In the 1990's Blur were a great band. Huge success, huge anthemic hits and in Damon Albarn a talented, charismatic frontman - You were either a Blur fan or an Oasis fan in the mid 90's. With the benefit of hindsight, and some rather ungraceful later Oasis albums, it is Blur who stand the test of time and seem to have been the more polished outfit.

With Gorillaz and Plastic Beach in 2010 Damon Albarn is again showcasing his musical talents but in a completely different way. The album is at times bizarre, at other times compelling. Nothing is left of Blur and Britpop anthems here.

Guest artists feature heavily. From the laid back introduction track with Snoop Dogg to the strange insertion of Lou Reed on "Some kind of nature", there are constant surprises. One of Albarn's greatest successes with Gorillaz has been to attract the guest stars and push them beyond their comfort zones. Plastic Beach continues this tradition.

The thing is, for all of its quirks and concepts and guest stars with cartoon character alter egos, there is no real catchy hit single on the album. The first single released - "Stylo" - does not even have a chorus. Nothing on Plastic Beach is as tuneful or sweet on the ears as "Feel Good Inc", this despite Albarn dubbing it the most pop Gorillaz album to date.

What the album requires is a lot of investment. A little research will reveal the Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, and the Lebanese National Orchestra for the Oriental Arabic Music played on the album. The detail and work behind the album is original and interesting. On the whole this originality makes up for the sometimes strange and anti-pop tendencies of the tracks; this coming from someone who defined the pop genre in the 90's makes Plastic Beach even more of an oddity and rarity. Plastic Beach is avalible on EMI records.


www.gorillaz.com

Written by Ross Andrews