Band: Gorillaz
Album: Plastic Beach
Sounds Like: Gnarls Barkley, Basement Jaxx, the other two Gorillaz albums that you own
Sub-sub Genre: Much-Anticipated Mainstream Hipster-Mixtape Hybrid
Essential Tracks: Rhinestone Eyes, Melancholy Hill
Plastic Beach is a beautiful, tumultuous world in which Lou Reed and Mos Def hang out all the time, the American public revels in buoyant inanity, and Snoop Dogg is the greatest rapper alive. Gorillaz have further established their presence in that saddeningly rare niche of simultaneous popular and critical success, alongside wonders like Radiohead and Pixar.
Damon Albarn's production is insanely crisp and contagious, particularly sparkling synth-pop gems like "Rhinestone Eyes," "Melancholy Hill" and "Some Kind of Nature." Plus, the album floats along on networking skills alone: almost every track has an interesting guest appearance, somehow stuffed together into the same 61 minutes. If anything, Plastic Beach suffers from a lack of cohesion to a greater extent than either Gorillaz or Demon Days, perhaps stemming from the lack of an interwoven captivating hip hop presence (Del and DOOM clearly outmatch this ragtag bunch). Setting aside the (commendable) experimentation-gone-awry, this album deserves a place on the same shelf as its two brilliant predecessors.
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