Gorillaz
Plastic Beach
Play Plastic Beach
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MOG Editorial Review
Much like the cartoon representation of the band, Plastic Beach is a sprawling journey that unfolds as colorfully as an action-packed comic book. Like Demon Days, Damon Albarn has rounded up a stacked list of guest appearances making it a collaborative experiment in packed song arrangements. One minute it’s all elaborate horns and strings for UK emcees Kano and Bashy to rap over (“White Flag”), the next it’s an after-hours disco ride with Bobby Womack’s howl complemented by Mos Def’s fuzzed-out rhymes (“Stylo”). Gorillaz intended to make it a full-blown pop album and with the sweetly sung “On Melancholy Hill” it’s obvious they’ve hit their target when they still stick to it. Elsewhere, guests Lou Reed and Mark E. Smith make notable appearances that reinforce the increasingly dynamic Gorillaz discography.
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AMG Review of Plastic Beach
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music GuideDelivered five years after the delicate whimsical melancholy of Demon Days, Gorillaz's Plastic Beach is an explicit sequel to its predecessor, picking up in the dystopian future where the last album left off, its music offering a grand expansion of Demon Days, spinning off its cameo-crammed blueprint. A common thread among these tracks is they find Damon Albarn ceding the spotlight to his fellow musicians, preferring to be the puppetmaster behind the curtain, and Plastic Beach works best when he's finding hidden strengths within his guests. The album accentuates moody texture over pop hooks, and Plastic Beach is the first Gorillaz album to play like a cartoon soundtrack -- which isn't a bad thing, because as Albarn grows as a composer, he crafts richly detailed collages that are miniature marvels.
 "Plastic Beach")
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