Gorillaz feat. De La Soul – Feel Good Inc.
2005 · Directed by Jamie Hewlett & Pete Candeland
9.5M Likes
Best comments
1.“Murdoc – the only bassist to ever get any.”
More comments
- 2.“When my mom hears this song, she mistakes 'feel good' for 'mealtime.' I don't know how she got there, but she did it.”
- 3.“I used to teach ear training at a conservatorium and had my students transcribe the bassline and the rhythm of the first rap section. It was always good value watching a room full of classical violinists figure out the best way to write the rhythm for the ass-crack line.”
The story
Damon Albarn was on his way to a 2003 Coachella gig with Blur when he passed a field of windmills, and that view ended up inside one of the biggest songs of the decade. Feel Good Inc. led off Demon Days in May 2005, with Danger Mouse producing and De La Soul on board at his suggestion. That famous cackle is De La Soul's Vincent Mason – Dave Jolicoeur's idea.
Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland of Passion Pictures directed the video, blending CGI and 2D animation more smoothly than any Gorillaz clip before it. The camera climbs the Feel Good Inc. tower, where people lie sprawled on the floor, dumbed down and checked out. 2-D yells at them through a megaphone and stares out the window at Noodle, who drifts by on a floating windmill island while helicopters give chase. Hewlett said the island came from Hayao Miyazaki, and it looks a lot like Castle in the Sky. De La Soul show up as giant faces on the tower's screens, needling the band until 2-D loses it.
The big idea is freedom of thought versus a media machine that keeps everybody sedated. It won Breakthrough Video and Best Special Effects at the 2005 MTV VMAs, the song won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and it held number one on US modern rock radio for eight straight weeks. 2-D ends the thing repeating the title to himself like a man trying to believe it. We've all been there.
