*Hoots In Pride*

PRE-HISTORY + BETA SEASON 1 = GORILLAZ

Yes, their self-titled debut album “Gorillaz” fits Pre-History, but I’d argue that it follows the Beta Season 1 to a T. Bombastic, eclectic in its style, blending the familiar with the new (Baseball but Absurdist Horror | Alt. Rock but not by “real musicians”), it’s fresh look and feel was what drew people in and caught their eyes on this funny little band. The very nature of Gorillaz is that of satire; I mean, a British virtual band that's made up of drawings as their members with cartoonishly outrageous personalities? That's peak MTV right there! How could you NOT make fun at that vapid vision of commercial art? Blaseball's nature is very similar to that; a fake baseball league that are really just a bunch of names and teams "playing" against each other with just the fans here to bet. Management are unknown massive forces that we laypeople could Never comprehend, be it a massive corporation with vetted interests or a Forbidden Book.

Highlight songs include “Clint Eastwood” and “Tomorrow Comes Today” for The Book opening and what little we understood of Pre-History (namely Parker, old teams remixed/returned, and weather) being brought back in a “brand new way” respectively.

EARLY DISCIPLINE ERA = DEMON DAYS

“Demon Days” Is the Disciple Era, more specifically Beta Seasons 2-5. The stage is set, the stakes have been raised about what Blaseball-Gorillaz are about in their respective worlds, and by gods they Will Deliver on those stakes! “Demon Days” has a special place in my heart, not only because that was the album that made me fall in love with Gorillaz as a band and as an art form, but also one of the very first fanart of Blaseball I ever made was the Temperate Sea Monkeys (Ziwa, Mooney, Hobbes, and Richmond) album as a parody of Demon Days! Not to mention the overall apocalyptic vibe the whole album has and the way it speaks to the horrors of war and violence in such a smooth mysterious way really captures how hectic early DE was. This early era was also most likely what got people interested in Blaseball to begin with, which is why it pairs with this album so well.

While the highlight songs are "El Mañana" and "Every Planet We Reach is Dead" for mourning the players we've lost in these early stages (especially Jaylen Hotdogfingers) and the general horror and angst, I have a few songs to highlight each season from this album: ‘O Green World’ and ‘November has Come’ are very Season 2 with the feeling of trying to comprehend the enormity of what opening the Forbidden Book entails and acknowledging there's no going back, ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head’ fits the horror of realizing that anyone could die and all you have is a giant peanut demanding you follow it's whims (in a narrative sense) for Season 3. Either ‘DARE’ or ‘All Alone’ is Season 4 with their plucky dance numbers via Feedback’s sudden shifts in humorous ("Thomas Dracaena hits a ground out to Edric Tosser") and often times painful ways.

And of course I'd put "Feel Good Inc" for Season 5, it's not only one of my favourite tracks of the album that's the season I joined Blaseball lol. Okay in all seriousness, Season 5 is peak "Demon Days" and "Feel Good Inc.", because by now the fans have a "handle" on what Blaseball is about and have been able to come together to root for their teams and to lift other teams up. It's the community that really what makes Blaseball what it was, and "Feel Good Inc." especially champions these connections while "Demon Days" adds the edge of trying to break bread while still adhering to the natural "rivalries" formed in sports games.

LATE DISCIPLINE ERA = PLASTIC BEACH

Ahh Plastic Beach, by far the biggest album Gorillaz ever released (not counting future albums). With so many iconic bangers and collabs, the cohesive theme of environmentalism, the intensity from their music videos, the very fact they had a whole-ass interactive website chock-full of Gorillaz lore, Plastic Beach is a Behemoth that you just Had To Be There to really Get It (side note: I highly recommend this video by Lady Emily if you wanna learn more). And with the power of hindsight, that's the exact vibe that Late Discipline Era holds over Blaseball. From iconic moments like the Necromancy, the Idol Board, Ruby Tuesday, Day X and the Death of the Shelled One, like how Plastic Beach's music videos brought about massive changes to the band members' lives so to did the Late Discipline Era to Blaseball as a whole.

It's difficult to limit songs into seasons in this case, because of how cohesive this album is, so for this list I shall go over iconic moments and have their highlight songs.

Season 6's Idol Board and subsequent Third Strike is giving "Sweepstakes" and "To Binge" for somewhat obvious reasons (To Binge especially for it's direct reference to how the Idol Board was ultimately used to generate more coins for votes. An economy if you will). The Necromancy of Jaylen is "Empire Ants", especially in light of hubris and on how Jaylen ultimately had to Keep Playing even if it hurt everyone in the league.

