Plastic Beach

Where Gorillaz and Demon Days often got bogged down in idle experimentation, Plastic Beach feels more urgent and less fiddly.

The most successful track is "Stylo", a Kraftwerkian electro-twitch on which the efforts of Albarn, Mos Def and the Bobby Womack impress.

One might think the project would crumble under its own weight, but after a few listens it melds into a consistent parcel of didactic, retro/futuristic synth-pop ... It shouldn’t work, but it really does.

Albarn doesn’t give us a “Clint Eastwood” or a “Dare” this time around, but in spite of a messy and patently artificial conceptual framework, Plastic Beach feels clean, shiny, and new.

There’s no overwhelming track to break the flow of the album, Plastic Beach rolls along at an almost soothing pace and all the tracks on offer serve only to compliment each other.

Like its name, Plastic Beach has a sharp tang of cognitive dissonance — its songs sound like dispatches from a crew of hip-kid astronauts, unmoored in some space-dust ether ... In the end, Beach offers a vision of the future as digitized kitsch: groovy, yes, but lonely too.

Fortunately, Plastic Beach‘s weaknesses are few and far between. Overall, while the album isn’t an artistic triumph or grand satirical gesture, it is an enjoyable ride and is the best place to start if you just want a taste of Albarn’s post-Blur musical prowess and Hewlett’s animation wizardry.

We might not be sure who or what they are any more but we're sure about the tunes.

Complaints regarding Plastic Beach are minor, particularly considering its astounding ambitions. While not flawless in execution like Demon Days, Gorillaz’ third effort is, nonetheless, brilliant much more often than not.

Of the sixteen tracks at least seven are filler and with repeat performances, ‘Plastic Beach’ does feel a tad recycled towards the end; more Blackpool than Hawaii, it’s still an album full of brilliance from a bona fide British genius.

Plastic Beach, Gorillaz's third excellent album in a row, is all Albarn — he writes the tunes, produces, sings, plays most of the music and gets people on the phone for left-field cameos.

Albarn just about pulls all of his ideas off on Plastic Beach, which is more than clever; it's impressive.

while very nice and, indeed, wonderful in places, Plastic Beach doesn’t quite keep us full either.

The music that wraps around the concept is never boring and much of it is excellent ... What's lacking is the nailed-on megatune--a "Clint Eastwood" or "Feel Good Inc"--that we've come to expect from a Gorillaz album.

Gorillaz' third album Plastic Beach is reminiscent because its impressive and wide-ranging cast list ... has gathered to grumble about consumption and pollution issues, and because the variety of guests has forced Damon Albarn into some dizzyingly eclectic styles.

The results are as weird, wonderful and frustrating as Gorillaz have ever been. There's some kind of vague eco-concept going on but it's so woolly as to be meaningless and while its running time is just 59 minutes, there's still too much filler padding out the final third.