The song features beautiful animation, giving honor to the classic arcade title Pac-Man, and features the guest LA artist ScHoolboy, who lends a verse to the track. Albarn offers excellent breathy lyrics, “I’m a mad Pac-Man / Living in levelled world / Everywhere I go / I don’t know where I am.”
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The song is the fifth single, or “Episode 5,” of the virtual band’s new “Song Machine” project. The “Song Machine” project so far has consisted of both singles and music videos, dubbed “episodes,” with each featuring previously unannounced guests. Season One of Song Machine, set to consist of 10 episodes, began on January 30, 2020, and will be released as a compilation entitled Almanac in October 2020.
The single was released just in time for Pac-Man’s 40th anniversary. First released in the arcades in June 1980, Pac-Man took the world by storm and became one of the most popular video games of all time, and continues to stand as a video game icon even today. According to the Davie-Brown Index, Pac-Man has the highest brand awareness of any video game character, with it being recognized by 94 percent of American consumers. The game is one of the longest running video game franchises of all time, being one of the few games included within the Video Game Hall of Fame.
Pac-Man continues to stay relevant even today, with this new single as a primary example, and the gaming icon showing up in pop culture quite frequently, with its most notable recent gaming appearance being as a playable character in the last two installments of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. The little yellow guy even appeared in the medical field recently, with a technique for fighting COVID-19 named after him.
The Gorillaz is a British virtual band was first created in 1998 by Damon Albarn, with the art created by Jamie Hewlett.The virtual band is primarily made up of four members: Stuart “2-D” Pot, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hobbs. The fictional universe is presented through music videos, interviews and short cartoons. In reality, Albarn is the only real member of the group.
The Gorillaz’s newest single, “Pac-Man,” is out now.
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