album of the week: 4.2

Gorillaz

Plastic Beach

Virgin (2010)

why you'll love it: one half is mellow electronic grooviness

why you'll hate it: other half of soulless pop garbage, neither half feels like Gorillaz

2005 gave us the Gorillaz album Demon Days. Not only was it the best album to come out that year, but I feel it's one of the best in the naughties. It felt very complete. So complete that I never expected to hear any music from Gorillaz ever again. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's growing contempt for the characters and the whole Gorillaz-universe only supported this thought. As did the retrospective biography - Rise of The Ogre.

Moving into a new decade, Gorillaz seems much less relevant and necessary. A 2D solo album feels like the absolute best route to continue the lure in any capacity. In Plastic Beach, you get a heavy dose of 2D and his melancholy influences. It's a bit one-tone, but 8 solid tunes with a unique focus on just one of Gorillaz' many styles.

Here's the main problem. This isn't a 2D album. It's a 16 track Gorillaz album; half of which is lackluster, and the whole thing is devoid of the kind of dynamics Gorillaz are known for. There is no rock at all. It's is 97% electronics coasting this album along, and at a laid back pace. In other words, the presence and representative musical influences of Murdoch and Noodle are entirely absent here.

In reality, this album is produced by Damon Albarn. A move that not only continues to chop down that much needed diversity and freshness each Gorillaz album brings; but makes track-to-track listening quite monotone. The feeling that four people with a plethora of influences made this album is non-existent.

So, Jamie didn't feel like drawing Gorillaz anymore, and the record put forth has no real Gorillaz effort... then why is this a Gorillaz album? I'm not even mentioning the awful introductory tracks (Snoop Dogg, ugghh), and the shrug & whimper the album closes on. What we have here is something that was once a modest enjoyable product, that is bogged down by guest performance failures and a bunch of obvious b-sides to pad the track list - and finally, the name Gorillaz slapped on the front to sell it.

Keep only the the good 30 minutes of this album and pretend it's just 2D with a KORG bumming out to his melodramatic 80s idols. It'll make this album actually enjoyable, and maybe you'll forget Gorillaz have jumped the shark.