- Audio CD (9 Mar 2010)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Virgin Records Us
- ASIN: B0035G9ABQ
- Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 754,325 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
75 of 77 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album fits together more elegantly than the previous Gorillaz albums. It plays like the smooth, laid-back soundtrack to a long lie in the sun (perhaps in the garden, or, if you have one to hand, on a beach). The slightly soporific/hypnotic spell is broken by the chaotic party music of Sweepstakes - but that track is a fun, intense ride.
Expect a slightly slower pace than Demon Days, and, instead of the latter album's mood of "help - the apocolypse is coming", a feel of "okay, here we are in a post-apocolyptic world, let's make the best of it". How you react to that message is up to you.
What's amazing about this music is that, even though it fits together so beautifully, there are so many different elements - western and arabic orchestral music, several flavours of rap (laid back, cheap & cheeky, intense & high), loose semi-improvised brass, dub, alternative rock, 70s and 80s electronica, comedy jingles, crooning, vocal harmonies, snippets that reminded me of Brian Eno, Jean Michel Jarre, David Bowie, Tangerine Dream, and many, many others, and that's before you even get to the various guest stars (Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, etc.) who each bring their own highly personal styles. The guests are fully integrated and feel completely authentic parts of the sound. There are moments that are sleepy, racy, romantic, funny, camp, cool, trippy, danceable, ghostly, nostalgic, futuristic.
This album has a chilled-out feel yet is packed with so much variety and so many overlapping layers of rhythm, sounds, intriguing words, and sweet counterpoint melodies that it will be very hard to get bored no matter how many times you listen.
Expect a slightly slower pace than Demon Days, and, instead of the latter album's mood of "help - the apocolypse is coming", a feel of "okay, here we are in a post-apocolyptic world, let's make the best of it". How you react to that message is up to you.
What's amazing about this music is that, even though it fits together so beautifully, there are so many different elements - western and arabic orchestral music, several flavours of rap (laid back, cheap & cheeky, intense & high), loose semi-improvised brass, dub, alternative rock, 70s and 80s electronica, comedy jingles, crooning, vocal harmonies, snippets that reminded me of Brian Eno, Jean Michel Jarre, David Bowie, Tangerine Dream, and many, many others, and that's before you even get to the various guest stars (Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, etc.) who each bring their own highly personal styles. The guests are fully integrated and feel completely authentic parts of the sound. There are moments that are sleepy, racy, romantic, funny, camp, cool, trippy, danceable, ghostly, nostalgic, futuristic.
This album has a chilled-out feel yet is packed with so much variety and so many overlapping layers of rhythm, sounds, intriguing words, and sweet counterpoint melodies that it will be very hard to get bored no matter how many times you listen.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I pre-ordered this album after having a quick listen to the samples and liking them. I loved their previous album 'Demon Days', and so was really looking forward the long awaited next album from Gorillaz. And I have to say that I haven't been dissapointed. This album is more chilled out in a way, with a lot more orchestral tunes, almost hypnotic at times. But this does not make it any less of an achievment for them. Infact I really like it, it's different, but at the same time doesn't seem to vear away from the usual stuff we are all familliar with with the Gorillaz gang. I love this album, it's something different from them. I'm just glad it came so quick!
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Plastic Beach is the long-awaiting follow-up to the Gorillaz' 2005 album Demon Days and (for me, at least) is the first 'must buy' album of 2010 and is definitely going to be the soundtrack to my summer.
The tracks are a bit of a mixed bag, ranging from their usual indie/hip-hop crossover on tracks like "Sweepstakes" (with guest vocals from the awesome Mos Def) and "Superfast Jellyfish" (which is my favourite track from the whole album, making me realise how much I actually miss the light-hearted and upbeat raps from the timeless greats, De La Soul) to more darker, yet surprisingly mellow tunes such as "On Melancholy Hill" and "Glitter Freeze". The constant shift in styles is most welcome though as it offers a wide variety of concept sounds, some which are so abstract that they did actually take a few listens to before I actually even began to like them.
This is a great album, not one that I'd say will hit you with an instant favourite straight away but is most rewarding after a few listens. The sound is completely new from their previous albums but is excellent all the same. Highly recommended.
The tracks are a bit of a mixed bag, ranging from their usual indie/hip-hop crossover on tracks like "Sweepstakes" (with guest vocals from the awesome Mos Def) and "Superfast Jellyfish" (which is my favourite track from the whole album, making me realise how much I actually miss the light-hearted and upbeat raps from the timeless greats, De La Soul) to more darker, yet surprisingly mellow tunes such as "On Melancholy Hill" and "Glitter Freeze". The constant shift in styles is most welcome though as it offers a wide variety of concept sounds, some which are so abstract that they did actually take a few listens to before I actually even began to like them.
This is a great album, not one that I'd say will hit you with an instant favourite straight away but is most rewarding after a few listens. The sound is completely new from their previous albums but is excellent all the same. Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Plastic Beach
very good, arrived on time, excellent pricing. I found the quality of the product to be of the best standard and I am very pleased with it.
Published 5 months ago by Megan
That difficult third album?
The Gorillaz project has always been at the outer reaches of my taste (in the rap direction), but I would say I consider the first two albums to be very good with some truly great... Read more
Published 6 months ago by M. Saxby
omg
great album, very much Gorillaz with something a bit different.Can listen to it again & again, puts a smile on my face.
Published 8 months ago by wonderland
some kind of album
Great mix of songs first "gorillaz" album i received. Some kind of nature a perfectly written song with not only with soul, but a sense of nature aswell. Read more
Published 9 months ago by gene simmons
brilliant clever varied BUY IT.
This is a stunning collection of tunes. Involving and very well engineered into a masterpiece of an album. Read more
Published 12 months ago by JrF
Damon over-reached himself
Acquired this on the back of enjoying Demon Days. It's not as good, don't know what happened but maybe DA gave the guests too long a leash rendering things too disparate overall. Read more
Published 13 months ago by boulevardier
Brilliant
There may be one or two songs on the album that make you want to buy it, but i can recommend to anyone that they listen to the album twice, and they will be in love with it. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Matt Drummond
Continuing in a similar vein....
Loved the first album, read good reviews about this one so had to get it. Not at all disappointed. Slighly different than expected initially but the tracks are catchy and I just... Read more
Published 15 months ago by G1089
Brilliant album - highly recommended.
Damon Albarn and the Gorillaz do not disappoint with Plastic Beach. Every song oozes something different and takes the listener on an intense wacky journey into the world of the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by M. P. Cooper
The songs grow on you, buy it!
When I first heard the songs, apart from the chart hits, I wasn't very impressed however after listening to them a few times most of them grew on me and it is one of my favourite... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Emelle
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