Plastic Beach | Loppylugs

Submitted by Matthew Baker on 16 February 2013 - 10:27pm

Cover:

Artist:

Gorillaz

album-ID:

a_76

Nationality:

Year:

2 010

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Orchestral Intro*Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach*White Flag*Rhinestone Eyes*Stylo*Superfast Jellyfish*Empire Ants*Glitter Freeze*Some Kind of Nature*On Melancholy Hill*Broken*Sweepstakes*Plastic Beach*To Binge*Cloud of Unknowing*Pirate Jet

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_29

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

2dIGnmEIy1WZIcZCFSj6i8

Grooveshark-URL:

Plastic+Beach/3959944

Short-title:

plasticBeach

nominator-ID:

u_2

Meeting-date:

Friday, 25 June 2010

MusicBrainz-URL:

5a676824-18cd-4f7f-89f0-df21623e2042

Wikipedia-URL:

Plastic_beach

Spotify-link-type:

album

Metacritic-URL:

plastic-beach/gorillaz

Discogs-URL:

Gorillaz-Plastic-Beach/master/231219

Allmusic-URL:

plastic-beach-mw0001961566

BBC-URL:

jcgw

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reviewers-IDs data

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-13-

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79

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

My heart is in economy / due to this autonomy

3-4-6-13-14-16

5-7-8-9-11

The Gorillaz keep their impressive run going with another fine delivery from a band who are, after all, a major mainstream act, with all the commercial pressures and expectations that that entails. I'm not sure if it’s too much of a departure from their previous work and you wonder how long they can keep going with this same approach, but I guess that’s not my problem.

While I’d have to say I’m not too sure about the integrity of the pick’n’mix collaboration style nor the somewhat dubious quality of the concepts and visuals behind the album and the project as a whole, I guess those kind of issues aren’t really given too much weight by most listeners. The album does take a major dip in the middle section in spite of, or perhaps because of, some big reputation singists. The pieces that Mark E Smith and Lou Reed perform on are going to appear some considerable way down very long lists of their respective best performances. I guess Mr Albarn was hoping the vocalists would save these nothing songs but they most certainly do not.

Sweepstakes is quite a good example of how the pieces have very simple constructions, built around only a few basic ideas, a simple hook and a particular vocal styling. It can be very effective but can also start to fall apart with a couple of wrong moves or if the song goes on too long, which this one does.

Beyond the ones I’ve picked out this is great stuff, lots of great electronic sounds, nice vocal lines, sharp production and all round variety. A fine addition to anyone’s LP collection.
75

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

5-9

More of a V/A, or Damon and friends, than the Gorillaz, it's a mixture of styles some of which work and some don't. Personally I prefer the more tuneful numbers; you can keep the rap tracks.

One thing that stands out is the great production and wonderful punchy bass which glues the tracks together. There's some great ideas here but perhaps too many for one album; some of the guests just seem a waste of time.

Overall a mostly very enjoyable listen.
70

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

Ape shall never kill ape

5-7

Colourful album of contemporary pop. Damon Albarn has a shrewd knack for drawing in a disparate range of guest talent and musical influences without it sounding a total mess. A good summer listen.
68

reviewed by

Richard Norbury