Season 7's Ruby Tuesday is "Rhinestone Eyes" especially for the allusion to the Rouge Umps' eyes glowing before the slaughter. Snackrifice and the Moist One Monitor's appearances is "Superfast Jellyfish" for their connections to food as well as how the Monitor has a special fascination towards "tiny eggs".

Season 8's emergence of the Receivers is "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach" for notably Snoop Dogg's verses, while Jaylen's debt fits either "White Flag" or "Broken" ("White Flag" mirroring how Flickering sends players to different teams with little-to-no warning, and "Broken" for the angst of being an idolized dead player with a complicated relationship with the fans).

Season 9's Day X is "Stylo" for it's bombastic yet fearful edge that colours the experience of witnessing the Shoe Thieves get into a literal boss fight against the PODS.

Rounding it off with the fall of the Shelled One and freeing the PODS being "On Melancholy Hill" for the juxtaposition of The Biggest Boss Fight (of the time) being met with the cool confidence of the Hall Stars!

And of course, Workman Gloom (my beloved)'s iconic incineration and later revival as one of the Hall Stars is to the tune of "Glitter Freeze", an intense and shining number highlighting Gloom's badass exit as a living Talker and his iconic hommer in Day X as a Hall Star.

EARLY EXPANSION ERA + COFFEE CUP = THE FALL

So Expansion Era, especially Coffee Cup is kind of a weird moment in Blaseball, much like The Fall's release. On one hand, it was following the end of Discipline Era, we killed a god and have new larger figures, hubris and excitement we at an all-time high! But on the other hand... there's a certain flavour to the Forbidden Book as we chewed on it's pages, something that hinted towards a shift. The mini-hiatus between Eras really solidify that sense of trepidation, as well as the concept that something else is cooking behind the scenes. The Fall very much fits that post-intense rush that still felt fresh but... was it really Gorillaz if its just Damon Albarn? Is it really Blaseball when there's really low stakes?

There's not a lot of songs that I can really say are standouts from this album, but "Revolving Doors" seems like a close enough to count as the highlight for this particularly short instance. How it feels like it's something familiar but with the seemingly never-ending cycle of more upgrades, more expectations, more more more...

MID-EXPANSION ERA = HUMANZ

After 7 long years of no Gorillaz due to Albarn and Hewitt's fall out, Finally they came back together to continue Gorillaz, ushering a brand new era of Gorillaz music with the highly anticipated album "Humanz"! And it was..... controversial let's say. Don't get me wrong, it was a powerful and genuinely fun album, coming right off the heels of the 2016 American election, with the style and charisma that Gorillaz is eponymous for, but there was just SO MUCH going on that it's hard to truly nail down the vibes. It was emotional, it was a huge force of return, it was paraoxically overt in it's political leanings despite doing it's damnest to avoid any direct links, it was Enhanced Party Time. Ask any Gorillaz fan what they think about Humanz and you'll get a different answer each time. Mid-Expansion Era is the epitome of Humanz, for better and for worse. It leaned into the theme of Expanding with it's plethora of new mechanics and the abundance of Blaseball shenanigans (Sutton Bishop's Necromancy, Player Redactions, The Library, and the Replicas to name a few), but fans could now see there's too much going on to hold onto team spirit. When I was a Talkers rep, I remember witnessing team squabbles over Wills, and felt that the community was larger and more fractured than ever. And yet, there was always a through-line of hope and yearning for freedom within this era, one of the most Human(z) experiences one could ever encounter in a game like Blaseball.

The overall highlight song of this era is definitively "Hallelujah Money"; it's haunting melody and sombre lyrics heralding the pitfalls of late-stage capitalism, tinged with this era's overwhelming presence of The Boss, the warnings of history being repeated through the Reader and Lootcrates, and how this particular vision of Blaseball saw more hunger for coins through AYCE and the snacks bar.

I could go into how each song in Humanz fits each season, but that genuinely would take up all my brain-power, so if anyone's curious, send an ask over to get those details.

I WILL SAY HOWEVER THAT THE TALKERS WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP WITH 100% CLOWN RATE??? "CARNIVAL", AND I WILL NOT ELABORATE.

LATE EXPANSION ERA = THE NOW NOW

Okay, you've read this far along so I gotta confess something here; I initially chose The Now Now to be for BETA Season 20, solely for the joke of how it was referred to as "Win(Win)". But upon relistening to the album, it actually suits Late Expansion Era better than I expected! The Now Now was introspective, cynical of what it has witnessed in the heights of fame yet it treasures what it has experienced. It rouses one to reflect on what has happened, what we can learn, and how to finally find one's self from the miasma of the past. Late Expansion Era of Blaseball had a certain drive to break out, to honour the previous arcs and usher in a new era that would hopefully bring forth stability. Much like how in Gorillaz lore during this album, where the rest of the band and 2-D especially finally explore what it's like to breathe without Murdoch, the League opens up to the concept of ridding the Expansions and hold onto the core of Blaseball; just teams playing blall.

