On Melancholy Hill

"On Melancholy Hill" is the third single from British virtual band Gorillaz's third studio album, Plastic Beach. The single was released on 12 June 2010.[1] Pitchfork media ranked it at 152 on the top 200 songs of the decade so far. It was Number 9 on pongsocket.com's list of best songs of 2010, 92 on jongmusic.com list of 100 best songs of 2010, and Number 5 on BBC America's list of best British songs of 2010.

"On Melancholy Hill"
Single by Gorillaz
from the album Plastic Beach
Released12 June 2010[1]
Recorded2008–09
Genre
Length3:53
LabelParlophone
Songwriter(s)Damon Albarn
Producer(s)Gorillaz
Gorillaz singles chronology
"Superfast Jellyfish"
(2010)		 "On Melancholy Hill"
(2010)		 "Doncamatic"
(2010)
Music video
"On Melancholy Hill" on YouTube

Background

The song was originally written by Damon Albarn during the production of The Good, the Bad & the Queen's self titled album.[3][4][5] Band member Murdoc Niccals stated the following about "On Melancholy Hill" in an interview:

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.

Promotion

Part of the promotion for the single included an internet scavenger hunt for various images of the band which, when completed, gave successful hunters an exclusive remix of the track by Josh Wink.[6] In 2019, the song was featured in the third episode of the video game Life Is Strange 2.

Music video

The music video was released worldwide on 14 June 2010.[7] It was originally made exclusively available via iTunes, but was uploaded to the band's official YouTube channel a few days later. A teaser for the video was released on 9 June 2010, and stills of the video were published on writteninmusic.com on 11 June 2010.[8] The video begins with huge ocean liner M. Harriet under attack by two planes. A ship attendant finds Noodle in her room, offering to escort her to the lifeboats. She says nothing, but walks over to a briefcase containing a Tommy gun and walks down the hall past the attendant with the gun. The song begins with Noodle opening fire at the two oncoming planes (two Vought F4U Corsairs to be exact) that are attacking the ship. She manages to shoot one plane down, but doesn't have enough time to shoot the other. The other plane drops a bomb on the ship. As the ship sinks, Noodle is shown to have survived and climbs into a lifeboat with only her guitar and some supplies. Later on, a gigantic Russel Hobbs lifts out of the water underneath Noodle's lifeboat. The rest of the video shows Murdoc Niccals, 2-D, and Cyborg Noodle traveling through the deep ocean with a fleet of submarines, crewed by all of the collaborators that helped make the album, including Lou Reed, De La Soul, Snoop Dogg, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, 2manyDJs, and Gruff Rhys. As they travel, a swarm of "Superfast Jellyfish" are seen and inadvertently sucked into some of the submarines. The submarines then rise to the surface, where a large manatee is sitting atop a tall sea stack. Murdoc spots the Boogieman leaning over the creature and, shocked by the sight, orders Cyborg Noodle to attack it. Cyborg Noodle pulls out a pump-action shotgun and shoots at the Boogieman, but she misses, hitting his clothes. He grabs the manatee and dives into the ocean. When the fog behind the plateau clears, it reveals Plastic Beach.

Chart performance

"On Melancholy Hill" entered the UK Singles Chart at #133 on 28 June 2010, before peaking at #78 on 4 July 2010. After entering at #20 on the UK Dance Chart, the single peaked at #13 on 4 July 2010. On 26 January 2011, "On Melancholy Hill" entered the Triple J Hottest 100, 2010 at #42.

Personnel
  • Damon Albarn – vocals, synthesizers, acoustic guitar, drum programming
  • Stephen Sedgwick – percussion, recording engineer, programming
  • Jason Cox – mixing engineer, recording engineer, additional percussion
  • Howie Weinberg – mastering engineer

Track listing
  • Digital download[9]
  1. "On Melancholy Hill" (album version) – 3:53
  2. "On Melancholy Hill" (The Japanese Popstars Remix) (edit) – 7:35
  3. "On Melancholy Hill" (She Is Danger Remix) – 4:21
  4. "Stylo" (Labrinth SNES Remix) (featuring Tinie Tempah) – 4:12
  5. "On Melancholy Hill" (video) – 4:26
  6. "On Melancholy Hill" (storyboard animatic) – 3:30
  7. "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach" (live visuals) – 3:36
  • Promotional CD single[10]
  1. "On Melancholy Hill" (radio edit) – 3:30 (2:58 on the UK promo)
  2. "On Melancholy Hill" (album version) – 3:53
  3. "On Melancholy Hill" (instrumental) – 3:53
  • Promotional CD single - Remixes[11]
  1. "On Melancholy Hill" (Josh Wink Remix) – 5:04
  2. "On Melancholy Hill" (Josh Wink Dub) – 7:41
  3. "On Melancholy Hill" (The Japanese Popstars Remix) (edit) – 7:35
  4. "On Melancholy Hill" (She Is Danger Remix) – 4:21
  5. "On Melancholy Hill" (We Have Band Remix) – 5:14
  6. "On Melancholy Hill" (Baby Monster Remix) - 4:01[12]

Charts
Chart (2010) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[13] 94
Belgium (Ultratip Flanders)[14] 22
Belgium (Ultratip Wallonia)[15] 22
UK Dance (OCC)[16] 13
UK Singles (OCC)[17] 78

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[18] Silver 200,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. "Melancholy Hill available as a special download". NME. 14 June 2010. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  2. "The 10 Best Gorillaz Songs". 2 July 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  3. theZFE (28 September 2006). "The Good, The Bad and The Queen - Tony Allen" – via YouTube.
  4. chrisranfordays (18 December 2006). "The Good The Bad and the Queen - Teaser 1" – via YouTube.
  5. GBQvideos (3 May 2008). "The Good The Bad and the Queen - PAUL SIMONON CLIP" – via YouTube.
  6. "[Listen] Gorillaz - Scavenger Hunt Remix Revealed x New Album Releasing Christmas Day". Some Kind of Awesome. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  7. "AOL Radio Blog". AOL. 3 June 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
  8. "Gorillaz – "On Melancholy Hill" Teaser Video". Soul Culture. 9 June 2010. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  9. "Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill". Discogs. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  10. "Images for Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill". Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  11. "Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill Remixes". Discogs. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  12. "Gorillaz-Unofficial Forums". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  13. "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 9 August 2010" (PDF) (1067). Pandora Archive. 11 August 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2014. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. "Ultratop.be – Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  15. "Ultratop.be – Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill" (in French). Ultratip. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  16. "Official Dance Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company.
  17. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  18. "British single certifications – Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill". British Phonographic Industry. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type On Melancholy Hill in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
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