The Music Elitist

Big update here. A bunch of “Plastic Beach” news has just surfaced.

According to the press release, the album will be released on March 9th, 2010. The press release also said: “The band have taken up residence, recording on a secret floating island deep in the South Pacific, a Plastic Beach HQ, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet.”

I’m excited about the theatrics and the insane list of performers collaborating on the album: Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Lou Reed, Barry Gibb, De La Soul, Mark E. Smith from the Fall, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, and Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash.

This is exciting news for Gorillaz fans. Here’s the tracklist in full.

01 Orchestral Intro (ft. Sinfonia ViVA)
02 Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach (ft. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
03 White Flag (ft. Kano, Bashy, and the National Orchestra for Arabic Music)
04 Rhinestone Eyes
05 Stylo (ft. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
06 Superfast Jellyfish (ft. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
07 Empire Ants (ft. Little Dragon)
08 Glitter Freeze (ft. Mark E Smith)
09 Some Kind Of Nature (ft. Lou Reed)
10 On Melancholy Hill
11 Broken
12 Sweepstakes (ft. Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13 Plastic Beach (ft. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
14 To Binge (ft. Little Dragon)
15 Cloud of Unknowing (ft. Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA)
16 Pirate Jet

Gorillaz fans will be thrilled. Yesterday it was announced they would be headlining Coachella 2010 and today their first single from their upcoming album “Plastic Beach” was leaked onto the internet.

The song is called “Stylo” and after about three listens I’m officially hooked. The song features Bobby Womack, Mos Def and of course Damon Albarn haunting voice. Parlophone president Miles Leonard described the song as “a dark, twisted track that sounds like the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ soundtrack on MDMA.”

I gotta hand it to Gorillaz, they never fail to impress me with their constantly changing musical direction. I’m especially looking forward to this album because I think the visual side of it will be the best yet, especially if this still stands.

Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz and Tank Girl artist said this about the album last year, “I’ve done a lot of visuals and Damon’s done a lot of music but we haven’t figured out how they’re going to fit together. I can’t say much about it yet but it’s sort of like a film, but not with one narrative story. There’s many stories, told around a bigger story, set to music, and done in live action, animation, all different styles, well … originally it was a film but now we think it’s a film and it’s a stage thing as well and… look, it’s basically us doing what the fuck we want without worrying about whether it’s for a record company or a film company or whatever. So I’m not sure how it’ll pan out, or even if it will happen. But Damon’s written around 70 songs for it, and I’ve got great plans for the visuals, but right now, at this moment, it’s still just a really good idea.” Check out the Gorillaz Website to get a few teasers of the visuals we’re to expect.

And for the patient ones, here’s the song!

STYLO