Welcome back.
Last time I wrote about the Gorillaz I barely had started doing this. Here I am, 5 months later with a bit of content under my belt. I had written, then, about their latest release, the experimental and conceptual project 'The Fall'. Really, though, all their work is experimental - it just depends how much so and in what context. I certainly did enjoy The Fall, although now with a bit of hindsight it feels spare, a bit thin in some spots. I realize this because conversely I have recently been listening to their last proper album before this, the sprawling and highly produced 'Plastic Beach'. Obviously tastes change with time, and in the months since the release of The Fall I've fallen out of love with it and back into the arms of Plastic Beach. Let's look at why that is, shall we?
As stated previously, the two albums are as far apart as can be, despite initial appearances. One stands more as an manifestation of curiosity and potential, as though Damon Albarn was asking himself "Can I do this?" while the other is a grand concept, so large and plotted out that it becomes something else, entirely, and example of creating art out of music. Along these lines, look at how the respective results play to our ears - The Fall, being entirely produced on an iPad, is fairly thin, almost deficient album by Gorillaz' standards. Plastic Beach, with its countless hours of recording, production and multiple cut tracks, is the most ambitious and grand thing they've done aside from a live tour. Albarn has even acknowledged how what was originally a small scale concept/art band has slowly grown and progressed into an entire collective of artists and musicians who all contribute in a unique but integral way. Fall is minimal, Beach is grandiose.
Regarding Plastic Beach's theme, I am absolutely enthralled with it. I can easily see how the realization of how plastic is becoming intertwined with the environment would be an affecting, long-scale concept. Albarn remarked that he had seen the way different cultures interpreted finding plastic in their beaches and landfills and who disposed of it and who reconstituted it, and the idea really impressed upon him. Honestly the idea is both fascinating and appalling, especially if you've seen any images of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive, growing wad of trash in the ocean that is a horrible accumulation of our un-recycled detritus. The images, let alone the concept, make my mind reel with the implications of our impact on the world. Albarn, however, had a more...skewed perspective. His take on it was that the plastic came from the earth and will therefore, one day, return to it or become integrated into the ecosystem. In a way he's right, but the fact that its disturbing the system so significantly shouldn't be ignored.
But I digress. I'm not going to lecture, but rather encourage - look into what the Garbage Patch is, and then listen to this album. Like I said, 'The Fall' is a sleek, stripped down affair, while 'Plastic Beach' is complex and dynamic. It's a grand, sprawling affair. Check out the intro/trailer for the album here. There was a series of short clips someone stitched together to make a longer form of the conceptual meta-narrative here and here. Combining the viral clips and official videos for singles, it makes a more cohesive story to the album, illustrating just how dense this project has become. The sound of the album is a bit colder and even more stylish than they normally do, but it works with the theme. The electric funk of 'Stylo', the 80s pop of 'On Melancholy Hill' or the cold bounce of 'Rhinestone Eyes' - they all sound great and are just enough of a growth of style that the album feels like a new push. Hell, just look at the list of guest musicians on this huge concept album - Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, De La Soul and Mick Jones of The Clash, just to name a few.
It's funny how the passing of time can shape tastes. When it first came out I wasn't really sold on Plastic Beach. When The Fall came out I was enamored with the robotic persona of it, which I now know is really the sole voice of Damon Albarn working without his armada of colleagues. The complex and intricately designed Plastic Beach really has grown on me as I've had time to unpack the listening experience. Give it a whirl if you haven't already, I think you'll be as intrigued as I was.
Last time I wrote about the Gorillaz I barely had started doing this. Here I am, 5 months later with a bit of content under my belt. I had written, then, about their latest release, the experimental and conceptual project 'The Fall'. Really, though, all their work is experimental - it just depends how much so and in what context. I certainly did enjoy The Fall, although now with a bit of hindsight it feels spare, a bit thin in some spots. I realize this because conversely I have recently been listening to their last proper album before this, the sprawling and highly produced 'Plastic Beach'. Obviously tastes change with time, and in the months since the release of The Fall I've fallen out of love with it and back into the arms of Plastic Beach. Let's look at why that is, shall we?
