Gorillaz’ live show is usually a big spectacle with the virtual band appearing on screens and big-name guests. However, Damon Albarn showed that his boys can really get cooking even with a simple acoustic show on a street corner. The English songwriter performed “On Melancholy Hill” in a stripped-back arrangement with a five-piece band in the low-key street performance. The intimate format was perfect to highlight the simple beauty of the composition.
The original song had a bit of studio trickery applied to the parts, but here all you get is the unedited performances and vocals from the group, and it’s just perfect. In addition to the band, Albarn tapped a three-piece vocal group, which added a heavenly gospel sound to the simple tune. “On Melancholy Hill” seems made for this kind of small concert, so it was the perfect song for the occasion.
The performance of “On Melancholy Hill” was uploaded on the Audacy YouTube channel on October 31, 2018, where it gained 3.3 million views. Fans were digging the special live cut of the song and added comments such as “Definitely one of their greatest songs. The composition is amazing” and “One of the most talented, creative, innovative and artistic writers and musicians alive today!”
The most popular live version of “On Melancholy Hill” is from Gorillaz’s 2010 performance on Later… with Jools Holland. In this version, the band provides a much fuller rock arrangement for the tune, and Albarn delivers a really beautiful take on the vocals. The group gave the performance around the time of the original release of the single, which came out on June 12, 2010.
The Music Man readers may recall that Gorillaz dropped “On Melancholy Hill” as the third single from their third studio album *Plastic Beach*, which was released on March 3, 2010. Albarn wrote the song during the production of the debut album of his supergroup The Good, the Bad & the Queen, which was recorded across 2005 and 2006. However, “On Melancholy Hill” was not included on the supergroup’s album, and it instead debuted on *Plastic Beach* several years later.
Gorillaz virtual member Murdoc Niccals commented on the meaning of “On Melancholy Hill” in an interview with NME in 2010, saying “The melancholy hill – it’s that feeling, that place, that you get in your soul sometimes, like someone’s let your tyres down. It’s nice to break up the album with something a little lighter. It’s good to have something that’s a genuine pop moment on every album. And this is one of those.”
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