This is the release that's got me the most excited for quite a long time. Much more excited than Heligoland did last month (and that got me very excited). Probably the nearest thing I have to compare this level of excitement to was Muse's The Resistance all the way back in September of last year (that's a bit weird, I can remember when that came out like it was yesterday...). Anyway moving along, I can happily report that this, unlike the two previously mentioned albums, lives up to all my expectations. That is, it is as good as I wanted it to be, but in terms of what it actually sounds like it is something different altogether.
The first major change comes at the very beginning, where Damon has placed another instrumental intro. But where on Demon Days there is a visceral hell-trip, here we get a lush orchestra that brings to mind a sun dappled beach with the tide lapping away gently at the shore. A clever little reference to the title of the album, eh? (In case you don't know, the 'story' of this one is that Murdoc has holed up on the most isolated point on Earth, made up from all of the detritus and rubbish of humanity. This is the 'Plastic Beach' of the title). The first part of the album from here on in is littered with potential singles; from the beautiful 'Rhinestone Eyes' (if we're making comparisons to Demon Days then this is definitely the album's 'El Mañana') to the downright quirky 'Superfast Jellyfish'. The latter is definitely one of the standout tracks and is without doubt the 'poppiest' thing the album has to offer, despite feeling like a proper old school hip-hop track (De La Soul are heavily featured) complete with bizarre samples and jokey lyrics. The song genuinely made me chuckle the first time I heard it, which is a very rare thing indeed. The previously released 'Stylo' is sandwiched between these two, another of the album's highlights. The song itself is actually quite a challenge for me to write about as it encompasses pretty much everything I love about Gorillaz; from the can't-get-it-out-of-your-head beat to the melancholic but brilliant vocals, even the fact that it features someone completely random but awesome (Bobby Womack was persuaded to sing the bridge part after his daughter told him that Gorillaz were cool). I reckon his vocals make the track, it's really something very powerful indeed.
'Empire Ants' follows the block of radio-friendly tunes and is a very pretty sounding song; it reminds me somewhat of their brilliant epic 'Hong Kong' (a song that was recorded during the Demon Days campaign but wasn't on the album). I'm not really sure what to make of the next two tracks. 'Glitter Freeze' and 'Some Kind of Nature' are both fairly repetitive and bland songs, they're not terrible, they're just nothing particularly remarkable either. Not what I have really come to expect from Gorillaz. 'On Melancholy Hill' is another potential single, it's not really standard Gorillaz fare but the composition is done very well and the melody is damn catchy. It'll be stuck in your head for days afterwards. 'Sweepstakes' is an interesting one, I think. It brings to mind very strongly the sound of the first Gorillaz album; dirty and not very poppy at all. The whole album has a similar sort of feel to it, for Demon Days they decided to go very poppy and mainstream which is fair enough as it turned out very good. For Plastic Beach it feels as if they've taken a step back the other way towards where it all began. It's not quite the same though, the majority of the songs here are a lot more intelligent than anything they've ever done. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have been very clever with Plastic Beach, everything from the title of the album itself to all the promotional art and videos feels meticulously crafted and put together for a very specific purpose.
All of this climaxes during the title track. 'Plastic Beach' is a beautiful song and without doubt one of the best things they've ever done. It features none other than Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash fame but it sounds anything but punky. The song brings together all the themes and ideas from the whole thing and combines them to create a fantastically epic masterpiece. The overarching message is that we should really stop and take a look at how our failing planet is doing before it all goes down the shitter; a message we are all familiar with I'm sure but the track is so powerful that it really does make you stop and think for once about how much we are fucking things up.
I was expecting a closer for this album that lived up to the fantastically pretty title track from Demon Days and with 'Pirate Jet' they almost managed it. It really builds itself up into something epic, but then suddenly cuts short. This is one of my main problems with the album; the last track should be much longer! It's like 'Don't Get Lost in Heaven' from the last one, really good but you want it to last a lot longer than it does. Oh well, you can't have everything.
Plastic Beach is in summary, a very good album. It is completely different to Demon Days however and I think they'll lose a lot of their casual fans for this, but sometimes it's good to have a bit of a change. The big list of guests they got to collaborate with them actually works as well, I was worried it might be a bit all over the place because of the wide range of guests but it doesn't really affect the integrity of the whole thing at all. Well done 2-D, Murdoc, Russel and Noodle (although for this album she's actually been 'replaced' by a robot clone of herself... don't ask). You've done it again.
Rating: 9/10
Released: 8th March 2010
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