# Laika Come Home

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| NME | 7/10 |
Laika Come Home is a remix album by British virtual band Gorillaz, released in July 2002. Unlike a typical remix album, it is done by just one group, Spacemonkeyz. It contains most of the songs from Gorillaz' first album, Gorillaz, but remixed in dub and reggae style. The album features Terry Hall, U Brown, Earl Sixteen and 2-D. One single, "Lil' Dub Chefin'", was released from the album on 22 July 2002, with moderate success. The limited edition was packed in digipak, featuring two hidden tracks. In 2004, the album was packaged with 2001's Gorillaz in a box set as part of EMI's "2CD Originals" collection. The album's title is a reference to Laika, the Soviet space dog, and the film Lassie Come Home. The album contains mixes of every song on the original album except "Double Bass", "Latin Simone (¿Que Pasa Contigo?)", and "Rock the House".

## Background

The Spacemonkeyz appear to be first referenced before the album in the "Tomorrow Comes Today" video. During the video, in the background, a poster can be seen with three pictures of monkeys with spacesuits and the caption "Laugh now but one day we'll be in charge". The artwork is a famous piece of artwork by Banksy, the visual artist who worked with Damon Albarn for Think Tank's artwork and Demon Days producer Danger Mouse in an attack against Paris Hilton. Before the release of the album, the remix of "Tomorrow Comes Today" ("Bañana Baby") was released on the "Tomorrow Comes Today" single in February 2002.

## Personnel
### Musicians

* Damon Albarn – vocals (all tracks), piano (tracks 2–3), stylophone (track 2), melodica (tracks 3–4, 11), guitar (tracks 7–8, 10)
* Spacemonkeyz – instrumentation, programming, guitar, bass, drum programming
* Miho Hatori – additional vocals (tracks 1, 10)
* Tina Weymouth – additional vocals (track 1)
* Michael Smith – horn, horn arrangements (tracks 1–3, 5–6, 10–12), flute (track 11)
* Martin Shaw – horn (track 1)
* Dan Left Hand – bass (track 1)
* Jeff Scantlebury – percussion (tracks 1–3, 5–8, 10–12)
* Jaques Shythé – castanets (track 1)
* U Brown – vocals (tracks 2, 11)
* Dennis Rollins – horn (tracks 2–3, 5–6, 10–12)
* Dominic Glover – horn (tracks 2–3, 5–6, 10–12)
* Phil Soul – bass (tracks 2–4, 8, 10, 12)
* Earl Sixteen – vocals (tracks 3, 11)
* Stuart Zender – bass (tracks 3–4), clavinet (track 4)
* Pete Collins – incendiary device (track 5)
* Simon Katz – guitar (track 6), organ (track 12)
* Brian Pisce – strings (track 8)
* Terry Hall – vocals (track 12)

### Technical

* Gorillaz – production
* Tom Girling – co-production, engineering, Pro Tools
* Jason Cox – co-production, engineering
* Dan Nakamura – production (tracks 1–6, 8–12)
* Spacemonkeyz – additional production, re-mixing
* Pete Collins – assistance

### Artwork

* J.C. Hewlett – illustration
* Mat Wakeham – art direction
* Kate McLauchlan – design
* Roland Hamilton – monkey photos

## Charts

| Chart (2002) | Peak position |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 118 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 108 |
| US Billboard 200 | 156 |
| US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard) | 6 |

## Release details

The album was released in various countries in July 2002.
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalogue |
| United Kingdom | 1 July 2002 | Parlophone | CD | 540 3622 |
| United Kingdom | 1 July 2002 | Parlophone | 2×LP | 539 9821 |
| Japan | 3 July 2002 | Toshiba-EMI | CD | TOCP-66045 |
| United States | 16 July 2002 | Astralwerks | CD | ASW 40362 |
| United States | 16 July 2002 | Astralwerks | CD digipak | ASW 40522 |