Laika Come Home
Laika Come Home is a Gorillaz remix album released in July 2002. Unlike a typical remix album, it is done by just one group, Spacemonkeyz. It contains most of the songs from the Gorillaz' first album, Gorillaz, but remixed in dub and reggae style. The album features Terry Hall, U Brown, Earl 16 and 2D. One single, "Lil' Dub Chefin'", was released from the album on 22 July 2002, with moderate success. The limited edition was packed in digipak, featuring two hidden tracks. In 2004, the album was packaged with 2001's Gorillaz in a box set as part of EMI's "2CD Originals" collection. The album's title is a reference to Laika, the Soviet space dog, and the film Lassie Come Home. The album contains mixes of every song on the original album except "Double Bass", "Latin Simone (¿Que Pasa Contigo?)", "Rock the House" and the bonus track "Dracula".
Backgrounds
The Spacemonkeyz appear to be first referenced before the album in the "Tomorrow Comes Today" video. During the video, in the background, a poster can be seen with three pictures of monkeys with spacesuits and the caption "Laugh now but one day we'll be in charge". The artwork is a famous piece of artwork by Banksy, the visual artist who worked with Damon Albarn for Think Tank's artwork and Demon Days producer Danger Mouse in an attack against Paris Hilton. While the band were on hiatus in Beverly Hills, after touring for their debut album, they took a break from writing a script for their unfinished movie to appear at the Isle of MTV concert off the coast. After the show, Murdoc was asked to sign a record he didn't recognize, which turned out to be the Spacemonkeyz album. It appears that 2D never locked Kong Studios up properly before leaving on tour, and the three chimps entered and hijacked the master tapes in an attempt to contact Laika herself, who is supposedly their leader. After discovering the record, Gorillaz shot one or two photos with the monkeys and then they disappeared. Murdoc is still angry at them for doing the album, despite the extra income he gets from it. He maintains that Dr. Wurzel, his archenemy, is behind the incident and complains about getting monkey feces out of the carpets at Kong.
Before the release of the album, the mix of Tomorrow Comes Today (Bañana Baby) was released in the single of Tomorrow Comes Today in February 2002.
Track listing
| 1. |
"19-2000" (Jungle Fresh) |
5:28 |
| 2. |
"Slow Country" (Strictly Rubbadub) |
3:41 |
| 3. |
"Tomorrow Comes Today" (Bañana Baby) |
5:29 |
| 4. |
"Man Research" (Monkey Racket) |
5:57 |
| 5. |
"Punk" (De-Punked) |
5:21 |
| 6. |
"5/4" (P.45) |
4:26 |
| 7. |
"Starshine" (Dub Ø9) |
5:17 |
| 8. |
"Sound Check (Gravity)" (Crooked Dub) |
5:32 |
| 9. |
"New Genius (Brother)" (Mutant Genius) |
5:02 |
| 10. |
"Re Hash" (Come Again) |
6:05 |
| 11. |
"Clint Eastwood" (A Fistful of Peanuts) |
5:53 |
| 12. |
"M1A1" (Lil' Dub Chefin') (6:07, with interlude) |
5:42 |
| 13. |
"Slow Country" (More Rubba Dub) |
5:15 |
| 14. |
"Clint Eastwood" (More Peanuts) (limited edition only) |
6:39 |
| 15. |
"Spacemonkeyz Theme" (featuring Stanley Huang) (Japanese limited edition only) |
5:21 |
Chart positions
