Animated Gorillaz bassist Murdoc Niccals, claimed that Plastic Beach would make Demon Days look like a warm-up. Well you should never taken a drunken cartoon's words seriously. Unfortunately, Plastic Beach was a big disappoint for me. The latest release by Gorillaz doesn't come anywhere close to the goodness that was Demon Days.
Damon Albarn stated that Plastic Beach is his most "pop" album, and for me that's my biggest problem with the album. There are just way too many synths for my ears to handle. A lot of the songs are repetitive in themselves, relying on the same progressions for their entire durations.
Albarn is listed as the sole producer (alongside Gorillaz). No helping hand from the likes of hip-hop guru Danger Mouse this time around. According to Gorillaz lore, this album was put together by Murdoc, singer/hostage 2D, and a robotic version of the guitarist, Noodle. Drummer Russel Hobbs is nowhere to be found. Maybe that explains why this album lacks real soul.
It seems that Albarn might have been relying on an every-expanding roster of guest artists to give the album a boost. Plastic Beach boasts a staggering amount of guest spots; only 4 of the songs lack guest performers. When I saw that Snoop Dogg was going to be appearing on the album I raised an eyebrow, feeling that he wouldn't be a good fit for the Gorillaz sound and that overall he wouldn't be very good. And I was right.
After a lovely orchestral intro the listener is greeted by Snoop Dogg on "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach. His vocals on this track are lazy excuse for rap, even for him (seriously? ending everything with "izzle" doesn't constitute clever rhyming). This song would have honestly been a lot better without his contribution.
The next track, "White Flag" showed promise with a lovely orchestral intro provided by the National Orchestra for Arabic Music. This track combines Albarn's interest with orchestral arrangements and Eastern music (see Monkey) with his love of electronic music. Rappers Kano and Bashy give decent performances but the true star on this track is the orchestra.
"Rhinestone Eyes" is my favorite song on the album. Though it starts off with some slightly goofy lyrics, it has a pulse I can get behind and some genuinely interesting hooks. Up next is the super-slick "Stylo", which has a Vanishing Point inspired car chase music video featuring Bruce Willis. "Stylo" is crippled by its repetitiveness and is saved only by Bobby Womack's soulful singing.
"Superfast Jellyfish" has the best groove on the album, the kind of tight groove I might expect from a Gorillaz song. It's also got the cartoon silliness I have come to expect from them every now and then, although it might be a bit too goofy for its own good.
There's a bit of a lull with the breezy sleeper "Empire Ants" and the heavy electro dance track "Glitter Freeze", but then things get a bit interesting again with "Some Kind of Nature" which features the half-dead vocal delivery of Lou Reed.
The next song, "On Melancholy Hill" was completely ruined for me from the moment it started playing. It sounds straight of the 80's, in the worse way possible. Mos Def reportedly said his contribution to "Sweepstakes" was some of his best work and, while that the virility of that statement is debatable, "Sweepstakes" is definitely one of the stronger tracks on the album. The song starts out with a limping beat and slowly builds an addictive, upbeat groove around it with the help of New Orleans' Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.
The album ends with "Pirate Jet" which sounds a bit more like a proper Gorillaz track. If you get the iTunes Deluxe Version of the album you get two bonus orchestral pieces which are really quite good.
While some of the songs from Plastic Beach were pretty good, the album was a less than satisfying experience overall. The reason Plastic Beach has been so hotly anticipated was because of the success of Demon Days. I found myself afraid that Plastic Beach would be a disappointment because it wouldn't live up to its older brothers. And unfortunately for me, it doesn't. This record runs together in a lot of places with its dense electronic sounds. The hooks and edgy beats from Gorillaz are gone. The grooves and textures from Demon Days are lost.
My problem with Plastic Beach that there's not enough variation. It's just one fuzzy electronic bit after another, droning on and on. Good hooks are too far and few between. Sometimes this album is frankly boring. On some tracks it seems as though Gorillaz are content to relegate themselves to good elevator music.
But that's all for the rant. Gorillaz was good, Demon Days was brilliant, and Plastic Beach... was OK. I'm just a bit disappointed. I guess it's my own fault for having high expectations.
2 comments:
Good review, man. I totally agree with just about everything you've stated here and frankly, I'm relieved I'm not alone in being disappointed with Plastic Beach. I was beginning to think all reviewers, professional or otherwise, were being paid off to say it was the best thing since the invention of birth control.
Yes!! Yes!! I agree with everything!
You read through the album as any real person would. Very true to the folly of this album. I'm going to refer people to this.
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