"On Melancholy Hill" is the third single from British alternative group Gorillaz

Gorillaz

Gorillaz is an English musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. This project consists of Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe depicting a "virtual band" of cartoon characters...

' third studio album, Plastic Beach

Plastic Beach

Plastic Beach is the third studio album by British virtual band and alternative hip hop supergroup Gorillaz, released 3 March 2010 on Parlophone and Virgin Records. Conceived from an unfinished Gorillaz project called Carousel, the album was recorded during June 2008 to November 2009 and produced...

. The song was originally written by Damon Albarn during the production time for The Good The Bad and The Queen's self titled album. The single was released on 26 July 2010. Band member Murdoc Niccals stated the following about "On Melancholy Hill" in a track-by-track commentary:

"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."

Release

The music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 (directed by Hewlett) was released worldwide on the 15th of June "exclusively" on iTunes, but was uploaded to the YouTube channel a few days later. A teaser for the video was released on the 9th of June. Stills of the video were put on writteninmusic.com on 11 June.

Synopsis

A huge ocean liner (the M. Harriet), is under attack by two planes. A ship attendant finds Noodle in her room, offering to escort her to the lifeboats, but she opens a gun briefcase and walks down the hall past the attendant with a Tommy gun. The song begins with Noodle opening fire at the two oncoming planes that are attacking the ship. She manages to shoot one plane down but does not 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 version of drummer Russel Hobbs lifts out of the water underneath Noodle's lifeboat. The rest of the video shows Murdoc, 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 (e.g. De La Soul, Snoop Dogg, 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 plateau. Murdoc spots the Boogieman character leaning over the creature and, shocked by the sight, orders Cyborg to attack it. Cyborg shoots at the Boogieman but the bullets do him no harm, hitting his clothes. He grabs the manatee and dives into the ocean. When the fog behind the plateau clears, it reveals Plastic Beach.

Speculation has it that this occurs right after the "Stylo" video, as they are in the same shark submarine, 2-D is still wearing his clown mask, and the bullet hole is still in Cyborg Noodle's head. However, according to Murdoc's Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 feed, he, 2D and Cyborg Noodle had been on Plastic Beach for a while, and they had asked all of the collaborators to assist them in finding Noodle after receiving some leads as to her location.

The following characters and people appear in the music video. The number preceding each listing refers to roughly where in the video they first appear.

• 0:12 - Noodle
  Noodle (Gorillaz)
  Noodle is a musician and member of the virtual band Gorillaz. She provides the guitar and keyboard, as well as some main and backing vocals for the band. She, like all other Gorillaz members, was created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett...
  
  
• 1:18 - Murdoc
• 1:22 - 2D
  2D (Gorillaz)
  The fictional character Stuart Pot , better known by his stage name 2-D, also simply spelled as 2D, is a member of the British virtual band Gorillaz...
  
  
• 1:23 - Cyborg Noodle
• 2:03 - Lou Reed
  Lou Reed
  Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
  
  
• 2:07 - Gruff Rhys
  Gruff Rhys
  Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...
  
  
• 2:11 - Snoop Dogg
  Snoop Dogg
  Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
  
  
• 2:17 - Mick Jones
  Mick Jones (The Clash)
  Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Jones is the former lead guitarist, secondary vocalist and co-founder for the British punk rock band The Clash until his dismissal in 1983. He went on to form the band Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts before line-up changes led to the formation of Big Audio Dynamite II and...
  
   and Paul Simonon
  Paul Simonon
  Paul Gustave Simonon is an English musician and artist best known as the bass guitarist for punk rock band The Clash. Recent work includes his involvement in the album The Good, the Bad & the Queen with Damon Albarn, Simon Tong and Tony Allen, released in January 2007...
  
  
• 2:33 - Superfast Jellyfish
  Superfast Jellyfish
  "Superfast Jellyfish" is a song from Gorillaz's third album Plastic Beach. It features Gruff Rhys, lead singer of Super Furry Animals, and De La Soul, who were previously featured on the hit Gorillaz' song "Feel Good Inc."...
  
   (reference to the song on the album)
• 2:45 - De La Soul
  De La Soul
  De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres...
  
   (left to right: Maseo
  Vincent Mason
  Vincent Mason , is a rapper, producer, DJ, and one third of groundbreaking hip hop trio, De La Soul. He is also known as Maseo.-Career:...
  
  , Dave
  David Jude Jolicoeur
  David Jude Jolicoeur , also known under the stage name Trugoy and more recently Dave, is an American rapper, producer, and one third of groundbreaking hip hop trio De La Soul....
  
   and Posdnous
  Kelvin Mercer
  Kelvin Mercer is a rapper, producer, and one-third of the hip hop trio De La Soul. He is known more famously by his alias Posdnuos, or simply Pos. He was born in the Bronx, New York and grew up in East Massapequa, New York.Mercer and David Jude Jolicoeur were childhood friends...
  
  )
• 3:16 - Russel
• 3:39 - Boogieman (Sun Moon Stars)

Chart performance

"On Melancholy Hill" was recorded to have reached number 133 on 28 June 2010, before climbing into the Top 100 at number 78 on 4 July 2010. After reaching number 20 on the UK Dance Chart

UK Dance Chart

The UK Dance Chart is a chart compiled by The Official Charts Company from sales in record stores and digital downloads. Although the chart does not currently receive any airplay on the radio or television, the chart can be viewed on the BBC Radio 1 and The Official Charts Company website.Digital...

, the single climbed to its current peak of number 13 on 4 July 2010. On 26 January, "On Melancholy Hill" came in at number 42 on the Australian JJJ Hottest 100 for 2010.
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Chart (2010)	Peak position

Track listing

UK promotional single #1

1. "On Melancholy Hill" (UK radio edit) – 2:58
2. "On Melancholy Hill" (album version) – 3:53
3. "On Melancholy Hill" (instrumental) – 3:53

UK promotional single #2

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) – 7:35
4. "On Melancholy Hill" (She Is Danger Remix) – 4:21
5. "On Melancholy Hill" (We Have Band Remix) – 5:14

Digital download single

1. "On Melancholy Hill" (album version) – 3:53
2. "On Melancholy Hill" (The Japanese Popstars Remix) – 7:35
3. "On Melancholy Hill" (She Is Danger Remix) – 4:21
4. "Stylo" (Labrinth SNES Remix featuring Tinie Tempah
   Tinie Tempah
   Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu , better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper. He made his first mixtape in 2007 with 28 songs, freestyles and remixes, the album features Mz Bratt, Chipmunk and G-Unit...
   
   ) – 4:12
5. "On Melancholy Hill" (video) – 4:26
6. "On Melancholy Hill" (animatic) – 3:30
7. "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach" (live visuals) – 3:36

American promotional single

1. "On Melancholy Hill" (American radio edit) – 3:27
2. "On Melancholy Hill" (album version) – 3:53
3. "On Melancholy Hill" (instrumental) – 3:53