In 2001, Gorillaz' self-titled debut came out, and no one had any idea what was going on.
"Why is the guy from Blur singing over a hip-hop/dub beat with rappers?"
"So 2D is the guy from Blur, who are those other cartoons supposed to be?"
"'Get the cool shoeshine'? What the fuck are they talking about?"
But despite the brain-melting questions raised by Gorillaz, people embraced them and shook their asses accordingly.
In 2005, Gorillaz put out their second album, "Demon Days", produced by Danger Mouse and it was just fucking awesome.
Like the first, there were a smattering of excellent, radio-ready singles for the casual listener, but something more rewarding for anyone with the time to give.
Each song was so well crafted and fully realized that one could easily be caught up in the strange, dark concept of the album, of the world of Demon Days.
On March 8th, the new Gorillaz album, "Plastic Beach" will be released.
It's been three years in the making and, based on the exponential improvement between the solid first and amazing second album, this one will hopefully signal the end of the need for any more recorded music.
To make a quick understatement: My hopes were high for this one.
And guess what?
I have been disappointed.
Orchestral Intro feat. Sinfonia ViVA
As far as orchestral intros go...this works just fine for me.
It's an orchestral intro.
It feels oceanic.
What do you want?
Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach feat. Snoop Dogg
I was a fan of "The Chronic". I was a fan of "Doggystyle". I liked a few songs on "Tha Doggfather". After those two albums, I feel like Snoop started believing his own hype.
Then came the "izzle".
I haven't really dug a Snoop Dogg album since then.
Granted, the rest of the world doesn't agree with me, but whatever.
While the song is proficient enough, Snoop starts things off by just throwing out some random catchphrases.
"Gorillaz and Boss Dogg!"
"Listen up, children!"
"Yeah!"
Etc.
As for the meat of the song, Snoop's rap sounds phoned in, lacking his usual lyrical skill and you can barely hear 2D in the background saying "just like that".
At the end, when the synths kick in, it starts to get cool, but then the songs ends.
Kind of a disappointing welcome.
White Flag feat. Kano and Bashy
Pretty solid track except for the lack of 2D.
The backing music was provided by the National Lebanese Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music and the high energy back and forth between Kano and Bashy (if I were British I'd probably be able to tell you more about them, but I'm not, so I can't. They're good.) does a great job of shaping the actual world created for this album, mentioning Utopian virtues and a very laid back approach to life.
There's some bleeps and bloops and drum programming that get added to the orchestra, but sonically, the track sticks to basics.
Rhinestone Eyes
Hey! Fourth track on the album and we get to hear the lead singer! Way to go!
"2D" has a wonderful sadness in his voice and it's splattered all over this mellow little 80's-esque synth groove.
Sadly, this mostly straightforward track affords the listener their ONLY glimpse of Noodle on the album: a two second sample from a Plastic Beach demo called "Electric Shock".
It adds very little.
Stylo feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack
This is the first single from Plastic Beach and, as a reintroduction to Gorillaz, the first new music from them in over FIVE YEARS, it is massively disappointing.
This song doesn't do anything.
The plodding bass line runs from start to finish, reminding us that "this is the bass line, it will not change."
2D and Mos Def's performances are just fine, but they're made less interesting by the godawful repetitive nature of the music.
Then there's Bobby Womack.
"Murdoc" has stated that this is the first recording Bobby Womack has done is over a decade and I'm not too familiar with his music in particular, but I am familiar with his oeuvre.
He falls into what I like to call the Sweaty Soul Man category.
Picture Sexual Chocolate from Coming to America.
The kind of guy who would say "Gawd" and "Lawd".
And he always has a handkerchief in his pocket in case he has to preach, because you know he sweats when he preaches.
Maybe I'm way off base as far as that being his usual stuff, but that's what he sounds like in this song.
And it's just awful.
Superfast Jellyfish feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul
Ah ha! Wonderful! An amazing new Gorillaz track!
I hope and pray that this is the next single, mainly because I'd LOVE to see the video and hear it become as prevalent as 19-2000 or Dirty Harry.
The bass, the drums, the beat, the samples, the rap...everything about this screams Gorillaz hit
Hello? De La Soul?.
Honestly, the only problem I have with this track is there isn't enough of it.
At just under three minutes, it feels a bit thin.
The second verse is the second half of the first verse.
Dig?
Also, 2D only jumps in on the chorus (an excellent chorus though it may be).
It feels like the song needed maybe 45 seconds more to become a classic.
Throw in a bridge and an actual second verse and you've got my vote.
Despite these infractions, this is one of my favorite tracks off Plastic Beach.
Empire Ants feat. Little Dragon
At first, another mellow, straight forward 2D lamentation, but then the beat comes in and changes everything.
The addition of Little Dragon's expressive, liquid vocals adds so much to what could have been a throw away track.
Like Rhinestone Eyes, this feels like it's from the 80's.
A solid track, but it doesn't stand out too far.
Glitter Freeze feat. Mark E. Smith
You know what blows?
Seeing potential wasted.
Glitter Freeze could have been called "Potential: Wasted".
Or maybe "Damon Just Bought A Stylophone".
