, Damon Albarn recorded her singing over the track again and again, ad-libbing and vibing to his soundscape. The Gorillaz songwriter then crafted the song from there. Albarn told The Sun:

    "She's very elusive but she finally turned up and because Grace is Grace, we had a brilliant night with her, recording her voice for four hours. It took a lot of editing but I really love that song. It comes at that point in the record where we needed to get supernatural power up and running."
  • The song originally featured somebody else's voice as well, but Grace Jones didn't want to double up. Albarn recalled to Rolling Stone: "I was in Jamaica, and finally Grace Jones showed up. I played the tune to her. She was like, 'Hmm, there's something not right about this.' I said, 'What is it? Do you want me to take out the keyboards?' 'No, it's this noise on here.' 'What noise? That guitar?' [Makes pinging sound] 'No, I love that.'"

    "She wouldn't say it was this other person's voice. Clearly, once the voice had been taken off, the track was ready to work on. [Shakes his head] Some people don't necessarily want to be on the same tune with somebody else."

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