I finally got around to downloading Plastic Beach when Amazon had the album download version on sale at $5 yesterday. Purchasing this album wasn't a big priority for me but I knew I'd probably buy it eventually because of the deluge of media attention it's received.
The two songs featuring Little Dragon clicked immediately with me because their my favorite electronica band aside from the Knife and it's offshoot "sister" band Fever Ray.
As I listened to the rest of the songs I found a lot to like about it. In fact I like Plastic Beach better than all three the Gorillaz releases because it a more musically diverse effort. I really liked the way they blended the Bollywood musical modality with hip hop on White Flag.. Rhinstone Eyes has that same relaxed downtempo, hynotic groove feel that made Clint Eastwood so appealing. The title song, Plastic Beach, is a worthy reteaming of Clash bandmates Mick Jones and Paul Simonon. Both Jones and Simonon have fallen under the radar over the past decade and it would be nice see them do more outings to the studio, with or without each other.
That being said, Gorilliaz's earlier albums wore thin after a dozen or so spins & I'm usually wary of albums that seduce me so easily as this one has. Those things about Plastic Beach that charm me in July, may well be the things that annoy me about Plastic Beach by September.
Gorillaz does deserve recognition for maintaining a left-of-center musical approach and building a much larger audience for more exotic forms of electronica and hip hop. Featuring Little Dragon an esoteric Swedish acid jazz/lounge/trip hop band that is pretty much unknown outside of the Europop music scene, is a magnanimous gesture coming from a first tier internationally popular band like Gorillaz.
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