New Gorillaz album features guest artists

“Plastic Beach,” the third album from Gorillaz, finds the band up to its now-familiar genre mashing tricks, offering an album that’s just as satisfying and diverse as its past two albums.

Produced primarily by head Gorilla and Blur member Damon Albarn, the album features an incredibly diverse and impressive list of guest artists, ranging from Snoop Dogg to Lou Reed, which add not only to the legitimacy of Albarn’s efforts, but also to the disparate nature of the album’s sound.

In the “Making of Plastic Beach” documentary included on the DVD that accompanies the deluxe edition of the album, Albarn talks about how he wants to take the listener on a journey: he provides the soundtrack, and it’s up to the listener to create the accompanying images.

Albarn succeeded at this without question: from the first sounds of seagulls and waves on the album’s opening “Orchestral Intro” to the final notes of “Pirate Jet,” the listener feels as if he is on a tour of Plastic Beach, meeting new characters and encountering different conflicts along the 57-minute journey.

The first real song on the album, “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach,” finds Snoop Dogg acting as solo welcoming committee, introducing listeners to the plasticine pop world they will inhabit for the length of the album’s duration.

And what a troubled world it is.

Suffering from ecological problems and vampiric consumerism, Plastic Beach is something of a mirror of our own world, albeit a bit more fun and easy to swallow.

Albarn successfully raises a number of intriguing and important questions, dressed up as danceable pop and hip-hop songs, but fails to provide anything resembling an answer. However, that’s not his job; he doesn’t want us to forget the problems of our own world entirely, but he at least makes them great fun to listen to.

One standout track, “White Flag,” exemplifies this wonderfully.

After a short intro provided by the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music, which features an incredibly beautiful flute melody, grime rappers Kano and Bashy “come in peace” to give us a glimpse of an idyllic and peaceful world.

“No war/No guns/No corps/Just life/Just love/No Hate/Just fun,” they explain, playing a short game of pass-the-mic while detailing the qualities of this place that doesn’t seem completely unobtainable, at least while in their presence.

While Albarn and company may offer no solutions to the troubles from which Plastic Beach and our own world may suffer, they certainly offer us a short and welcome reprieve from the trouble we have gotten ourselves in.

And really, all of its thematic weightiness aside, “Plastic Beach” is really just a damn fine pop record.