After a week of speculation, Damon Albarn has confirmed that there will indeed be a new Gorillaz album coming this year, unveiling two new tracks and videos from the animated band.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Beats 1, the former Blur frontman confirmed that Gorillaz’ sixth studio album will be released on June 29th, titled The Now Now. It comes a little over a year after the project’s last record, Humanz, was released to critical acclaim.

Gorillaz, consisting of Albarn and animator Jamie Hewlett, are renowned for using a galaxy of guest stars to bring their studio creations to life, but the sixth album features very few outside collaborators. However, in typical fashion, the few they have chosen are stellar, including hip-hop star Snoop Dogg and legendary American guitarist George Benson.

Gorillaz

Talking to Lowe, Albarn said that the motivation behind The Now Now was to have “something nice to play everyone” at Gorillaz tour dates this year, calling it an “emotional” and “summer” record.

“I sing on it, it’s pretty much just me singing,” he explained. “It’s very in the world of 2-D [his Gorillaz character], but he’s come out and he’s singing very expressively. I feel good about it. I feel really, really good about it.”

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Arctic Monkeys and Florence + The Machine producer James Ford worked with them on The Now Now, and Albarn said: “I’ve never worked with him before, but we immediately hit it off. I really enjoyed working with him. I’d love to work with him again.”

Asked about collaborators: “No, there’s not really any cos I wrote most of it on tour in America. Snoop [Dogg]’s on it cos we were in LA, and Jamie [Principle] cos he was on the tour. And then just sort of randomly thought of George Benson, and that’s it really. There’s nothing else.”

Finally, Gorillaz also unveiled details of another edition of their very own Demon Dayz festival, which will take place in Los Angeles on October 20th to wrap up the group’s North American arena tour later this year.

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