 The soundtrack for summer 2010 has arrived |
| Review Date: March 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Suzabella, Bristol, UK |
This album fits together more elegantly than the previous Gorillaz albums. It plays like the smooth, laid-back soundtrack to a long lie in the sun (perhaps in the garden, or, if you have one to hand, on a beach). The slightly soporific/hypnotic spell is broken by the chaotic party music of Sweepstakes - but that track is a fun, intense ride.
Expect a slightly slower pace than Demon Days, and, instead of the latter album's mood of "help - the apocolypse is coming", a feel of "okay, here we are in a post-apocolyptic world, let's make the best of it". How you react to that message is up to you.
What's amazing about this music is that, even though it fits together so beautifully, there are so many different elements - western and arabic orchestral music, several flavours of rap (laid back, cheap & cheeky, intense & high), loose semi-improvised brass, dub, alternative rock, 70s and 80s electronica, comedy jingles, crooning, vocal harmonies, snippets that reminded me of Brian Eno, Jean Michel Jarre, David Bowie, Tangerine Dream, and many, many others, and that's before you even get to the various guest stars (Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, etc.) who each bring their own highly personal styles. The guests are fully integrated and feel completely authentic parts of the sound. There are moments that are sleepy, racy, romantic, funny, camp, cool, trippy, danceable, ghostly, nostalgic, futuristic.
This album has a chilled-out feel yet is packed with so much variety and so many overlapping layers of rhythm, sounds, intriguing words, and sweet counterpoint melodies that it will be very hard to get bored no matter how many times you listen. |
...And I wasn't dissapointed.
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| Review Date: March 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Blue Dragon, |
I pre-ordered this album after having a quick listen to the samples and liking them. I loved their previous album 'Demon Days', and so was really looking forward the long awaited next album from Gorillaz. And I have to say that I haven't been dissapointed. This album is more chilled out in a way, with a lot more orchestral tunes, almost hypnotic at times. But this does not make it any less of an achievment for them. Infact I really like it, it's different, but at the same time doesn't seem to vear away from the usual stuff we are all familliar with with the Gorillaz gang. I love this album, it's something different from them. I'm just glad it came so quick! |
Mr Albarn's Big Day Out
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| Review Date: March 8, 2010 |
| Reviewer: The Wolf, uk |
Love him or hate him you've still got to admire
Damon Albarn! 'Plastic Beach' is a huge treat!!
Much of its magic arises from the ambiguity of
its narrative content and the rich diversity of its
musical ideas. Gorillaz are (is?) a kind of sonic
sponge, unafraid to soak up, digest, assimilate and
regurgitate anything which crosses their (its?) path.
Despite the unlikely forces which have come together
to give life to this extraordinary project there is a
wonderful logic and coherence in the finished article.
Lou Reed's iconic drawl on the blissfully bouncy
'Some Kind Of Nature'; Mark E Smith's bolshy demonic
evangelist on the rip-roaring boogie 'Glitter Freeze';
Mos Def and Bobby Womack raising the temperature together
on the slick and soulful 'Stylo'; crikey, there's even
Mick Jones and Paul Simonon doing a turn on the title track!
There are some truly beautiful songs here too.
'Empire Ants', a collaboration with Swedish electronic
band Little Dragon and co-written with their singer
Yukimi Nagano, is a stunning arrangement, full of limpid
harmonies and gently flowing instrumental delights.
It is a sublime confection!
They pitch up together again on 'Binge', a lovely
loping piece which would not have sounded out of
place in a 1960's movie like Cliff Richard's
'Summer Holiday'. I'm not kidding! It's a hoot!!
So many riches rolling out one after the other,
I was completely swept away by its genre-defying lack
of conformity. Uplifting and anarchic in equal measure.
A Little Masterpiece.
Essential. |
An album that improves with listening
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| Review Date: June 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Andrew Dalby, oxford |
Sometimes you buy an album for that great song you have heard and you love to hear it and there are a few other good tracks on the album but you keep listening and it loses its interest. Here Gorillaz have created something that improves over time. I bought it on the day it was released, listened to it once and thought - hmm well the other albums were much better. There is no Clint Eastwood or Feel Good Inc, there is no stand out song and too much rap.
Then I saw them at Glastonbury and a few songs shone through - White Flag and Glitter Freeze so I went back to listen again. Then I realised I had been missing out on something special Superfast Jellyfish, Rhinestone Eyes ... The Gorillaz still have it whatever it is. How can you describe a group that one second uses Brass, then mass strings and a Lebanese Orchestra while mixing it with rap and synth? Crazy and amazing fusion. |
Gorillaz Plastic Beach = Ear heaven
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| Review Date: March 12, 2010 |
| Reviewer: argyle1, |
Plastic beach is a step up from the old Gorillaz (Which I thought was amazing) it's much more relaxing, slow, and soulful.
I think he only up-beat songs are Stylo and Superfast Jellyfish (And I'm not complaining!) they're both great songs,
but I think the other songs you could lie down on a beach (preferably plastic) and relax.
Stylo and superfast are more "boppy".
Don't change song because it's weird or not very good at first, almost every song on the album starts OK and start getting better, and better,
and better.
My favourite tracks are Empire Ants, Rhinestone Eyes, Plastic Beach, Welcome to the world of the Plastic Beach, and Stylo.
White Flag is really different, it's starts with a bongo solo with some orchestral stuff thrown in there and then a bassline comes in and Bashy starts rapping and then Kano, and ends the way it starts.
I can't think of a track that isn't "any good".
I highly recommend this album, the experience version for hardcore Gorillaz fans (like me) |
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