PARLOPHONE RECORDS, VIRGIN RECORDS

By Anthony Benigno

Three albums into their career and a lot of people still aren’t sure what exactly Gorillaz are. They should just be the guys who wrote “Feel Good, Inc.”…but they’re cartoons and therefore can’t really write anything. It’s possible that they’re just Damon Albarn’s pipe dream-version of a side project, but they’re getting to be really good songwriters and musicians, so it’d be stupid to write them off that quickly. The only other possibility is that they are actual gorillas, but that’s a stretch.

Whatever they are, Albarn’s Gorillaz are still going strong nine years into the proceedings. Their third album, Plastic Beach, is, much like their previous two (Gorillaz in 2001 and Demon Days in 2005), a crazy-ass hodgepodge of musical styles that sometimes soars, sometimes sinks, but is, for better or worse, unlike anything else out there.

The boys are starting to get some clout, too, judging by the amount of guest stars on the record. Mos Def and Bobby Womack (whoa!) elevate the oddball single “Stylo” to greatness, and Snoop Dogg delivers a dizzying rhyme on “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach.” Even Mick Jones from the Clash stops by on the title track.

Sometimes the whirlwind of synths and strings and Lord knows what else does get tiring, and at 16 tracks, Plastic Beach could have benefitted from some editing. In fact, there’s some kind of enviro-friendly parable/concept album in here somewhere, but good luck deciphering the whole thing through the layers and layers of effects.

But the band is at its best when they turn things down. The breeziest, saddest and possibly the best track on the album is “On Melancholy Hill,” a lonely little heartbreak ditty with distorted vocals and a sparse, boppy synth line. As Albarn (or 2D, or Murdoc, or whoever) sings “well you can’t get what you want, but you can get me”, it’s a sentiment that every lonely heart romantic can relate to.

Those Gorillaz! They’re just like us after all.