Sailing on the seas of polluted waters, Gorillaz find a home on an island that inspires their new album “Plastic Beach.”
Gorillaz have changed up their sound a little bit from their previous records, favoring drum machines, urban beats and keyboards throughout the album while leaving the “band” at home.
I was a bit disappointed with this at first. I have become accustomed to hearing certain things from a Gorillaz album and admittedly, I was eagerly anticipating a “Demon Days” sequel. However, the album delivers on other levels, and is overall very, very good. Maybe even to the point of addiction.
The style that is presented on this album is different, but good. The trance-like and reflective themes throughout the album give this record a more mature essence than previous releases. With lush audio landscapes and brilliant compositions, “Plastic Beach” is a treat to the senses.
The theme of the album is an environmentally friendly effort about how “we” are polluting the earth with our uses of convenience products that are non-biodegradable, and how the garbage and pollution building up are turning the world, or beaches in this case, into a landfill. This creates the fictional island Gorillaz live on or the so-titled, “Plastic Beach.”
Though the message comes through in some of the songs, they are very vague and don’t really preach the issue.
Like other Gorillaz albums, Damon Albarn, the leading artistic force behind Gorillaz, pulls together musicians from various genres and works out collaborations with their styles and the familiar Gorillaz sound. This time is no different and for the most part, the collaborations work well.
Collaborators on this album include Snoop Dogg on “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach,” the album’s opening song. The band Little Dragon is featured on “Empire Ants” and “To Binge.”
Also present are Mick Jones and Paul Simonon from The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite on “Plastic Beach.”
Also making appearances are Mos Def on “Stylo” and “Sweepstakes” with De La Soul, who is featured on “Superfast Jellyfish” with Gruff Rhys.
Bobby Womack, an R&B and soul singer from the ’70s era also appears on “Stylo” and “Cloud of Unknowing.” At first I didn’t like his contributions to the project, but after a while I really started to get how he fit in, and he sounds good.
There are also appearances by Lou Reed of the famed Velvet Underground on “Some Kind of Nature” and Mark E. Smith on “Glitter Freeze,” which basically sounds a lot like a Fatboy Slim track.
My only qualm is that a few of the tracks don’t have much of a Gorillaz feel to them, leaving the album sounding like a mixed tape at times with some of the different artists’ songs like the Snoop Dogg track and the Mark E. Smith track.
The tracks are all good and well done, but they just don’t fit together in my opinion.
However, this setback doesn’t affect the album too much because the rest of the album is filled with pearls and gems.
“Rhinestone Eyes,” “Stylo,” and “Empire Ants” are among my favorites. These tracks have a seductive and up-tempo beat that pull you into the plastic beach universe.
Also, “On Melancholy Hill” and “Broken” are very mellow with an electronica-island vibe to them. Well, most of the album has an island vibe to it, too. In some of the tracks, ocean waves coming on to the shore and seagulls flying faintly in the background can be heard adding to the surreal escape that the music provides.
The techno-type nature of the songs are probably best listened to when you’re in a mellowed out mode and driving down the street at night with the windows down and the bass turned up.
The reflective sound and nature on the album makes this a more mature sounding Gorillaz album than the others, too.
If you’re expecting “Plastic Beach” to be like other Gorillaz albums, you may be disappointed, but if you give it a chance, I think you’ll find it to be something special.