Plastic Beach

Plastic Beach is the third studio album by English virtual band Gorillaz, released 3 March 2010 on Parlophone and Virgin Records. Conceived from an unfinished Gorillaz project called Carousel, the album was recorded during June 2008 to November 2009 and produced primarily by group co-creator Damon Albarn. It features guest appearances by several artists, including Snoop Dogg, Gruff Rhys, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Lou Reed, Mick Jones, and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Primarily a pop album, Plastic Beach contains lyrics concerning consumerism and ecology-related themes.

The album has produced three singles, “Stylo”, “Superfast Jellyfish”, and “On Melancholy Hill”.

Creators of Gorillaz, musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, began working on a new Gorillaz project in November 2007 called Carousel, which evolved into Plastic Beach, the group’s third studio album. In the November 2007 issue of Q, when asked what his top priority for 2008 was, Damon Albarn replied “Well, I’m doing the next Gorillaz thing, but it won’t be called Gorillaz.” In the February 2008 Gorillaz-Unofficial interview, Jamie Hewlett elaborated on this, saying “I think the idea behind it is that it’s like how The Who presented their movies – Tommy and Quadrophenia and so on. Those were presented as by ‘The Who’ even though none of the members of the band were in the movies. I don’t think anyone from The Who was in Quadrophenia. But it’s the same people working on it, that’s the principle.” In a July 2008 interview with The Observer he also said, “Gorillaz now to us is not like four animated characters any more — it’s more like an organisation of people doing new projects.