It's the most Damon Albarn-y thing you've ever heard, the lack of an outside producer has preserved his quirky genius in its original rambling form. A mess of brilliance.
1. "Orchestral Intro" (featuring sinfonia ViVA)
- An Orchestral Intro, yes
2. "Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach" (featuring Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
- Wish this was longer. I didn't think I'd love the Snoop track this much. The lazy beat is amazing... one of my faves.
3. "White Flag" (featuring Kano, Bashy and The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music)
- Aww, bless Bashy and Kano. I love the Lebanese Orchestra with GRIME. Needs some 2D
4. "Rhinestone Eyes"
- Perhaps one of the greatest Gorillaz tracks ever? I can see this launching 1,000 remixes right now...
5. "Stylo" (featuring Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
- 70's/80's electro tastic.
6. "Superfast Jellyfish" (featuring Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
- Yo Gabba Gabba ready...
7. "Empire Ants" (featuring Little Dragon)
- All the Little Dragon tracks are sooo pretty, Damon sounds great, and oh, THE END!
8. "Glitter Freeze" (featuring Mark E. Smith)
- It's like Gary Glitter and Muse remade the Dr. Who theme and Mark E. Smith angrily wandered into the studio. Glam Rock City. EPIC.
9. "Some Kind of Nature" (featuring Lou Reed)
- Lou, 2D, pretty, piano, love. Most like Gorillaz of yore.
10. "On Melancholy Hill"
- Lovely. Not sure about the weird guitar shredding softly in the background...
11. "Broken"
- Just like the demo. Nice. Damon belts it out.
12. "Sweepstakes" (featuring Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
- Cacophony plus Mos Def = A song you'll learn to love. The end gets all crunchy
13. "Plastic Beach" (featuring Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
- Spaghetti Western beginning, 2D and Mick Jones harmonic ending.
14. "To Binge" (featuring Little Dragon)
- Another lovely Little Dragon one. Britpoppy.
15. "Cloud of Unknowing" (featuring Bobby Womack and sinfonia ViVA)
- Amazing left turn, Bobby is the man.
16. "Pirate Jet"
-70's glammy genius
Monday, March 1, 2010
The first listen verdict of Plastic Beach
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3 comments:
I have to agree about "Rhinestone eye", I'm really found of this track, it reminds me a lot of the spirit from the vinyle "Democrazy"..
Some tracks need to be more listened for me, but I like that anyway, when tracks become better with time..
I love your expression "a mess of brilliance", you nailed it! ;)
Yeah, I think that's what I love most about Damon. All of his music needs multiple listens, and your favorite tracks on a given album change periodically to reflect a new found affection for a certain song. I've listened to the Blur albums countless times, and I think about once a year my favorites invariably change. The same with the Gorillaz albums. Demon Days went through a few hundred listens until the "Demon Days" track truly revealed its brilliance. I can't listen to it now without going all gospelly and belting it out (out of tune of course). I suspect my favorites will change on this one too. Right now I'm in love with Empire Ants and Rhinestone Eyes, but they're all so good...
Yes, it was exactly the same for me with Demon Days...(I sing out of tune too, but I also rap, and that can be scary sometimes..)
My second favorite at the moment is "To binge", so I would say that Little Dragon was a good choice for a collaboration ;)
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