Plastic Beach

Rating

Album: Plastic Beach
#	Song Title		Time
	Disc 1
1)	Orchestral Intro	More Info...
2)	Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach	More Info...
3)	White Flag	More Info...
4)	Rhinestone Eyes	More Info...
5)	Stylo	More Info...
6)	Superfast Jellyfish	More Info...
7)	Empire Ants	More Info...
8)	Glitter Freeze	More Info...
	Disc 2
1)	Some Kind Of Nature	More Info...
2)	On Melancholy Hill	More Info...
3)	Broken	More Info...
4)	Sweepstakes	More Info...
5)	Plastic Beach	More Info...
6)	To Binge	More Info...
7)	Cloud Of Unknowing	More Info...
8)	Pirate Jet	More Info...
3)	White Flag (Feat. Kano and Bashy)	More Info...	0:03
4)	Rhinestone Eyes	More Info...	0:03
5)	Stylo (Feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)	More Info...	0:04
6)	Superfast Jellyfish (Feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)	More Info...	0:03
7)	Empire Ants (Feat. Little Dragon)	More Info...	0:04
8)	Glitter Freeze (Feat. Mark E. Smith)	More Info...	0:04
9)	Some Kind of Nature (Feat. Lou Reed)	More Info...	0:03
10)	On Melancholy Hill	More Info...	0:04
11)	Broken	More Info...	0:03
12)	Sweepstakes (Feat. Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)	More Info...	0:05
13)	Plastic Beach (Feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)	More Info...	0:03
14)	To Binge (Feat. Little Dragon)	More Info...	0:04
15)	Cloud of Unknowing (Feat. Bobby Womack)	More Info...	0:03
16)	Pirate Jet	More Info...	0:02

Album: Plastic Beach
#	Song Title		Time
	Disc 1
1)	Orchestral Intro	More Info...
2)	Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach	More Info...
3)	White Flag	More Info...
4)	Rhinestone Eyes	More Info...
5)	Stylo	More Info...
6)	Superfast Jellyfish	More Info...
7)	Empire Ants	More Info...
8)	Glitter Freeze	More Info...
	Disc 2
1)	Some Kind Of Nature	More Info...
2)	On Melancholy Hill	More Info...
3)	Broken	More Info...
4)	Sweepstakes	More Info...
5)	Plastic Beach	More Info...
6)	To Binge	More Info...
7)	Cloud Of Unknowing	More Info...
8)	Pirate Jet	More Info...
3)	White Flag (Feat. Kano and Bashy)	More Info...	0:03
4)	Rhinestone Eyes	More Info...	0:03
5)	Stylo (Feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)	More Info...	0:04
6)	Superfast Jellyfish (Feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)	More Info...	0:03
7)	Empire Ants (Feat. Little Dragon)	More Info...	0:04
8)	Glitter Freeze (Feat. Mark E. Smith)	More Info...	0:04
9)	Some Kind of Nature (Feat. Lou Reed)	More Info...	0:03
10)	On Melancholy Hill	More Info...	0:04
11)	Broken	More Info...	0:03
12)	Sweepstakes (Feat. Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)	More Info...	0:05
13)	Plastic Beach (Feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)	More Info...	0:03
14)	To Binge (Feat. Little Dragon)	More Info...	0:04
15)	Cloud of Unknowing (Feat. Bobby Womack)	More Info...	0:03
16)	Pirate Jet	More Info...	0:02

Performer Notes

Gorillaz began as a lark but turned serious once it became Damon Albarn's primary creative outlet following the slow dissolve of Blur. Delivered five years after the delicate whimsical melancholy of 2005's Demon Days, Plastic Beach is an explicit sequel to its predecessor, its story line roughly picking up in the dystopian future where the last album left off, its music offering a grand, big-budget expansion of Demon Days, spinning off its cameo-crammed blueprint. Traces of Albarn's Monkey opera can be heard, particularly in the hypnotic Mideastern pulse of "White Flag," but Damon's painstaking pancultural pop junk-mining no longer surprises -- when hip-hop juts up against Brit-pop, it's expected -- yet it still has the capacity to delight no matter which direction the Gorillaz may swing. Lou Reed's crotchety croak on "Some Kind of Nature" has the same kind of gravitational pull as Mos Def leading the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble through the intensely circling "Sweepstakes," while the group reaches new heights of sparkling pop on "Superfast Jellyfish," aided by the return of De La Soul -- the rappers who propelled "Feel Good Inc." -- and an appearance from Gruff Rhys, the Super Furry Animals frontman who is an ideal fit for Gorillaz (possibly because SFA's genre-bending pop and Pete Fowler artwork clearly paved the way for Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's collaboration). A common thread among all these tracks is that they find Albarn ceding the spotlight to his fellow musicians, preferring to be the puppetmaster behind the curtain, and Plastic Beach works best when he's the composer and producer, finding hidden strengths within his guests -- having Mick Jones and Paul Simonon for the elastic title track, coaxing some powerful performances out of Bobby Womack -- but often when Albarn takes center stage his laconic drawl lets the air out of the balloon. Curiously, much of this arrives toward the beginning of the album, the record gaining momentum as it unspools, working toward its climax, but the overall album accentuates moody texture over pop hooks. This emphasis means Plastic Beach is the first Gorillaz album to play like a soundtrack to a cartoon -- which isn't entirely a bad thing, because as Albarn grows as a composer, he's a master of subtly shifting moods and intricately threaded allusions, often creating richly detailed collages that are miniature marvels. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (pp.61-62) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "PLASTIC BEACH, Gorillaz's third excellent album in a row, is all Albarn -- he writes the tunes, produces, sings, plays most of the music and gets people on the phone for left-field cameos..."

Spin (p.88) - "Albarn's love of 'Waterloo Sunset' poignancy adds emotional weight..."

Entertainment Weekly (p.68) - "Womack brings an organic jolt to the mentholated Casio cool of 'Stylo,' while the sparse, glitchy base of 'White Flag' is embroidered with brilliant threads of bhangra."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.55) - Ranked #26 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2010" -- "[Gorillaz] breathed new life into the idea of pop music as intelligent and knowing..."

Pitchfork (Website) - ""[The] group's most affecting an uniquely inviting album....A loose environmental-song cycle warning against disposability."

Clash (magazine) - "An intoxicating cocktail of musical styles and pioneers, PLASTIC BEACH is instantly recognisable as a Gorilla album..."

Uncut (magazine) (p.36) - Ranked #18 in Uncut's "The 50 Best Albums of 2010" -- "[A] witty, profound, star-studded ecodrama."