Day 8, Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Today’s listening was an extreme departure from what I’ve been hearing lately. But it doesn’t stop there. Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach is an extreme departure from a lot of musical norms. My first listen felt a lot like looking into a rich kid’s toy chest: a chaos of flashy, bombastic, but super-cool and unique things. But when it finished, all I could say was, “What the f?” I was very intrigued, just thrown off my guard.

So I took some time until I went through it again. Having just listened to a storm of Americana rooted in the traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus song structure, I felt a little ungrounded with Plastic Beach after the first time through. But when I put it back on, I realized I was not lost at all and I, in fact, remembered almost every melody.

Plastic Beach is a dizzying blend of sounds and styles. The first track opens with a beautiful string arrangement, which then bursts into a RJD2-esq techno/hip-hop groove with…yes, believe it…Snoop Dogg on the mic. They throw structure the window right from the first track. Snoop never takes a full verse, but sort of sticks in a few lines where there is space in the groove. A very interesting technique, but it actually sounds very natural—like the rap comes second to the fat horns and electro-groove.

The next 3 tracks, “White Flag,” “Rhinestone Eyes,” and “Stylo,” and are wild and unstoppable. Again, none of them follow a traditional structure or style; they are curiously peculiar kitchen sink concoctions, yet damn catchy. “White Flag” is slightly similar to the Snoop track in that it blends string arrangements and hip-hop, but there are two rappers, and one of them sounds like a Jamaican Brit. They trade verses, lines, and even signle words in what seems like random order, but the flow is impeccable. The next two tracks, “Rhinestone Eyes” and “Stylo” may be my favorite two on the album. The story is the same: strange blends of electronic sounds and instruments, unstructured vocals, unstructured everything, but always some sort of hook.

The whole album is very exciting, and although it can be erratic at times, it does not sacrifice melody or musicality. Plastic Beach is even a departure for the Gorillaz. I haven’t checked the charts lately, but I don’t think it produces any “hits,” which is usually something the Gorillaz can easily manage.