In their ongoing "Exclusive First Listen" series, NPR has debuted the new album Plastic Beach by Gorillaz. You can listen to the entire album for free all week before the release: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124114812
After listening (three times now), I am completely enamored with the latest work by the collaborative animated group (drawn by cartoon genius Jamie Hewlett). The 57 minute album has a group of extremely diverse and talented contributors, including Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, Mos Def, Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys, Little Dragon, The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music, and many more, all led under the pop genius of Blur frontman Damon Albarn.
Plastic Beach is fresh--filled with exciting hip hop, unexpected beats, funky electro-pop, sweeping orchestral melodies, and a damn catchy flavor that makes you want to dance. Sounds fun, right? Well it is. And what's even cooler is that through the dance club bubbly joy, Albarn's intended slightly darker motif comes across. Between the synths, drum machines, flutes, strings, and Asian/Arabic instruments, Plastic Beach gives an impression of a synthetic, hollow world where factories and corporations rule and all we know is plastic.
Listen now.
