Cracker Island is the name of the new song as well as the album Gorillaz created on June 22, featuring Thundercat. Fans quickly began to dissect and find the song’s meaning, as is their customary practice. They endeavored to understand the progression of the band’s mysterious backstory.

Gorillaz is a fictional band formed in 1998 by Damon Albarn, as most people are aware. Damon made up 2D, Noodle, Murdoc, and Russell as the cast of characters in this show. In addition, it features a lengthy and intricate chain of events. Thus, this brand-new song will be presenting something brand-new by collaborating with Thundercat. In this post, we will look into the song lyrics meaning and the story behind the song.

Song Lyrics Meaning

The unknown location known as Cracker Island is first mentioned in 2-D in the music. The island is the birthplace of a long-forgotten religious sect. Additionally, 2-D is now a part of the group. The band Gorillaz formerly called it “The Last Cult.” He went so far as to urge fans to participate on this site. This song explains what the cult culture signifies to him, the sacrifices that must be made, and the rewards that come with membership.

The lyrics of the album Cracker Island contain a lot of hidden meanings, which were imbued in it while Damon started to write the songs of this album. Thus, we are required to uncover and find the clues scattered among the lines.

The song effortlessly creates an air of mystery around it, and the listener feels drawn towards it because of it being titled ‘Cracker Island’. The track featuring Thundercat starts with the lines that are in the first stanza. The cult was conceived on Cracker Island, yet its introduction is still a way off in the song. A historical community is responsible for the cult’s formation to “build a made-up paradise” by planting seeds at night, as represented in the lines “They were planting seeds at night, To grow a made-up paradise”.  Its cult’s utopian vision of the world does not reflect reality in its purest form. 

It wants to create a superficial new world and an “autotuned” utopia. There are various other underlying meanings that can be extracted from the phrase ‘planting seeds at night, to grow a made-up paradise’. The track hints towards a new world that is being born by making artificial changes to the world. Moreover, a lot of other absurdities are also going to be born with the coming artificial culture. 

Gorillaz songs are mostly created with such unique themes and motifs which convey stories in a sequential manner, and we have to wait for the upcoming Gorillaz songs to know the whole thing. It is also one such number that is aptly titled ‘Cracked Island’ according to its meaning and theme. 

As the track progresses, we uncover more hidden meanings by reading between the lines. We can also see it in likeness with the current condition of the world, where we are coming closer to a superficial utopia. The music describes an idealized version of paradise. It exploits the concept of autotune, a technique used in music creation that digitally recreates the singer’s voice and refines the sound. It frequently causes the human accent to take on a mechanical sound and quality. That gives us the impression that we are discussing some manufactured utopia.

2-D was willing to join the cult, but only at the cost of his soul. Yet the sect will give him a fresh start in his new life. The album has ten tracks in total, and each one of them feels equally intriguing and melodious, and the contribution of Thundercat has made the track even more enticing.  As a result of reading these phrases, we have concluded that you do not know what this new reality will appear. The new reality eternally in the future is referred to as 2-D. Therefore, it has not arrived, even though he has already sacrificed his spirit.

If we want to understand how the plot will progress, we must hold out until more Gorillaz tracks are released. A new album may be produced after the one aired in 2020. But the story’s title may be “The Last Cult.” Over the next few days, we will probably have additional information.

Possible Metaphors

Is there a symbolic or covert significance to be found within the lyrics of Cracker Island? So, that’s a possibility. The sect promises its followers a glorious future made of synthetic alterations and a new planet. All of this might have something to do with what has been going on in our world recently.

It seems ‘Cracker Island’ could be about a cult, the island part of the title alluding to isolation. The song could be a warning – against cults. And my guess is cracker island isn’t a place we should aspire to be.

It may also give a connection to how our lives have shifted in a way that we did not deliberately choose to take. We will wait for additional insights from Gorillaz to determine whether the newest portion of the plot is connected in any way to the happenings that are taking place in the actual world. 

However, the entire album is being loved by listeners all over the world. The album remained in the top charts and the playlists of its listeners for weeks as the Gorillaz fans always keep anticipating and expecting them to write such deep and meaningful lines and create musical pieces worthy to remain on top for weeks and months. Undoubtedly they are one of the selected few musicians who we can expect to write some otherworldly stuff.

Lyrics

On Cracker Island it was born
To the collective of the dawn
They were planting seeds at night
To grow a made-up paradise
Where the truth was auto-tuned (forever cult)
But it’s sadness I consumed (forever cult)
Into my formats every day (forever cult)
In the end, I had to pay (what world is this?)
In the end, I had to pay (I purged my soul)
In the end I had to pay (I drank to riot)
Nothing more to say (I drank to riot)

They taught themselves to be occult
They didn’t know its many strategies
They taught themselves to be occult
They didn’t know its many strategies (fantasies)

What world is this?
What world is this?

On Cracker Island it was raised (hey, hey, hey, hey)
By the collective from the grave (hey, hey, hey, hey)
It only came out at night (hey, hey, hey, hey)
It ate up their paradise (paradise)
Where the truth was auto-tuned (forever cult)
And it’s sadness I consumed (forever cult)
Into my formats every day (forever cult)
In the end, I had to pay (what world is this?)
Out there on my silver lake (I was not there)
In the end it will be great (beneath the hills)
I’m like a ship between the tide (I saw myself)
I held on, I survived (there in the void)

They taught themselves to be occult
They didn’t know its many strategies
They taught themselves to be occult
They didn’t know its many strategies (fantasy)
(Ooh, ooh)

On Cracker Island it will die (forever cult)
Join the collective in the sky (forever cult)
And on a shining bolt of light (forever cult)
Go up to paradise (what world is this?)
Where the truth is auto-tuned (I purged my soul)
And it’s sadness I consume (I drank to riot)
Into my formats every day (I drank to riot)
In the end I had to pay (forever cult)
In the end I’ll have to pay (forever cult)
In the end I’ll be okay (forever cult)

Nothing more to say (say, say, say, say)
Nothing more to say (say, say, say, say)
Nothing more to say (say, say, say, say)

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: David Albarn / Greg Kurstin / Stephen Bruner

Cracker Island lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

Listeners of Alternative music, might also appreciate the song The Adults are Talking by The Strokes

This article was first published December 12, 2022 and last updated June 2, 2023