The inevitable Plastic Beach revoo

Album: Plastic Beach
Artist: Gorillaz
Genre: Pop, Hip-Hop, Soul, Grime, Funk, Rap
Year: 2010
Tracks: 16
Rating: *****


Mr Albarn has Worked his magic once more. Track by track? Track by track.

       Orchestral Intro, while not as clever as Intro on Demon Days, is just as suited to what is to take place. Played by sinfonia VIVA, it has just a touch of weird and wonderful, and feels suitably nautical - a feel added to by the cries of seagulls in the first quarter of the piece. Like Intro set us up for a journey through a twisted and ruined landscape, Orchestral Intro sets us up through a journey through a fantastical and synthesised one.
       Welcome to the World of The Plastic Beach is stunningly funky - funk provided by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. The opening is a fanfare that transfers smoothly to a groovy beat, and when the brass joins in, you can't help but smile. As Snoop Dogg begins his rap, the song takes it's full shape. A wonderful MCing of the album, it beats "Last Living Souls" hands down as a first track. As the music fades out, Snoop repeats the greeting-cum-warning, "Welcome to the World of The Plastic Beach", giving us our last chance to flee...
       White Flag's opening is brilliant - pity about the bulk of it. Arabic strings, flutes and percussion create a fairytale setting, destroyed by the - admittedly - talented rapping of Kano and Bashy and crunchy synths. As a rap track on a Gorillaz record, it definitely disappoints - Rock the House, Clint Eastwood, November has Come, Feel Good Inc., Dirty Harry, All Alone, The Sounder..... all leave White Flag far behind.
       Rhinestone Eyes is my favourite of the album. Starting out with Feel Good style half-singing from 2D that carries on throughout, this track follows in the Gorillaz tradition of double meaning. This song seems to be both a love song and a comment on pollution, global warming, etc. The synths in the chorus are rambunctious and energetic, and these with one of the only appearances of Noodle on this album are a brilliant contrast to the mostly monotone (yet emotional) delivery of the verses.  Noodle's "That's Electric!" was lifted from the Gorillaz demo Electric Shock, and, as this never made it to the the album, is a brilliant reincarnation of a track that will hopefully make it to P Sides.
       Stylo was not really a great choice for single, though this album seems so be lacking in these in a way that Demon Days definitely was not. Nowhere near as strong as Clint Eastwood or Feel Good Inc. this track is nevertheless a good one. The impression that the bassline was lifted from Saturday Night Fever is added to by 2D's repetition of "Overload, overload, coming up to the...", but this disco theme strangely works in it's favour. The guests are brilliant - Mos Def's rap and Bobby Womack's powerful soul solo work in tandem to complement 2D, who provides some of the best singing he's ever done. One criticism of this track would be that at times it appears that Womack is leaving unnecessarily long gaps between lines, making seem as though he is singing out of time.
     Superfast Jellyfish - wow. Starting with a sample from what sounds like a 1970s advert for a primitive readymeal, the joyful and groovy beat is joined by some brilliant rapping from De La Soul. The lyrics seem to be a criticism of the music business - "I want a number 4, a number 6, and throw in a plastic doughnut" - people are so concerned about getting singles despite their quality, and artists are focusing on producing singles - they'll do a couple of singles (as in track "number 4" and "6") and then produce the album ("plastic doughnut") as an afterthought. The chorus is delivered brilliantly by Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys, and again, if the criticism interpretation of this song is taken, the line "Superfast, superfast, I come in last, but just in time for breakfast" could be taken as meaning that artists are so concerned about speed that their albums end up being of low quality - they come in last in terms of quality, but it comes out when people want it - where good artists release albums over a greater period of time, so their work is of higher quality but perhaps people are frustrated in waiting for the next work of the artist. What better example of this that Gorillaz? Musically this song is amazing, but much too short! As is often the case with Gorillaz, there are too few repetitions of a good chorus (Feel Good Inc., for example).
       Empire Ants is very similar to Hong Kong, with relaxed accompaniment to 2D at his most Damon Albarn. About halfway through, the synths come in, and yet another brilliant disco track is unveiled. Little Dragon and the synths give an otherworldly feel, like an old Nintendo soundtrack. This track is a good example of the main problem of this album - too little 2D!
       Glitter Freeze is the electric equivalent of Double Bass - an instrumental with a few spoken words halfway through the album, breaking it up. The best synths on the album and one of the best tracks, too. The beat seems very familiar, though...
       Some Kind of Nature, featuring LOU(!)REED, is pure funk, with the Gorillaz twist. Reed's smooth vocals again lead a comment on pollution etc., with a great chorus from 2D. Again maybe too short, but one of the best of the album. Continues the representation of another side to 2D, with a whistful edge to his voice seen to some degree throughout the album.
       On Melancholy Hill sounds very much like something of of Daft Punk's Discovery, particularly Digital Love and Aerodynamic, and is the sweetest song ever sung by 2D, and perhaps even by Damon Albarn. It is a love song in the Gorillaz tradition, it intersperses the heartfelt warmth with weird imagery ("Up on Melancholy Hill/ Sits a manatee"). The song gives the setting of a relationship, celebrates it, send it on a journey, then takes it back to where it started - lovely bit of writing. The vocals are beautiful, and the music supports and leads wonderfully. A song my mum might even like, this is amazing and a favourite.
       Broken is a lament for a dead relationship, the counterpoint of On Melancholy Hill. The synthy whistles in the intro and throughout give it a sci-fi western feel, with the first verse sci-fi in feel. This is a simple song with a simple lyrical theme. It would be a favourite, but there is nothing special enough about it.
       Sweepstakes is... odd. The rapping from Mos Def is great, though the beat is a bit annoying. No problem though, as Hypnotic Brass Ensemble make a reappearance, and it sounds like they brought a drummer. The real horns are complemented well by a synthesised one. Interestingly, a sign reading "Sweepstakes" appears in the video for Stylo, in the same p- lace as Mos Def's character appears. The song is quite good, though not a favourite for lack of 2D, the slightly irritating initial beat, and the fact that it's longer than it deserves.
       Plastic Beach, featuring MIck Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash, starts out sounding a bit like a track from Albarn and Simonon's The Good, the Bad, and the Queen, then moves into another Bee Gee boogie. The whole song is sung by 2D, thankfully. The verses are dark and the chorus great and bouncy, proper disco. Simonon seems wasted with a very simple bassline, but a very very good song. Another track short though - a recurring problem with this album.
       To Binge is another 2D/Little Dragon duet. with some great vocals from the former. Better and much more interesting than Empire Ants, this is yet another love song. The guitar is relaxed and nautical in sound, congruent with the concept for the album. As a love song, this is seems to be a conversation between two lovers. It's alright, but not special.
       Cloud of Unknowing features the return of Womack and sinfonia VIVA, and could be seen as the Plastic Beach equivalent of Latin Simone (Que Pasa Contigo?). Very far from Womack's performance on Stylo, he is really very smooth here. A great counter to the rap tracks from earlier on. Maybe this should have been the closer, as it is so relaxing and sounds so very very deep. Also, is starts and finishes with Seagulls, so would have been a nice bit of cyclic sound.
       Pirate Jet starts with bouncy synthvox and twinkly percussion, adding a playful sound. The synths that come in next make it seem more serious however, as does the lyrics. Almost certainly about global warming, this song is a bit of a let down as a album closer, and would have been better as a penultimate. I know the Japanese version has a couple more tracks, but still. No M1A1 or  Demon Days.

