subject: A Review Of Plastic Beach By Gorillaz [print this page] Gorillaz has been one of the most popular alternative bands of the last ten years. They appeared somewhat out of nowhere with their first album, which was self titled. The album was spearheaded by the highly successful single Clint Eastwood. Adding to the appeal and popularity of the band was their enigmatic nature. Instead of a real band consisting of real people, Gorillaz was really the pet project of musician Damon Albarn, the lead singer of the band Blur, and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, the creator of the comic book Tank Girl. The rest of the band was simply a wide variety of various artists working with Albarn, while Hewlett worked on the media that would be associated with the band.
The fictional band members of 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle, and Russel achieved their own status, and four years after their first album, they released the highly ambitious album Demon Days. Demon Days furthered the punk rock/hip hop/reggae/electronica mix that had begun in the first album, and elevated the themes of the songs to higher ground, focusing on speaking about society. After five years the group returns with the album Plastic Beach.
Plastic Beach opens with a simple instrumental, much the same way as Demon Days did. The album features less rapping than Demon Days, but has a decidedly more pop feeling to it. The album is decidedly much more relaxed, with less of the intentionally harsh sounds that were featured on the first two albums. The film features a wider variety of larger name musicians than the previous albums, such as Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, and Lou Reed. The album is recognizably Gorillaz, but it is obvious that the production value is much more focused.
Some of the standout tracks on the album are Stylo, which has a techno feel to it, Some Kind of Nature (featuring Lou Reed) which is very catchy, the addictingly catchy Melancholy Hill, and the almost soothing sound of Empire Ants (with fantastic vocals from Yukimi Nagano). In the opinion of this writer, this is the most focused, and well polished album the Gorillaz have done. Perhaps what makes the album so great is that it is so much more relaxed than the previous albums, but still features lyrics that have a hint of melancholy. It can be said that in terms of theme that the album is the most hopeful sounding of the three.
by: Cid Snow
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
