| Artist: Gorillaz |
| Format: | CD |
 "Pin It")
Song Listing
The Gorillaz story is now something of a legend. The tale of a world-storming band born out of the sick mind of foul-smelling bass-player and ego-driven mastermind Murdoc Niccals. Undeniably, the four Gorillaz - Murdoc, singer 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs and the diminuitive Japanese guitarist Noodle - have changed the face of music and beyond, forever. An incredibly creative blend of music, animation, technology, wit and humour, Gorillaz re-invented the possibilities of entertainment with every release.
This approach has made Gorillaz a global phenomenon, having sold in excess of 15 million records worldwide to date. They've won awards from Grammys to Webbys to MTV awards and more, for practically every aspect of their operation.
By rattling the cages of the music industry so fiercely, the fearless nature of Gorillaz' experiments illuminated the way forward for all, pioneering techniques and redefining the cultural landscape along the way.
In 2001, Gorillaz burst out of every TV and radio with their seminal hit 'Clint Eastwood' and then unleashed a fantastic collision of dub, reggae, hip hop, punk and Cuban music, in the form of their debut album. They thrilled us and wowed us with their jaw-dropping visuals and wicked sense of adventure. They brought a fresh, original and vital voice, breathing new life into tired formats, and left a rich, colourful legacy in their wake to inspire a whole new generation of artists to come.
In 2005 with Demon Days, their second album, the fantastic foursome again blazed across our consciousness with a magnificent piece of work that somehow managed to surpass even the outstanding achievements made by their first record. Both musically and visually Gorillaz had reached further and deeper. The all-embracing attitude of Gorillaz provided a limitless canvass for a whole cast of talents, old and new, allowing each of them to express themselves in a unique, exciting way. Along with the album, another landslide
| Five years on from the release of Demon Days, Murdoc Niccals and co. are back. The band have taken up residence on an island deep in the South Pacific, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet. |
"It displays a sonic ambition, an openmindedness and a melodic gift that puts so much modern pop to shame. Uncut.com
Album Notes and Credits
Notes & Personnel Info |
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Personnel: Stephen Sedgwick (programming). |
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Audio Mixer: Jason Cox. |
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Recording information: Al Assad, Damascus, Syria; Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; Chung King Studios, NY; Devon; Rolls Royce Factory, Derby, UK; Studio 13; The Shrine, Lagos, Nigeria; Veolia Environmental Services Pitsea Landfill Site. |
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Gorillaz began as a lark but turned serious once it became Damon Albarn's primary creative outlet following the slow dissolve of Blur. Delivered five years after the delicate whimsical melancholy of 2005's Demon Days, Plastic Beach is an explicit sequel to its predecessor, its story line roughly picking up in the dystopian future where the last album left off, its music offering a grand, big-budget expansion of Demon Days, spinning off its cameo-crammed blueprint. Traces of Albarn's Monkey opera can be heard, particularly in the hypnotic Mideastern pulse of "White Flag," but Damon's painstaking pancultural pop junk-mining no longer surprises -- when hip-hop juts up against Brit-pop, it's expected -- yet it still has the capacity to delight no matter which direction the Gorillaz may swing. Lou Reed's crotchety croak on "Some Kind of Nature" has the same kind of gravitational pull as Mos Def leading the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble through the intensely circling "Sweepstakes," while the group reaches new heights of sparkling pop on "Superfast Jellyfish," aided by the return of De La Soul -- the rappers who propelled "Feel Good Inc." -- and an appearance from Gruff Rhys, the Super Furry Animals frontman who is an ideal fit for Gorillaz (possibly because SFA's genre-bending pop and Pete Fowler artwork clearly paved the way for Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's collaboration). A common thread among all these tracks is that they find Albarn ceding the spotlight to his fellow musicians, preferring to be the puppetmaster behind the curtain, and Plastic Beach works best when he's the composer and producer, finding hidden strengths within his guests -- having Mick Jones and Paul Simonon for the elastic title track, coaxing some powerful performances out of Bobby Womack -- but often when Albarn takes center stage his laconic drawl lets the air out of the balloon. Curiously, much of this arrives toward the beginning of the album, the record gaining momentum as it unspools, working toward its climax, but the overall album accentuates moody texture over pop hooks. This emphasis means Plastic Beach is the first Gorillaz album to play like a soundtrack to a cartoon -- which isn't entirely a bad thing, because as Albarn grows as a composer, he's a master of subtly shifting moods and intricately threaded allusions, often creating richly detailed collages that are miniature marvels. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
