"Feel Good Inc." (Gorillaz)

The concept of a fictional band playing pop music is nothing all that new.  For one, there were The Monkees.  Or, if we're talking about a band without a pulse, The Archies.
In a way, Gorillaz is nod to both of those bands--only with a knowing wink.  
Gorillaz basically was formed in the late 90s after former housemates Damon Albarn (formerly of Blur) and Jamie Hewlett (the graphic artist behind Tank Girl) had spent marathon hours one afternoon watching MTV.  Feeling as if they had entered some meaningless, vapid netherworld, they hatched the idea of a cartoon band that would address such crass commercialism and insipid drivel.
Like Parliament/Funkadelic's comic book mythology, I don't claim to know the elaborate backstories of Gorillaz four cartoon members: Russel, Noodle, Murdoc, and 2D.  But they appear to be mutated primates at the center of a dystopian nightmare, searching for some kind of meaning or escape.  Whatever the characters' mythology might be, those two themes pop up quite a bit on Demon Days (2005), which, despite some minor flaws, is a well-crafted, highly creative album from start to finish.
"Feel Good Inc." is one of my favorite cuts from the album because it's a total synthesis of what Gorillaz is about: part hip hop, part alt rock; part glam, part gloom; part dance floor, part meditation room...  "Feel Good Inc." is an art rock piece that's commenting on isolation and the emptiness of feel-good culture, only it's dressed up as a funkified pop song.
But really, who would have thought that a song that sounds like a hybrid of The Dazz Band's "Let It Whip" and some long lost track from Ray Davies and The Kinks circa 1975 would jam this hard?  Or that you could have De La Soul (!) spit on the track and have it automatically transport you to the halcyon days of Stakes Is High?
(I think the answer to both questions is Damon Albarn.  Or maybe 2D?)