Welcome to Plastic Beach, the new album by Gorillaz released next Monday 8th March 2010, but why not check out our review of it first.

Orchestral Intro

A short 1 minute orchestral intro, says it as it is, a lot more calming than the ‘Intro’ in Demon Days, in fact makes you rather sleepy until track 2 starts.

 Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach

Starting of with a bunch of trumpets then in to the gangster scene with Snoop Dogg, a newby to the Gorillaz contribution artists. Like many other songs on the album, this features some orchestras, this features the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Orchestra. The song, in our opinion, is one of the few weaker songs on the album, Snoop Doggs input just makes you instantly want to press the ‘Next’ button. Its not terrible but its not one of the best in any fashion. Snoops lyrics are also very weak, using ‘Mirror mirror on the wall’ just did it for us to be honest.

 White Flag

White Flag starts off with a lovely calming note playing with some bongos, and some orchestral sound, this time from the National Orchestra for Arabic Music, bit odd but we’ll go with it for now. It seems Gorillaz are highly in to the orchestral feel for Plastic Beach. Unfortunately thats when the song gets rather disappointing. The song also features Kano, which actually has quite a good input, but as soon as Bashy, the other featured rapper it all just fails for us, and its really a shame. Like Snoop on WttWotPB (track 2) the lyrics are just ridiculous, the song is lead by the notes coming from the flute and the bongos which are really the only thing that keep you listening.

 Rhinestone Eyes

Rhinestone Eyes is the first song on the album that has no featured act, just 2D on vocals similar to ‘Feel Good Inc’ with the megaphone styled vocals. The lyrics are beautiful in this song, the song is such a relief for us as we we’re just about to say the album is a big disappointment. The song also has a nice poppy feel to it, for instance the ‘electric, beep … beep … beep … beep’ on the chorus works perfectly and is something you guaranteed to be singing on the way out of hearing this song. Although no featured acts are mentioned their are some backing vocals which does perfect the song. The background rift on the chorus also matches it perfectly leaving a fantastic song, well done Gorillaz.

 Stylo

Stylo is the first single released by the Gorillaz and the first song anyone has probably heard from the album, starting with the fast rapping from 2D to start the song off. The bass rift does get rather repetitive after a while but its such a catchy song overall, ‘…overload, overload, coming up to the overload…’ is something I couldn’t stop singing after the first listen. Stylo does return Gorillaz back to that darker sound which we haven’t really seen for a while. The song suddenly lifts up thanks to the powerful voice of Bobby Womack which in our opinion just makes everything that so much better, once you hear the ‘If its love!!!!!!’ for the first time your just like, oh yeah, rock on. Stylo isn’t the strongest song on the album, but is a perfect single in our opinion, you just can’t get it out of your head.

 Superfast Jellyfish

The song starts with a weird sounding childrens TV ad, then gets in to the song, not sure why, but fair enough. Superfast Jellyfish sees the return of De La Soul to Gorillaz, with Gruff Rhys as well. Unfortunately unlike ‘Feel Good Inc’ this just doesn’t work for us. The chorus however is so cheesy that you actually start to love it, the way they sing ‘Aluminum, aluminium’ just did it for us, well done. The song whilst sounding like a childrens nursery rhyme does take a bit of listening before you start liking it, on first listen alone I would have given this a 1/5, but the chorus and the high pitch talking background vocals and everything just captivates this song enough to make it all just oddly work!

 Empire Ants

Empire Ants starts very retro with a calming piano and soft drum beat that keeps the song going. This is probably the first beautiful song on the album, we don’t quite understand what the song is all about but the first half just sounds so soothing, ‘And if the whole world is crashing down’, the vocals are just so relaxing, you can probably play this to a child to get them to sleep its lovely, something rarely said about a Gorillaz song. The second half of the song is filled by drums and a lovely 80s sounding back rift, then the vocals of Little Dragon appear just perfect the song completely. Little Dragon features on two of the songs on the album, her input in this song turn a relaxing song into a dance song but without any complaints or interruption, its all done so right, we love it.

 Glitter Freeze

‘Where’s north from here’, we’re not quite sure why that is the first thing you here, but hey, we continue. Glitter Freeze has a very Scissor Sisters sounding sound to it which actually grows on you after time, especially the powerful siren sounding tone in the background that fill the song up till the end, some could consider it annoying or love it, this song is a bit marmite in our research. Mark E Smith is the random guy who makes random comments throughout the song, not something I would of though as a good idea, but it weirdly enough works, why, we don’t know, it just does. But the song instruments together may become annoying to most, so like we said this song is a hit or a miss for whoevers taste gets the pleasure of hearing it.

