Review
Genre and Mood
Gorillaz were always a genre-blending project, and 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) shows it at its most cheerful. This remix takes the alternative, dub-tinged original and turns it into electronic pop with a hip-hop bounce. The mood is playful and upbeat, utterly carefree, the soundtrack of a cartoon band speeding down a winding road.
Song Summary
Where the album version of 19-2000 is lazy and lopsided, the Soulchild Remix tightens everything up: a brighter, punchier beat, a bouncing bassline and sparkling synths. Damon Albarn’s laid-back vocal as 2-D floats over the top with its odd, half-nonsensical lines, and the call to get the cool shoeshine, with backing vocals by Miho Hatori and Tina Weymouth, is impossible to forget. That chorus is the memorable detail, a sweet, childlike chant that sticks for days.
Musical Breakdown
The remix keeps a tight pop structure, swapping between verses and that chant without wasting a second.
Intro
A bright synth riff and a crisp beat kick in immediately, setting a sunny, energetic tone.
Verse 1
2-D sings in his relaxed, slightly detached way, the beat bouncing beneath him with playful synth flourishes.
Chorus
The shoeshine chant arrives in a high, sing-song voice, the hook of the whole track and its happiest moment.
Bridge
A short breakdown strips the beat back to a few synth and vocal fragments before the groove snaps back in.
Outro
The chant repeats over the full beat before the track closes quickly, leaving you wanting another play.
Concepts in Focus
This is a remix with a commercial brief. Damien Mendis, who made it with Stuart Bradbury as Soulchild, was asked to find a song with crossover potential and told to “pick [a song] that you can produce, remix or whatever into a hit single”. He kept the song’s words and melody and replaced its feel: the woozy, lopsided album groove became a tight, bright pop beat. The result was the version released as the single and the one most people know.
What the remix protects is the hook, the shoeshine chant. A hook is the part a listener carries away, and this one works because it is simple, high, repetitive and slightly nonsensical, more playground rhyme than lyric. The remix gives it more space and a stronger beat to sit on, so it arrives as the payoff of every verse.
Gorillaz were also built around the music video. Directed by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland in a mix of hand-drawn and computer animation, it sends the band in their jeep along a twisting highway, through a loop-the-loop, past a UFO and into a giant moose, with road signs nodding to Jaws, The Shining and Friday the 13th. Two versions exist, one for the original mix and one for this remix. For a later Gorillaz single built the same way around a guest voice, compare Gorillaz, Neneh Cherry – Kids with Guns.
Artistic Context
Gorillaz are the virtual band created by Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, and 19-2000 comes from their 2001 debut album Gorillaz, produced with Dan the Automator. It was released in the UK on 25 June 2001 on Parlophone as the album’s second single. The Soulchild Remix became the title theme of the video game FIFA Football 2002, which carried it to a huge new audience, and it was later included on The Singles Collection 2001–2011.
Impact and Reception
The single reached number 6 in the UK and number 1 in New Zealand, and was certified gold in both countries; in the US it reached the pop and alternative airplay charts. It became one of the defining sounds of the turn of the millennium, loved by fans of indie, hip-hop and pop alike, and for many listeners the video game was their first encounter with the band. It is here because it is simply joyful. Put it on, turn it up and join the chant.
