Bono once said about the difference between pop and rock: pop tells you that everything is all right and rock shows you what is still wrong and calls for revolution.
Well, if this definition applied to every kind of music, Plastic Beach might be called rock album. Or hard rock. New Damon Albarn's project criticizes consumerism and commercialism in the most intelligent way you could imagine - by becoming commercial and artificial itself. Under the trip-hop, modern beats and synths (Plastic Beach) one shall find libretto concerning microwave culture (Superfast Jellyfish), question of nature (Some Kind of Nature) or love in electric world (Stylo).
Musically it does not really have an immediate effect. But it grows. The production is perfect - being the fan of mostly guitar-based rock I feel delighted while listening to the fat beat of Stylo or the soothing synths of On Melancholy Hill. The latter being the poppiest fragment of the LP is scheduled to be the second single (after Stylo). I think that due to its catchiness Superfast Jellyfish will finally be the third 45' cut from the album.
Well, what amazes me here is not Albarn's creativity (we knew it long before) or the number and performance given by his guests. I really wasn't that much into pop music before. Now I have to admit that pop can be art and this album proves it. So what's the genre? Pop Art? Well, anyway I think that Andy Warhol would love Plastic Beach.
Track by track rating:
- Orchestral Intro 8/10 (scary - I feel like sitting on the iceberg waiting for the Titanic to show up and hit - well that actually means I am safe but anyway)
- Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach 7/10 (did'n know I like rap - decent track)
- White Flag 10/10 (a mash-up of the middle-east orchestra, rap and the beat - what more could one want?)
- Rhinestone Eyes 9/10 (really catchy with this classic lazy melody by Albarn and fantastic motiff from 0:53 on)
- Stylo 7/10 (first single - wasn't really fond of the track at first but somehow learned to appreciate it - what a feeling from Bob Womack over this infectious, fat beat!)
- Superfast Jellyfish 10/10 (Feel Good Inc. of this album - need I say more?)
- Empire Ants 10/10 (true art - first half dreamy and Albarny and the second half...! Well just experience that!)
- Glitter Freeze 7/10 (something like The National Anthem from Radiohead's Kid A - crazy, repetitive motiff made to remind you of danger - but I like it more here)
- Some Kind of Nature 8/10 (love the way the not really melodic parts of Lou Reed mash with highly melodic 2D)
- On Melancholy Hill 10/10 (pop masterpiece - so sad and longing but relieving at the same time - summer hit and much more)
- Broken 8/10 (Albarn at his best - unusual pop track with whistling sythesisers)
- Sweepstakes 4/10 (too much rap for me)
- Plastic Beach 8/10 (another true pop moment - brilliant electric piano arpeggios, melodic, catchy, lazy, singy)
- To Binge 7/10 (Hawaii! or Haiti - anyway appropriate soundtrack while laying on the beach and watching the sun going down)
- Cloud of Unknowing 10/10 (very moving singing from Bobby Womack over ghostly music - wow!)
- Pirate Jet 5/10 (lousy track relieving after brilliant previous song and lazy, sunny closer)
Paradoxically this album may not be truly appropriate for many pop listeners, but On Melancholy Hill, Empire Ants and some more may and should please them as well as snobbish art-rock listeners (like me, from time to time at least). The album stands more powerful as the whole concept than its parts.
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