Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Uncut“Some of the cameos disappoint...” For all its flaws, Plastic Beach is still a fascinating and frequently brilliant album. It displays a sonic ambition, an open-mindedness and a melodic gift that puts so much modern pop to shame...

allmusic“The overall album accentuates moody texture over pop hooks...” As Albarn grows as a composer, he’s a master of subtly shifting moods and intricately threaded allusions, often creating richly detailed collages that are miniature marvels...

Pitchfork“Ornate pop...” The one-time Blur frontman has transcended some of the post-modern artifice of this project, and created the group's most affecting and uniquely inviting album. Joke's over, Gorillaz are real...

Guardian“Kaleidoscopic musical ambition...” What is here does enough to underline the fact that Albarn is the only artist from the whole Britpop imbroglio to whom you could attach the word genius without causing widespread mocking laughter...

The Times“It’s a cartoon band creating music for tomorrow...” For all the guests, it remains a Gorillaz album. It whirrs and twitches and thumps like one, and beguiles and entertains with the same enjoyment as its predecessors, only refined, at times, to the point of perfection...

The Independent“A Tracy Island of the imagination...” Not that this is made too explicit on the album, which basically serves as another vessel from which to launch a series of guest vocal collaborations over Albarn's twitchy electro keyboard grooves...

MusicOMH“Ridiculously ambitious...” Its real strength lies in the fact that it implores you to return for repeated visits to a world riddled with other people's cast-offs. Ironically, it recycles nothing; everything here is box fresh...

Drowned In Sound“A supremely clever album...” They really have bothered to put rust stains under the windows of their new, Tracy Island, modernist house. And I really do want to stare out of them, with Noodle at my side...

The Telegraph“Like the Tao of 2010...” Albarn doesn’t steal, borrow or lazily recycle from other genres. He lovingly salvages the things they’ve left behind, like a hip, 21st century Womble...

Dusted Magazine“Not yet reviewed”