At some point in the mid to late 2000s, Gorillaz founder Damon Albarn decided that leading the world’s best cartoon band wasn’t enough, and started to aim a bit higher.

After three massive statements filled with star-studded collaborations, Gorillaz became icons in the music world. Each release was a zeitgeist, heralded by a massive web presence.

But then in 2018 they quietly released The Now Now, an album as subdued as its marketing. That doesn’t stop it from being just as rewarding.

Huge Gorillaz fan that I am, I didn’t even know there was a new Gorillaz album coming out until months afterward. And even then, I took it with trepidation. I ate every ounce of hype surrounding Humanz, but after purchasing it and spending some more time with it, it didn’t have the same luster as the voodoo punk of Demon Days or the the glistening synth pop of Plastic Beach, both of which are 11/10 albums in their own right.

So when I finally discovered The Now Now, it took me two years to decide how I felt about it. I would often return to Spotify to study it, expecting its psych-pop sheen to dwindle with more time. But to my delight, that never happened.

Instead, the songs unfolded to me even more with each listen.

At first glance, The Now Now may seem unimportant. Gorillaz records are marked with a huge list of guest features. As such, it’s not unusual for there to be several years between albums. There was five years between Demon Days and Plastic Beach, then another seven years until Humanz, which was particularly feature-heavy.

The Now Now, released only fourteen months after its predecessor, features only one track with other lead vocalists (“Hollywood,” which features Jamie Principle and the one and only Snoop Dogg). R&B singer Abra provides backing vocals on “Sorcererz,” Jazz legend George Benson plays guitar on the opener “Humility” (not Jack Black, as the video portrays), and a few other guests pop up every now and then, including Albarn’s old Blur bandmate Graham Coxon. But for the most part, 2-D is left on his own.

As such, most of the album plays like the wonderful deep cuts sung only by 2-D (Albarn’s cartoon alter ego) that dotted the tracklists of their previous records (which have always been my favorite tracks). Such tracks were almost entirely absent from Humanz, and so this record almost feels like a companion disc to that album—which might also be due to the fact that much of it was written and recorded during the Humanz Tour.

But where Humanz was a scorched earth, hip hop record for the party at the end of the world, The Now Now feels almost pastoral. While I don’t expect Gorillaz to ever release an unplugged record, this feels like the closest we’ll ever get (to say nothing of the image of 2-D playing guitar alone on the cover).

Barring “Hollywood,” there’s none of  the technicolor hip hop that’s been a major part of every Gorillaz album. Instead, these songs spend most of their time exploring psychedelic synthpop, new wave, and Britpop. “Tranz” is brooding and moody, melding dark new wave with an enthusiastic chorus of near-Gospel. Several moments feel like the Beatles in an alternate dimension (particularly “Kansas” and the woozy “Idaho“). “Magic City” has moments of electronic doowop punctuating its verses. “Fire Flies” is moody and mournful, showcasing Albarn’s songwriting in earnest in a way that’s eluded his cartoon project. Closer “Souk Eye” breaks through the solitude of the record by shifting into a string-heavy disco breakdown.

But it would be a mistake to assume that just because The Now Now isn’t as ambitious as other Gorillaz records, that means it isn’t as good. On the contrary: this might be their best since Plastic Beach. A decade now since Albarn decided to get real with this project, Gorillaz has still felt weighed down by its own gimmick. Guest stars have felt almost necessary to carry the records. But nearly stripped of them here, Albarn and his cartoon crew prove that they’re perfectly capable of doing it on their own. In fact, if the difference between this album and Humanz is any indication, the guest features might actually be a distraction.