 Some Kind of Nature

Starting instantly with a piano driven vocals of Lou Reed, Some Kind of Nature begins. This is probably, in our opinion, another one of the worsted song on the album, nothing works for us. Lou Reeds vocals are so plain and remind me of an office party when the boss starts singing and your forced to smile and enjoy the vocals. Whats a shame about this song is the parts with 2D singing actually don’t sound too bad. Using someone who lets face it can’t sing worked as a risk with ‘Dare’, but with this is just fails, which is a shame as it could be such a good song.

 On Melancholy Hill

This song doesn’t sound like much, starts off with a very standalone poppy beat, then comes the vocals, then you hear such a beautiful vocals and the lyrics are just so cliché but lovely at the same time. ‘When you can’t get what you want, but you can get me’, the lyric is cheeky in a way but sang in such a beautiful form. If your not in to lyrics this song may not work for you, but for us this is just absolutely lovely. Lovely is a word your probably gonna see on a few songs on this album, the album has two main genres, beautiful pop sound, and rap. On Melancholy Hill was an instant favourite for us.

 Broken

Worried a lovely song would be followed by a bad one, we we’re given yet another good song indeed, they have indeed left some greats at the end. Broken is a very slow sounding pop song with some strong drums that work for some reason, whilst the vocals of 2D aren’t the best in this, they for some reason work for the song and in a way if vocal ability was better the song wouldn’t be, only Gorillaz can you say that. “Its broken, our love, is broken”, the chorus is so simple meaning rememberable, and we had another line to sing for Broken. Like Melancholy Hill, Broken has no featured acts which we are so happy about, this is a classic Gorillaz by themselves classic, pity the same couldn’t of been done to Some Kind of Nature, shame. But hey, Broken is awesome that all that matters.

 Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes features Mos Def and another orchestra this time the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, yes the same one from the song with Snoop. Unfortunately the song just has the most awful of starts, an awkward beat, with rappers that even sound like they are struggling for the next line. To us this is the worst song on the album bar none, nothing in this song works, I recommend skipping this one, just to resist getting put off.

 Plastic Beach

Like on the ‘Demon Days’ album ‘Plastic Beach’ has a title track, it starts very movie-like mysterious song which gets you very excited to hear what it sounds, kind of reminds me of a Muse song when the drums and the notes kick in. The song features Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, unfortunately I’ve no idea which is which in the song so I can’t judge them by name. This is probably the first dual collaboration on the album that actually works. The song is in no ways the strongest but beats a lot of songs on the album.

 To Binge

To Binge starts off like some broadway song in a 70s musical, this mood continues in what sounds like a duo with Little Dragon, who also sings in ‘Empire Ants’ and 2D, the collaboration with Little Dragon is probably the best on the album, all songs with Little Dragon are just perfect and beautiful and we can’t get enough of her and Gorillaz. The song is very hard to explain any further than we have really, its just another very beautiful we’ve been ‘Ca … Ca … Ca … Caught again’, love it. ‘My heart is in economy’, I mean the lyrics, plus the weird 70s vibe make this song probably our favourite on the album, and we hate the 70s, but hey!

 Cloud of Unknowing

Cloud of Unknowing features Bobby Womack who does the strong vocals in ‘Stylo’, but in this song he’s more acoustic. Unfortunately the song sounds like some failure Live Aid single. The song also features Sinfonia ViVA, who also features on the intro, if you noticed, we didn’t even notice them in this, but hey. I think its fair to say Bobby Womacks voice is more suited for a burst of brilliance like in ‘Stylo’, his vocals symbolise many songs from the likes of ‘Frankie goes to Hollywood’, which is strange. This is probably another marmite song from the album, except we aren’t a fan this time.

 Pirate Jet

Pirate Jet is almost like a jokey song to finish off the album on a happy note, this song is a rather funny song and no doubt a funny video could be made for this song. The song is a bit of a gimmick but it makes for quite a nice ending to the album, unlike ‘Demon Days’ that left you depressed and feeling rather sad at the end, this makes you feel rather uplifting which I like, but the song is nothing to get excited about either tho.

OVERVIEW 

The album is let down by a lot of weak songs, unfortunately out of the 16 tracks on the album we only truly like around 9 of them if we’re been nice, don’t get me wrong the rest maybe your favourites instead, but the songs that are good are very good and to be honest you can get albums with 9 tracks for the same price, so the album is value for money for nothing for 16 tracks. Does this beat Demon Days? I don’t think I can say, for me, kinda, the songs that are good are very good and that is whats going to keep the album going, the other songs do grow on you though.