Damon Albarn has certainly assembled one hell of a line-up for the third Gorillaz outing – everyone from Snoop Doog and De La Soul to Mark E. Smith and Bobby Womack. The talents of the participants are not in doubt; the question is does the album flow with real coherence?
The answer is a resounding yes. One of the chief reasons is that the thematic concerns throughout the album remain consistent. There are subtle allusions to some of the big global issues of the moment – ie. war and environmental destruction – but it’s all measured and understated; Plastic Beach is about glancing blows, not po-face hectoring. The record actually has quite an upbeat feel, which appears to be a result of Albarn’s visit to Mali, where (as he noted in a recent interview), he saw evidence of a “new ecology” in the country’s landfills: “Just seeing the snakes lying in the warmth of the decomposing plastic bags. It was a strange kind of optimism I felt.”
There are also the critiques of consumerism, celeb-obsessed media and lotto culture that Albarn has been penning since Blur songs such as ‘Advert’ and ‘The Universal’. Whilst there are superb contributions from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Mos Def, two of the stand-out tracks come courtesy of those hardened rock veterans, Lou Reed and the aforementioned Mark E. Smith, whose grizzled tones contrast splendidly with Albarn’s sparkling hip-hop production on, respectively, ‘Some Kind Of Nature’ and ‘Glitter Freeze’.
For me, though, the highlight is the plaintive ‘Broken’, the central refrain of which (sung by Albarn) is a simple, melancholy “Our love is broken”. The haunted funhouse soundscapes of Plastic Beach find Albarn and co. skillfully capturing the zeitgeist, whilst also penning some tunes you can whilst in the bath. An impressive achievement, all told.