“Désolé” by Gorillaz featuring Fatoumata Diawara

"Désolé" arrived in February 2020 as the second single from Gorillaz's Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, part of the web series in which the virtual band rolled out tracks through the year, each with a different guest. This time it's the Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, who sings it with Damon Albarn and co-wrote it with him, James Ellis Ford and Remi Kabaka Jr.; the title translates as "Sorry".

It's filed under bossa nova, and it sways like it. Albarn plays bass, guitar and keys, Ford handles drums, zither and balafon, and strings, cello, a horn and a handful of backing singers fill out the room. Jamie Hewlett, one of the producers, co-directed the video with Tim McCourt and Max Taylor on Lake Como, where 2-D, Noodle and Russel Hobbs go boating with Diawara and Albarn while Murdoc Niccals stays stuck in Kong Studios, failing to get through the portal.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.