Gorillaz ‘Plastic Beach’ Preview Is Beautiful, Vague

Becky Bain | February 3, 2010 3:37 pm

Gorillaz, the band whose members would prefer to hide behind cartoon apes instead of showing their faces, still move in mysterious ways: they’ve released a mystical, computer-animated preview video to promote their upcoming album Plastic Beach. In typical Gorillaz fashion, it drives us bananas by raising more questions than it answers. Take the jump to tour Gorillaz’s lush animated seascape, set against a wistful orchestral track, while you scratch your heads considering what it all could mean.

Gorillaz – Plastic Beach Orchestral Trailer

The instrumental track is quite different from the electro-synth “Stylo” which recently surfaced. So are we in for a genre-bouncing album? And how exactly is the serene, tension-building video devoid of any people or characters or action connected to their album (besides, well, taking place on a sort of beach)? We’ll (hopefully) find out March 8 when the album drops.

Gorillaz’s fictional bassist Murdoc Niccals “hacked” into AOL Radio’s top alternative station and previewed some of Plastic Beach‘s tracks, but (naturally) kept hush-hush on guest appearances and song titles. Listen to the full session at Spinner, or read the full transcript here.

Although Murdoc kept coy, Stereogum has the Plastic Beach‘s track list, so take a look in case you want to get your theories ready based on the song titles alone:

1 “Orchestral Intro” (Feat. sinfonia ViVA) 2 “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” (Feat. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble) 3 “White Flag” (Feat. Kano, Bashy and The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music) 4 “Rhinestone Eyes” 5 “Stylo” (Feat. Bobby Womack and Mos Def) 6 “Superfast Jellyfish” (Feat. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul) 7 “Empire Ants” (Feat. Little Dragon) 8 “Glitter Freeze” (Feat. Mark E. Smith) 9 “Some Kind of Nature” (Feat. Lou Reed) 10 “On Melancholy Hill” 11 “Broken” 12 “Sweepstakes” (Feat. Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble) 13 “Plastic Beach” (Feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon) 14 “To Binge” (Feat. Little Dragon) 15 “Cloud of Unknowing” (Feat. Bobby Womack and sinfonia ViVA) 16 “Pirate Jet” 17 “Pirate’s Progress” (Japanese Bonus Track and non-Japanese Deluxe Edition Bonus Track) 18 “Three Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons” (Deluxe Edition Bonus Track)

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