Gorillaz Plastic Beach ( 180g vinyl 2LP )

Release date 09-09-2010

2010 EU issue vinyl 2LP set, pressing on 180g vinyl - Five years on from the release of 'Demon Days', Murdoc Niccals and co. are back. The band have taken up residence, recording on a secret floating island deep in the South Pacific, a Plastic Beach HQ, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This 'Plastic Beach' is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet.

Includes the single 'Stylo' featuring guest vocals from Mos Def & Bobby Womack, who appear on the album alongside Snoop Dogg, Kano, De La Soul, Gruff Rhys, Mark E Smith, Lou Reed, Mick Jones & Paul Simonon and more. Presented in a gatefold picture sleeve

Tracks:
LP1
A1 Orchestral Intro (featuring Sinfonia Viva)
A2 Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach (featuring Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
A3 White Flag (featuring Kano Bashy and the National Orchestra for Arabic Music )
A4 Rhinestone Eyes

B1 Stylo ( featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
B2 Superfast Jellyfish (featuring Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
B3 Empire Ants (featuring Little Dragon)
B4 Glitter Freeze (featuring Mark E Smith)

LP2
C1 Some Kind of Nature (featuring Lou Reed)
C2 On Melancholy Hill
C3 Broken
C4 Sweepstakes (featuring Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)

D1 Plastic Beach (featuring Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
D2 To Binge (featuring Little Dragon )
D3 Cloud of Unknowing (featuring Bobby Womack and Sinfonia Viva )
D4 Pirate Jet

Gorillaz began as a lark but turned serious once it became Damon Albarns primary creative outlet following the slow dissolve of Blur Delivered five years after the delicate whimsical melancholy of 2005s 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 bigbudget expansion of Demon Days spinning off its cameocrammed blueprint Traces of Albarns Monkey opera can be heard particularly in the hypnotic Mideastern pulse of White Flag but Damons painstaking pancultural pop junkmining no longer surprises when hiphop juts up against Britpop its expected yet it still has the capacity to delight no matter which direction the Gorillaz may swing Lou Reeds 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 SFAs genrebending pop and Pete Fowler artwork clearly paved the way for Albarn and Jamie Hewletts 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 hes 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 isnt entirely a bad thing because as Albarn grows as a composer hes a master of subtly shifting moods and intricately threaded allusions often creating richly detailed collages that are miniature marvels Ironically these individual pieces dont add up to an overall masterpiece possibly because the narrative is convoluted and strained getting in the way of the pure musical flow but also because its hard not to shake the feeling that this is a transitional effort pointing toward a day when Damon Albarn will feel no need to front a band not even in a cartoon guise AMG