Gorillaz released their fifth album, Humanz, earlier this year and when I first heard it, I nearly shat my pants.

For as long as I can remember, Gorillaz have been my favorite band of all time. With their virtual band (and the impressive backstories to boot) and their live holographic shows, along with their unique music style, they've been one of the more innovative and progressive groups around. To take something as involved as music-making, and blow it up into something so huge, is just stunning to me.

When I began listening to Gorillaz, I was absolutely mesmerized - I researched them all the way back to their beginning. If you don't know much about them, their animated band consists of singer Stu-Pot (2-D), drummer Russel Hobbs, bassist Murdoc Niccals and Noodle as the lead guitarist (all created by illustrator Jamie Hewlett). The musician playing behind the cartoon-band is Damon Albarn.

Mention-worthy tracks on their new album include Andromeda, Saturnz Barz, and We Got The Power. Give it a listen, really, you won’t be disappointed.

Gorillaz hit you with a massive taste of everything (and I mean absolutely everything). Alternative, pop, Britpop, hip hop, trip hop, rap, reggae, electronica - they stay serving your earbuds with something funky. Chances are, you’re already a fan - if not, maybe you just haven’t heard their stuff (which is damn near impossible). They’ve got such a range, and that’s what makes Gorillaz one of the best groups out there. They’re always current, and you never know what you can expect from them next.

So, I’ve already established how insane their music is, but I can never stress enough that while the music itself is mind-blowing, their character art is absolutely nuts. I touched base on the basics of their artificial band, and I mentioned that they all have ridiculously hilarious and intricate personal backstories and phases that tie in to the entire band’s backstory. Let’s just have a look at them, though:

Murdoc Niccals

Murdoc Niccals is the bass guitarist for the band. He’s green because he is an immortalist, and his body is a rotten carcass. He has allegedly been alive to see, and take part in, every major event throughout history.

Stu-Pot (2-D)

2-D is the lead singer of the band. His eyes are blackened by two 8-ball fractures resulting in hyphema. According to the official Gorillaz website, he fell from a tree when he was eleven, causing his hair to fall out and grow back blue.

Noodle

Noodle is the band’s lead guitarist. Her transition through phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 have taken her from an eight-year old speaking one English word (her moniker, noodle), all the way to age twenty-six, fluent in every known foreign language. Noodle was the subject of an experiment made to implement child super-soldiers for the Japanese government.

Russel Hobbs

Russel Hobbs, Gorillaz percussionist, originates from Brooklyn and is possessed by some hella-whack rapping demons. This is the reason his eyes are full-white. In many instances, Russel appears larger-than-life, towering over the other band-mates.

It would be hard to deny that the creators of Gorillaz have put an unbelievable amount of work into the development of their character band. Aside from the band art, they have also come out with many mixed-media music videos that you just can’t help but marvel at.

I mean, there’s not enough I can say about Gorillaz and how creative, how original their work is. They’ve always been one of my all-time favorites, and always will be. Simply put, there’s absolutely no other artist like them, none that are even close. Hopefully, Gorillaz will still be around to put out more work, that’d make me a really happy girl. For now, I will sit and wait with my fingers crossed, doin’ my thang.