Producer: Gorillaz |
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Engineer: Stephen Sedgwick; Jason Cox |
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Musical Guests | |
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Snoop Dogg |
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Kano |
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Bashy |
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Mos Def |
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Bobby Womack |
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De La Soul |
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Gruff Rhys |
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Little Dragon |
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Mark E. Smith |
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Lou Reed |
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Mick Jones |
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Paul Simonon |
Compilation Appearances
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Ultra Dance V.7 |
Associated Artists and Works
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Daley |
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Laika Come Home ~ Space Monkeyz |
Technical Info
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Release Date : 03/09/2010 |
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Original Release Date : 2010 |
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Catalog ID : 27547 |
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Label : EMI |
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Number of Discs : 1 |
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Studio/Live : Studio |
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Mono/Stereo : Stereo |
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SPAR Code : n/a |
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UPC : 50999627547294 |
Professional Reviews
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "PLASTIC BEACH, Gorillaz's third excellent album in a row, is all Albarn -- he writes the tunes, produces, sings, plays most of the music and gets people on the phone for left-field cameos..."
- "Albarn's love of 'Waterloo Sunset' poignancy adds emotional weight..."
- "Womack brings an organic jolt to the mentholated Casio cool of 'Stylo,' while the sparse, glitchy base of 'White Flag' is embroidered with brilliant threads of bhangra."
(p.55)
- Ranked #26 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2010" -- "[Gorillaz] breathed new life into the idea of pop music as intelligent and knowing..."
- ""[The] group's most affecting an uniquely inviting album....A loose environmental-song cycle warning against disposability."
- "An intoxicating cocktail of musical styles and pioneers, PLASTIC BEACH is instantly recognisable as a Gorilla album..."
(p.36)
- Ranked #18 in Uncut's "The 50 Best Albums of 2010" -- "[A] witty, profound, star-studded ecodrama."
Bio
"GorillazThe Gorillaz story is now something of a legend. The tale of a world-storming band born out of the sick mind of foul-smelling bass-player and ego-driven mastermind Murdoc Niccals. Undeniably, the four Gorillaz - Murdoc, singer 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs and the diminuitive Japanese guitarist Noodle - have changed the face of music and beyond, forever. An incredibly creative blend of music, animation, technology, wit and humour, Gorillaz re-invented the possibilities of entertainment with every release.
This approach has made Gorillaz a global phenomenon, having sold in excess of 15 million records worldwide to date. They've won awards from Grammys to Webbys to MTV awards and more, for practically every aspect of their operation.
By rattling the cages of the music industry so fiercely, the fearless nature of Gorillaz' experiments illuminated the way forward for all, pioneering techniques and redefining the cultural landscape along the way.
In 2001, Gorillaz burst out of every TV and radio with their seminal hit 'Clint Eastwood' and then unleashed a fantastic collision of dub, reggae, hip hop, punk and Cuban music, in the form of their debut album. They thrilled us and wowed us with their jaw-dropping visuals and wicked sense of adventure. They brought a fresh, original and vital voice, breathing new life into tired formats, and left a rich, colourful legacy in their wake to inspire a whole new generation of artists to come.
In 2005 with Demon Days, their second album, the fantastic foursome again blazed across our consciousness with a magnificent piece of work that somehow managed to surpass even the outstanding achievements made by their first record. Both musically and visually Gorillaz had reached further and deeper. The all-embracing attitude of Gorillaz provided a limitless canvass for a whole cast of talents, old and new, allowing each of them to express themselves in a unique, exciting way. Along with the album, another landslide of breathtaking videos, and some magical, moving live performances, Gorillaz gave the world something that had never been seen before - and an enchanting and invigorating sense that the impossible is perfectly possible.
By truly uniting an astounding array of influences under one roof, they've displayed exactly what can be achieved when intelligence, understanding and creativity come together for the greater good.
And hold on tight folks, because the journey's only just begun..."
