Yeeaaaahh. I remember seeing the video for “Feel Good Inc.” when it was an exclusive, brand new, never before seen thing getting its debut on music television. Nine years later, people know it as being Gorillaz’s signature track (either that or “Clint Eastwood“) but even then, at the age of ten, I knew Gorillaz was onto something.

2D, Noodle, Murdoc & Russell were looking better and more badass than before. One thing that was clearly noticeable was the improvement in animation. Four years gives you a lot of time to get shit done. But the track was so funky and dark with that phat, iconic bassline and manic laughter provided by Maseo of De La Soul. I liked it, my sister liked it. Every time the video ended on TV, we waited for the coming of the next hour so we could see it again. We searched on the ‘Windows Media Guide’ on the Windows Media Player to try and find an mp3 of the thing we thought it was the shit. This was the best ‘new’ song that I had heard for a very long time. The song would be played everywhere – it featured on an iPod advert, the group performed it on stage at 2005 EMA Awards… this was really the song of the year.

The track comes in around the middle of “Demon Days” fading in from the children’s laughter from the previous track. 2D wants us to feel good and also sings about a magical windmill in the chorus, Murdoc plays that bass, Russell provides the solid drum beat and De La Soul (well, Dave from the hip hop trio) come in for the killer rap bridge, sounding very grimy and intimidating. The video reinforces this. Witness 2D’s suffering when the rapping starts. It’s brutal.

And it still sounds as good today as it did then. Almost a decade, Dios Mío.

If you haven’t heard the song before….. where have you been? Under a rock? In a cave? I joke. You’ve heard it. You know you have.