Overall a superb album, one that completes what was very sadly revealed to be the Gorillaz triptych. The concept is adhered to the whole way through, and is explored marvellously. I very much recommend!

SamfiSh

YES

I am listening to music and it's like my ears are crying with happiness

I am so overcome with emotion I am going to use some very bad words

Fuck yes, bitches

Sorry to children reading this - go tell you parents what you read, and then pray out the evil

SamfiSh
P.S. rock, rock on

eek

Hello there, damned denizens of this windblasted and withered realm of greed, sin, and endless wonder that is the internet. How are you?

I am once again sleep deprived, so expect small things.

As i near the end of my 40 day music fast, I find myself with more and more songs stuck in my head. Is this because of anticipation? Or perhaps 40 is a magical number that God has put in our brains for funsies? Will we ever ever know?

If any one of us was singing Cher songs loudly in public and our brains prevented us from knowing this, would it matter or do we need to check?

Hmmm, yeah byeeee
sAMFIsH

Democracy: Worth it?

Oh, Canadia

Man, I want to live in Canada!
Everyone there is like an intellectual indie who likes hockey and being awesome. They hang out in libraries, eating Chinese food and discussing capitalism, coming up with ways to change the world. Then they go oot fer a brewski, eh. Then the next day they start out with the world's best bacon and go out to shoot large herbivores! Wow.


See? Posts made without the presence of daylight are much less good


SamfiSh

Gorillaz, Lent, and self-referencing

Well here is a novel idea that I actually hadn't considered: Do the blog in the daytime when the brain is in the worktime. I admit that it seems to be failing as far as content is concerned, but my writing is of much better quality when I can think.
Speaking of thinking and blog quality, I think that if I had more readers I would have more to write about, by dint of reader comments providing me with something to bounce off of. Unfortunately, to get more readers I probably need to up the quality and quantity of posts. Conundrum! Apart from relationships (as in friends and God, not Lovely Ladies [unfortunately(?)].), I haven't really suck with any one thing this long. Which seems a) worrying and b) possibly hopeful. But you should feel privileged, those who I will label M, K, Rare T and Even Rarer T - I have actually given time and brainpower to amusing and informing you.


Lent is going interestingly... I wrote the chorus of a song and the verse to two others - I think that the chorus has real potential, as does the first of the verses, but the 2nd less so - without any other accompaniment than than a kicktrack. I am massively missing mewzark, especially as the new Gorillaz album came out the other day, and is avaliable for free listening on their site. Knowing my luck, the next U2 album will come out next week, or someone will buy me the Dylan anthology...

On the subject of Gorillaz, I recently read an interview on the guardian website with Kano and Bashy, two English grime rappers, on their collaborative work with the band.What I found amazing was the statement that Damon Albarn (of: Blur; Mali Music; Good, Bad, and the Queen; Monkey: Journey to the West and Gorillaz) is all about music, all of the time - whatever he's doing, he's thinking about or relating it to music. I want to be like that! Well, that with the addition of God.

I do believe that that will do

From,
a SamfiSh

Quindecimmensial celebrations

I always say to myself, "oh I'll just go through the ol' webcomics, that won't take long at all" but then it totally does. Especially when I stop to blog about it. This seems to happen to me a lot, for egg, when reading a book ("next chapter"), watching afilm ("next scene"), etc. then it takes ages to reach the end of the thingumy, and more time has passed than I had time for. Or some such.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I have now been blogging for 15 months. This is the 2nd landmark I have celebrated since Them Crazy Days of Post Number 11. Hurrah! I declare a national holiday.
Post number 11? Post 9/11?

Byeeee

Sa-a-a-amfiSh