This track sounds like a demo.
It's missing vocals (Mark E. Smith rambling like a drunken prophet with the reverb turned up to six does NOT count as vocals) and maybe another one or two instruments.
It DOES show us exactly why more artists today aren't utilizing the stylophone in their music.
This track is a missed opportunity.
Some Kind of Nature feat. Lou Reed
Holy shit, Lou Reed, right?
That's enough of that.
Yes, the music is good, yes, Lou Reed and 2D singing a duet is pretty awesome but...I just don't know.
The track is missing something.
It's a good Gorillaz song, but...I don't know.
I can't put my finger on it.
It could be the fact that the track doesn't really go anywhere?
Maybe the fact that it seems like a bridge and a chorus without any verses?
Not sure...
On Melancholy Hill
I don't think there's ever been a song title that so matches the feel of a song.
This song reminds me of a Postal Service song...or maybe something by M83; meaning simply that it's yet another, synthy, faux 80's track starring 2D.
This and the other two on the album have a propensity to blend together.
Broken
Another 2D solo track, almost a note for note recreation of the demo Damon Albarn played on BBC radio over a year ago.
At least it doesn't sound like Rhinestone Eyes, Empire Ants or On Melancholy Hill.
A bit more dub than faux 80's.
Some interesting sounds in it.
Again, an all right Gorillaz track, but not really stand out.
Sweepstakes feat. Mos Def
Another competent rap from Mos Def, but the weird, off-time beat of the song doesn't really work.
The song evolves as the electronic, hiccupping beat has layers of organic, live instruments added to and, eventually, swallowing it.
It does evolve, but in a very linear way, with Mos doing the same verse in different meter as the music changes.
And, again, no 2D, no Noodle.
This track is interesting, but not really enjoyable.
Plastic Beach feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon
This track...oh boy...this track...
I seem to have a thing for title tracks in general, but this track.
This, along with Superfast Jellyfish, is my favorite track on the album.
The music has a dark, insistent feel to it that makes you need to learn the lyrics.
The chorus is excellent and almost hypnotic.
It's a very visual track; listening to it, you can see Gorillaz performing it, silhouetted by the setting sun on their floating trash island out in the middle of the ocean.
Some really great energy thanks to some really great programming.
To Binge feat. Little Dragon
You know what would be novel?
2D singing a melancholic song.
At least the inclusion of Little Dragon spices things up.
Whereas on Empire Ants, each had their own section, this track is more of a duet and their voices go very well together.
The music is a bit bland though.
Cloud of Unknowing feat. Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA
The Sweatin' Jeeezus Preacher returns but without the Powah of GAWD this time.
A very sparse track which focuses mainly on Womack's wary, soulful vocals.
The track ends with more of the orchestration from the first track, sadder and more beautiful this time around.
Pirate Jet
A bouncy, boingy vocal repeating the title floats in the background of this final track as 2D tells us that everything is now plastic.
Some really sharp 50's-sounding organ on this one, the same, as you may or may not know, that was used on Bowie's "Seven Years In Tibet".
Okay ending to an okay album.
All right.
As I said, I had really high hopes for this one; too high, it seems. The main problem with this album is the songs don't go to as many interesting places as they did on "Demon Days", some mutate and blossom, the majority do not. There were so many different phases to the tracks on "Demon Days" that these seem flat in comparison. The music on "Plastic Beach", for the most part, lacks growth.
There's also a massive lack of energy on most of these tracks. Their first album had Re-Hash, 5/4, 19-2000, Rock the House and Punk, "Demon Days" had Dirty Harry, Feel Good Inc., Dare and White Light but "Plastic Beach" has only Superfast Jellyfish. One could say this is a more "mellow" album, but there's a big difference between "mellow" and "apathetic". "Demon Days" was mellow, even morose at times, but it had an energy nonetheless, while most of "Plastic Beach" just seems to be missing that "we're actually having fun doing this" vibe.
It also lacks Noodle. Her energetic, childlike voice works as a wonderful juxtaposition to 2D's sleepy, stoned droning and not having her character on this album robs it of dimension, of what makes Gorillaz Gorillaz.
I want to be clear: this isn't a bad album, nor is it a bad Gorillaz album, it's good and there's some great stuff on it. Just not enough.
If they were putting an album out every year or even every two years, it would be all right, but it's been half a decade since we last heard from Gorillaz and, in that context, this is straight up disappointing.
But I still have hope in my heart.
I'm not just a fan of Gorillaz' music, I'm also a fan of the fiction.
I've been watching as Noodle was apparently killed by the black helicopters in the El Manana video.
I've been watching as Murdoc blew up Kong Studios and absconded with the money he made from "Demon Days".
I've been watching as the same pirates responsible for Noodle's demise tracked Murdoc down and chased him to the Plastic Beach.
More recently (this morning, in fact) I saw the video for the lackluster Stylo, and, like most of their videos, it was excellent.
I think it's the fiction that keeps me coming back just as much as the music.
And, while Plastic Beach the album is done, consumed, digested, excreted, Plastic Beach the fiction has just begun and I can't wait to see what happens next.
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