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reviewed for The Dwarf

Messrs. Albarn and Hewlett have returned to add another layer of detail to the ever expanding world of Gorillaz. With a template firmly established with their prior albums Demon Days and Gorillaz, Albarn has called on another all-star lineup to add colour, grit and personality to what shapes up as his most animated attempt at a grand statement of pop.

The concept this time revolves around Plastic Beach and though the artwork and title allude to the floating mass of plastic recently discovered in the Pacific Ocean it isn’t a subject that dictates or ties the songs to its message of environmental alarm. Any fears of Gorillaz doing a Bono or Chris Martin are quickly allayed by the slo-mo drawl of Snoop Dogg welcoming the world to their island. The suitably slowed down electro hints at G-funk and sets the scene for an album that doesn’t feel as hyperactive as previous efforts. A sense of calm pervades Plastic Beach at most turns and heightens the feeling of Gorillaz gathering musical debris as they float along.

Albarn has consistently embraced hip hop with Gorillaz and clearly sees the symbiotic fit with his pop vision. Aside from Snoop we get the grime injection of Bashy & Kano on White Flag, the heavy lidded, stream of consciousness flow of Mos Def on Sweepstakes and on Superfast Jellyfish De La Soul reprise their roles from the brilliant single Feel Good Inc. Unfortunately this time round the song meanders aimlessly in search of a chorus hook that never appears.

There is a mist of nostalgia that drifts over many moments on Plastic Beach, much of it coming from the melancholic voice of Albarn. His is the integral human component that binds the guest appearances together. When he takes the spotlight on Empire Ants the album gains its emotional depth and it grows a heart. The synths are still alien 80s washes of sound but they feel much more human beneath the singing Albarn and Little Dragons.

The gnarled voices of of Lou Reed and Mark E. Smith will no doubt draw wry grins from many fans of their work. Though they do feel like they’ve been tacked onto finished instrumental tracks their larger than life personalities feel like an obvious fit with the Gorillaz manifesto. Smith adds a dimension of menace to proceedings but very much in a harmful comic villain way. Reed in particular sounds positively relaxed and carefree on Some Kind Of Nature, a song so bright and breezy that it feels natural that the following gorgeous track Melancholy Hill wouldn’t sound out of place on an OMD album.

Musically this is the most cohesive of the Gorillaz trilogy and there is a strong sense that Albarn went in with a definitive sound in mind, one that leans heavily on 80s dream pop, smooth electro and daisy-age hip hop. There is a dreamy distance to the songs that has periodically appeared in all of Albarn’s work and has come to define his wistful approach to songwriting.

If this is the last Gorillaz album – and you start to notice the limitations of the format more this time round – then Albarn and Hewlett have consolidated their vision well. He has perhaps not hit the heights of singles like Feel Good Inc. or Clint Eastwood and some of the guest appearances feel phoned in but he has fulfilled his pop intentions and creatively advanced a genre that too often slips into auto mode.