Gorillaz – Plastic Beach

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach

The Gorillaz are back. With "Plastic Beach", they present their most ambitious and groundbreaking album to date. The spectrum of guest musicians is so broad that it not only includes names such as Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Mark E Smith, De La Soul, Mos Def and Bobby Womack, but also the National Orchestra Of Arabic Music and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a nine-piece formation from Chicago that plays jazz and hip-hop. The album also reunites Mick Jones and Paul Simonon for the first time since their time together with The Clash.

The great saga of singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs now has a new twist, which is also reflected in their new look: The band is now based in Plastic Beach, a gigantic control center à la Tracy Island (known from the TV series Thunderbirds) that floats on Point Nemo in the middle of the South Pacific on a huge mountain of garbage. No other place in the world is further away from the mainland. Here, everything more or less goes Murdoc's way again, he holds 2D captive and at the same time is protected by a cyborg version of Noodle, which he has had made with the DNA of the Japanese guitarist. The original was last seen in 2006, dropping bombs on her head in the "El Mañana" video. Drummer Russel, on the other hand, has retired from active life. But none of this seems to bother Murdoc at all. "When it comes to THE Gorillaz, I only think about myself," he explains. "If you took me out of this group, you'd just have three dumbasses staring at the camera."

For their third album, the band has created an allegory of humanity: An image composed of garbage, destruction, consumerism, isolation and human failure.

Gorillaz, who first came into the public eye in 1998, are now one of the most popular bands in the world. A truly global phenomenon, they have enjoyed success in pop music that has truly set new standards. The Guinness Book Of World Records has listed them as the most successful virtual act on the planet, and their self-titled debut album, released in 2001 and featuring the hit singles "Clint Eastwood" and "19-2000", has sold 6 million copies. The follow-up album "Demon Days" from 2005 was even more successful and made the band famous around the globe thanks to singles such as "Feel Good Inc.", "DARE" (with Shaun Ryder's famous, hoarse croaking voice) and "Dirty Harry", which achieved hit status in Europe, the USA and on other continents. With the album produced by Danger Mouse and especially the single "DARE", the Gorillaz scored their first #1 hit in the UK and led to numerous accolades as one of the best albums of the year.

As the name suggests, "Demon Days" presented a contemporary phantasmagoria, a make-believe world in which groundbreaking pop melodies were intertwined with melancholic yet unapologetic commentary on the brave new world and the monsters that inhabit it.

With "Demon" Days, the band also took their live performances to a new dimension. The 40-date "Demon Detour" through US radio stations was flanked by a series of events that set new standards in both scale and ambition. From November 1-5, 2005, "Demon Days Live" brought all the artists who had supported the Gorillaz on the album to the stage in Manchester: Neneh Cherry, Bootie Brown, De La Soul, Ike Turner, Roots Manuva, Martina Topley-Bird and Shaun Ryder performed live; Dennis Hopper, MF Doom and Afro-Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer joined them "virtually". In April 2006, Gorillaz performed five nights at the legendary Apollo Theatre in New York's Harlem neighborhood, accompanied by 87 musicians, including a string quartet from the renowned Julliard School and the Harlem Gospel Choir. In the same year, the band was honored with the Ivor Novello Award as Songwriters Of The Year.

The Gorillaz also proved to be highly innovative in the audiovisual field. Their videos, which are probably the most catchy manifestation of the Gorillaz identity, have been on high rotation around the globe and have won numerous awards. Gorillaz opened the 2006 BRIT Awards with a 100-strong children's choir and performed at the Grammy Awards as holographs in a duet with Madonna. Bassist Murdoc, with his gangster visage, meanwhile found time to record an "alternative Christmas speech", which was broadcast at the same time as Queen Elizabeth II's traditional address. There were rumors that a Hollywood producer was ready to produce a feature-length film. By the end of 2007, Gorillaz had achieved what is rarely seen: they were culturally ground-breaking, unanimously praised by critics, commercially successful and appealing to a broad section of the population. So it's almost self-explanatory that Gorillaz were crowned the most popular band on MySpace in 2008, even though they hadn't released anything new that year.

But now they are back. "Plastic Beach" shows Gorillaz at high tide. A 16-track journey through pop, rap, dub, soul and electronica that integrates diverse influences from East to West as well as many other things.

As Murdoc says: "You either live or you don't. Either you ride on top or you don't. Everything else is quirky cave paintings inside our skulls, someone's attempts to decorate their cage, to provide themselves with some entertainment as long as they live there. The upcoming album relegates Demon Days to mere warm-up. All I can say is that we've shifted up a gear."

Tracklist:
1 Gorillaz– Orchestral Intro
2 Gorillaz & Snoop Dogg– Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach
3 Gorillaz, Bashy & Kano – White Flag
4 Gorillaz– Rhinestone Eyes
5 Gorillaz & Mos Def– Stylo
6 Gorillaz, De La Soul & Gruff Rhys– Superfast Jellyfish
7 Gorillaz & Yukimi Nagano (Little Dragon)– Empire Ants
8 Gorillaz & Mark E. Smith– Glitter Freeze
9 Gorillaz & Lou Reed– Some Kind Of Nature
10 Gorillaz– On Melancholy Hill
11 Gorillaz– Broken
12 Gorillaz & Mos Def– Sweepstakes

13 Gorillaz– Plastic Beach
14 Gorillaz & Yukimi Nagano (Little Dragon)– To Binge
15 Gorillaz & Bobby Womack– Cloud Of Unknowing
16 Gorillaz– Pirate Jet

Label: Warner
Released: 2010