Released 8th March
EMI

Albarn’s cartoon band get in the swing

On the face of it a vast eclectic trawl through the history of electro pop music featuring more special guests that you can shake a banana at, but scratch the surface and there is a serious ecological theme going on here. A concept album, set in a world where most things are made from plastic, there are not so subtle digs at the likes of pollution, greed, convenience foods and experiments with nature. Overall the message seems to be this is what our world will ultimately be like if we don’t hear the many warnings given out. But enough of the politics there are some great tunes on the album, mostly pretty laid back and chilled out a canvas is created for the likes of Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg and Bobby Womack to do their stuff. With 16 tracks and an hour of so run time there is a lot to take in but rather than being a disjointed affair the choice of musical guests provides a smooth link between tracks. The handful of tracks recorded simply by the ‘Gorillaz’ are high quality too. Only the Mark E Smith collaboration ‘Glitter Freeze’ fails due to a lack of a memorable rant from the Fall leader, just uttering a couple of lines makes the track feel more like an instrumental. Overall though its a bit of a masterpiece, the best Gorillaz album yet and even at this stage a contender for album of the year. What will be intriguing though is how they handle any live shows. 12/13

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