The overarching highlight song is "Humility", but highlight songs for specific events include: "Idaho" for when Jesús finally set off on his journey with the Fifth Base, "Tranz" for just... all of the painful revelations about Parker McMillains' connections to Pre-History and to the game as a whole, "Sorcererz" is for the leadup and subsequent Semi-Centennial game, "One Percent" fitting Parker standing up for himself and the League and addressing the multiple planes of existence to rally against the Boss, the death of the Boss is "Fireflies", and rounding out the era with Blaseball being swallowed up in the BlackHole(BlackHole) is "Souk Eye". A solid ending track for a solid conclusion to Blaseball! We will always think of it... but who is to say Blaseball has truly ended?

SHORT CIRCUITS = SONG MACHINE (STRANGE TIMEZ)

Song Machine Season One (Strange Timez) is a weird album for me; not for it's lack of charm, oh no it had Plenty. It's weird because honestly I see it more like a side-project that the Gorillaz band had done just for funsies rather than a studio album, despite it being classified as such. Most of the tracks had a music video accompanying it, feeding us lore on what the band's been up to post-Humanz; truly it was like bringing back the old-school Gorillaz without being old hat. Short Circuits fits that weird niche of bringing back old Blaseball in terms of speed and shenanigans, but with a MUCH faster pace. I'm still not sure how I feel about Short Circuits, much like my feelings for Strange Timez.

I genuinely can't really pick a highlight song for this era, but I highly recommend giving the album a listen! For what it's worth, my favourite track in the album is "Désolé", it just hits different to me.

CORONATION ERA = CRACKER ISLAND

I think I speak for a fair number of Blaseball fans that we were Not expecting it to come back after Expansion Era. I mean, it was a solid ending! Sure there's a bunch of open questions left behind, especially after the Short Circuits, but it was still a good place to end! It's been months since the last update! Where could we even go from here? But there was still whispers in the street; why let go of something that was so good? Why let go of such a powerful phenomena that has a passionate fan-base? *You could make a religion out of this*

Okay, silly monologue aside, Blaseball really did take the internet by storm during the pandemic; so many people from the most unlikely corners of the globe found this silly website through either word of mouth or through sheer boredom, took a chance on it, joined the Main Discord, and then proceeded to be immersed in a community so large and talented that it spawned art challenges, whole-ass bands with albums (I still miss you Temperate Sea Monkeys), collaborative zines, a volunteer-run unofficial merch store that (BB)Cared, podcasts, countless fics and fanart in countless mediums and even made it to national news in Canada! There was so much potential to run towards, but that doesn't mean it was without it's drawbacks and criticisms, which for the purposes of this post I don't wanna get into. Coronation Era was poised to fill in the massive shoes that Expansion Era and Disciple Era left behind... and we will never know how would it fill it, as the era was cut short as it was no longer sustainable to continue.

So why would Cracker Island fit this era? The album was a rousing success! Besides, it had a critical view on social media, and that's not what Coronation Era could focus on! It fits because well... it fits in Blaseball's tenuous grasp on its audience, and it's desperation for funding in order to go all out in its marketing. Unlike previous albums that had plenty of funds to really push the idea of the Gorillaz being a "real" band despite being cartoon characters through it's blending of projections in live tours in Demon Days and through interactive websites like Plastic Beach and even an AR app for Humanz (to name a few)… Cracker Island just had a few short videos and 3 main music videos. I may sound a bit ungrateful here, but in contrast to previous albums' bombastic marketing and ease of accessibility to their characters' stories, this album had very little to go off of.

You'd have to have been an ardent die-hard Gorillaz connoisseur to keep up, and ngl I wasn't able to. I was moving on with life, listening to other music. Much like how I was slowly drifting away from Blaseball through the long hiatuses, barely acknowledging the updates while I hung out with the friends I made with the Talkers and reconnected with irl friends old and new. So when the album released and when the Coronation Era began, naturally I rushed to welcome it, but by then I have changed. I held them differently the way I had a mere few years ago. Maybe it's a sign of growing up and changing with the times. Maybe it was the long hours of trying to keep up finally catching up. I'm not sure what it was... but it felt like an overdue farewell. A gentle nudge reassuring that the future is still there to embrace, and that the people you've met and have been inspired by will still be there, even if the thing that brought you all together isn't there anymore. The band will keep playing. It's okay to let go.