Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Well, the new Gorillaz album streamed on NPR sunday night at midnight, and less than half an hour later, it was leaked internet-wide. Being one to usually take advantage of such things, as I live in poverty, I waited up to swipe the leak.

Upon first listen, I wasn't fully impressed. This may be due to the fact that I was really tired, or that the leak I grabbed was a half-live homemade recording of the NPR stream. However, falling asleep that night listening to it, there were a few tracks that definitely piqued my interest before dozing.

In January, Damon Albarn (half of Gorillaz) guest DJ'd BBCRadio 1 and mixed a few of the new tracks and there was some serious excitement around random music boards. I'm a major major fan of Demon Days, so I decided I'd check the mix. He dropped the songs 'electric shock', 'broken', and 'stylo'. It didn't excite me too much but the fanboys were eating it up. Only 2 of these tracks ended up making the album, the former being removed.

Upon a full listen of the album (or 4) on monday morning, I started realizing why there was so much hype. Some great featurings including Snoop Dogg (Welcome to the World), De La Soul (Superfast Jellyfish), LOU REED! (Some Kind of Nature), and Mos Def (Sweepstakes). All of the featuring artists were used to great potential and make up some of the definite stand out tracks of the album.

Overall, though a convincing concept album, the tracks were definite hit/miss for me. Songs like Stylo and Superfast Jellyfish are fun standalone tracks, but in terms of the tone of the concept, I didn't feel like they fit. The track Glitter Freeze reminds me of the new Muse single (...), and Pirate Jet felt like a serious letdown in terms of conclusion tracks.

However, there are some golden songs on this record. Empire Ants has a beautiful build-up that to me concludes the first half of the album. But the second half is where this album really shines through. Really solid tracks. Highlights include Some Kind of Nature, a song that is impossible to not sing along to, Up on Melancholy Hill, which reminds me of beautifully-rendered roller-rink music, Sweepstakes, which Mos Def rips up, and the title track, which doesn't let down in terms of it's album position.

If you aren't a Gorillaz fan, I would definitely suggest picking up Demon Days before this album. If you are, you already have this album and are probably bouncing your left knee off the bottom of your desk listening to Superfast Jellyfish just as I am now.

Listen: when you're sick of indie-pop.

76%

Key Tracks: Stylo(First Single), Empire Ants(peak instrumental), Some Kind of Nature(Lou Reed singalong!), Superfast Jellyfish(funk bumper ft. De La Soul)