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The closing song of Cracker Island is a wistful piano ballad that serves as the album's reality check. Damon Albarn duets with Beck as they search for purpose in a world that can feel meaningless. "We're all in this together 'till the end," whisper Albarn and Beck as the song concludes.
"It's the place for reaching an understanding that all of this doesn't really matter," explained Albarn to The Sun.
Murdoc Niccals, one of the animated avatars of Gorillaz, had this to say about the song at a Cracker Island listening party:
"The last to play is 'Possession Island,' featuring the legendary Beck, who together with moi, takes a deep dive into the human soul. Think of this track as a trip through the Hollywood Hills with golden sunsets and sunrises, but… there's more beneath the surface. The impermanence of life, the emptiness of fame, the struggle to find meaning in a hollow world. I can relate to all that - my vast fame and fortune is the cross I must bear for you lot. This one's a real tear-jerker. It finishes, and then, behold the silence that follows. That's it right there. Silence, existence, silence."
Cracker Island is a fictitious island inspired by Los Angeles. There, people with unusual or eccentric ideas can live together and reinforce each other's beliefs without external interference or opposition. The album starts off with the high-energy title track and ends with this, its most serene song. "Every song on the record started as island," said Albarn in Spotify's Song Stories of "Possession Island." "This one stayed as one."
"Possession Island" started as an outtake called "Island" for Damon Albarn's 2021 solo album The Nearer The Fountain More Pure The Stream Flows. The Stream Flows. Albarn later finished it with Beck and Cracker Island co-producer Greg Kurstin.
"Damon had been playing that piano part during his The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows tour," explained Kurstin to Apple Music. "That melody was something he would play every time he'd sit down. I started playing the nylon string guitar, and then it became a little bit more of a flamenco influence, and even a mariachi sound with the Mellotron trumpet."
Beck and Kurstin go back a long way; Kurstin played keyboards in Beck's band in the early 2000s and co-produced most tracks on the American artist's 2015 Colors album. It's likely Kurstin suggested Beck as Albarn's duet partner for this track.
"I feel like the best of me when I work with Beck, and I feel the same with Damon," said Kurstin. "I feel pushed by their presence and their body of work, searching into places that I never looked before-deep, dark corners, sonically. What can I do that's different than I might do with most people? It's very easy to fall into comfort zones and what's easy when you're making music. Working with Damon really awakened some creative part of my brain that was sleeping a little bit. I need to work with these people to keep these things going."
Gorillaz debuted "Possession Island" live during their World Tour date at Los Angeles' Kia Forum on September 23, 2022. Beck joined the band to perform the song.
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