Albums

• Plastic Beach

1. Orchestral Intro
2. Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach
3. White Flag
4. Rhinestone Eyes
5. Stylo
6. Superfast Jellyfish
7. Empire Ants
8. Glitter Freeze
9. Some Kind of Nature
10. On Melancholy Hill
11. Broken
12. Sweepstakes
13. Plastic Beach
14. To Binge
15. Cloud of Unknowing
16. Pirate Jet  

Released in 2010, Plastic Beach is the third album by Damon Albarn’s virtual band Gorillaz.  The past couple of years have been busy for Damon Albarn.  A musical adaptation of stage show Monkey: Journey to the West, itself an adaptation of the 16^th century novel of the same name (some may be more familiar with the corny Japanese TV series which ran from 1978-1980, complete with hilarious dubbing by the BBC: “Ahhhhhh Pigsy!”).  That’s not to mention last year’s successful Blur reunion, and then there was Albarn’s 2008’s side-project band The Good, The Bad and the Queen.

This brings me nicely to my next point.  The mid 1990s’ Brit-pop war, between Oasis and Blur, it all seems a bit inane and childish now, doesn’t it? It’s clear which band had the brains and Plastic Beach proves it.  The scope and depth of Plastic Beach is unfathomable at first.  The number of high quality collaborations – many of which on paper sound ridiculously unlikely to yield good results – is simply astounding, if not surprisingly impressive.  Many of these team ups simply should not work and yet they do.  Anybody want to pitch the idea of having British rappers Kano and Bashy placed with… wait for it… The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music!  It sounds crazy, even more so that it might actually work, but it does, very well, in fact.

While in the past some credit may have fairly been passed on to the various producers which had worked on Gorillaz’ albums, the same can not be said for Plastic Beach, which is produced by Damon Albarn from start to finish.  At the moment, where pop music is concerned, Damon Albarn is not only ahead of the pack but is leaving a trail of dust in their field of view.

Lead single, Stylo, features one of the many unexpectedly brilliant collaborations to be found on Plastic Beach, that between actor/rap icon Mos Def and soul figure Bobby Womack.  It’s a forward-thinking recipe of cutting edge pop, frantic electronica and wraithlike r ‘n’ b, all thanks to Womack’s vaporous vocals, “it’s love of electric, it’ll be flowing on the street, night after night!”  Albarn knows well that you do not have to sacrifice credibility in order to make something commercially viable to the general public and in doing this he succeeds.  Other coalition with Mos Def, Sweepstakes, is no less riveting, and also features the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.  A long time clever wordsmith, Mos Def excels in his natural rapping environment.

Japanese/Swedish songstress, Yukimi Nagano, and her band, Little Dragon, feature prominently on two of the album’s songs, the euphoric Empire Ants and the jocular To Binge.  The former is satisfyingly icy, with pacifying acoustics, while Albarn’s deft vocals catch the updrafts being shaped by the gentle keyboards. Then, as you succumb to the song’s dexterous charms, Little Dragon lights a match up under your bottom and transforms Empire Ants into a song which transcends the restrictions of genre and becomes an entity which stands alone, in both sound and true value.  It’s not all collaborations, though.  But make no mistake, when Albarn writes a song designed to accommodate no one but himself, he has more than your full attention.  My particular favourite is On Melancholy Hill, which is hotly tipped to be a future single from Plastic Beach.  “Up on Melancholy Hill sits a manatee, just looking out for the day when you’re close to me!”  I’m going to do it.  I’m going to say it! Gorillaz are to the ‘10s what the Beatles were to the 60s.  Only better, maybe.

Bobby Womack is back on penultimate track, Cloud of Unknowing.  Although his vocal performance is slightly less full of life than on Stylo, it’s surely no less satisfying, with a deep significance in both Albarn’s written words and Womack’s relatively declarative delivery of them, striking both mind and soul.  Closer, Pirate Jet, swiftly follows and signs off Plastic Beach with easily as much aplomb as the record has sustained throughout its running time.  What an experience, eh.