Damon Albarn could have done two things when his reign as the King of Indie Music ended with Blur dissolving amidst creative differences and Graham Coxon’s alcoholism. He could have matured and followed in the footsteps of great artists such as David Bowie, bringing out clever and well received albums for the next twenty years or so. Or he could have become the Peter Pan of the popular music realm and dreamt up a virtual band that runs around the world kidnapping journalists and selling arms to third world dictators in order to raise money to make albums. He chose to do the latter.
Gorillaz is a band made up of four animated characters drawn by Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett. There is Murdoc Niccals on bass guitar, Noodle on guitar and vocals, Russel Hobbs on drums and percussion and my personal favourite, 2D on lead vocals and keyboards. They are officially the most successful virtual band ever (which is not hard considering they are competing with Crazy Frog) and have sold over 15 million copies of their first two albums Gorillaz (2001) and Demon Days (2005). They are most famous for the genre-defying hits such as “Clint Eastwood”, “19-2000”, “Dirty Harry”, “Feel Good Inc” and “Dare” and they return in 2010 with their third studio album, Plastic Beach. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are pretty much the only constants in the Gorillaz line up but the cast of collaborating artists is impressive once again and includes great names such as Mos Def and Bobby Womack.
The album begins with the instrumental “Orchestral Intro” and you hear the sounds of waves and seagulls as you head out to sea. You’re met on the Plastic Beach by none other than Snoop Dogg as he tells you about how pollution in the ocean has created the island in “Welcome to the Plastic Beach”. This is a laid back song with a classy vibe. Grime rappers Bashy and Kano, and The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music are up next as the tempo picks up for “White Flag” and Albarn’s increasing interest in African and Arabic music shows through. This is the first of my favourite songs on the album, the type that you’re inclined to play over and again on repeat. Hip-hop is not my genre of choice but the beats in all of the songs so far are enough to enable this album to cross genres and appeal to a wide audience.
Article comments
1 - Virginia
what I like most about them is that their voices are very cool especially behind the cartoon animation. I like their style.