Planet of the environmentally conscious apes

For the first several weeks this year, it seemed as if James Cameron’s Avatar had gotten the final word: For the first time in a long time, artistic works were being released that had nothing to do with how we treat planet Earth. Perhaps the shock of a new decade made the artistic populace suddenly ready to move on and complain about something else.

But as the Rolling Stones wisely said, you can’t always get what you want. Today, musical maestro Damon Albarn of virtual band Gorillaz brings listeners Plastic Beach, an album about the world’s new human-influenced ecology. The third full-length record by the cartoon band, who are about as real as Cameron’s Na’vi, may be dripping in pop greatness, but its subject matter is decidedly dry.

“Some Kind of Nature,” which features spoken word verses by Lou Reed, sits at the center of the album as a constant reminder of why Plastic Beach exists, which is to comment on how humans have changed nature. Conversely, it doesn’t do the album justice, either musically or lyrically.

The album’s greatest achievement is its use of more than 15 guest musicians, many of whom appear on multiple tracks. Everyone from the inscrutable Snoop Dogg to The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music make an appearance, bringing many of the tracks to life.

First single “Stylo” is a perfect example of the power of these guest performances. The track features both rapper Mos Def and singer Bobby Womack, who belts out his best gutbucket soul scream for the chorus. The song will probably never be as popular as the nearly ubiquitous “Feel Good Inc.” from the band’s Demon Days album, but after just a few listens, the track reveals itself to be a dark, memorable groove.

“Stylo” easily illustrates the album’s biggest failing, which is its lack of standout singles. On their two previous albums, Gorillaz had hit songs that went to the Billboard Top 10 in multiple countries. Neither “Stylo” nor other planned singles “Superfast Jellyfish” and “On Melancholy Hill” have melodies with the potential to truly catch listeners’ ears in the way that previous songs did.

“Superfast Jellyfish” is a fun song that seems to be about eating cereal, and though its chorus is catchy, it can become very annoying by the end of its three minutes. “On Melancholy Hill” is just generally uninteresting, an homage to 1980s synth pop that finds neither a solid footing nor an attention-grabbing moment.

Aside from a few missteps, however, Albarn still forms inherently catchy melodies, but he has switched up the formula he used on earlier albums. Whereas on previous albums he separated Gorillaz experimentation from the pop numbers, here Albarn has mixed everything together and left no tracks made for the radio.

“Empire Ants” is a beautiful crescendo, beginning with soft acoustic guitar padded by sound effects before exploding into a thick, bass-heavy synthesizer jam. This track evolves into “Glitter Freeze,” one of the only instrumental tracks on the album. The song has a solid dance beat, accentuated by strange vocal samples from frontman of The Fall, Mark E. Smith.

The album is chock full of these bizarre moments, but then again, it wouldn’t be a Gorillaz album without them. The Mos Def-dominated “Sweepstakes” is a brooding polyrhythmic swell of live drums, electronic blips and sampled horns. At first, the track doesn’t work and everything seems a bit off, but as the song builds, its decidedly violent mood could lead to much foot stomping as listeners shout along.

Albarn’s solo compositions are equally as interesting, such as on “Rhinestone Eyes,” where his voice wavers back and forth between rap and singing until the funky chorus of sampled female singers takes over. The song utilizes the hip-hop rhythms often associated with Gorillaz music, though Plastic Beach has less of a hip-hop influence than any of the previous albums. Albarn is trying a lot of new sounds on this album and forgetting a few of the older ones that made Gorillaz popular in the first place.

Plastic Beach has much to offer people who won’t mind a few listens before they make their decisions about the new album. With each consecutive listen, the songs unfold layer after layer of sounds and ideas. However, the environmentalist-focused lyrics may become irritating to those who listen too closely.

So, the cartoon heroes are back, and like Avatar  at Sunday night’s Academy Awards, Plastic Beach may not be the best of the year, but it’s certainly a work to remember.

RATING: 3.5 stars out of 5

diversions@umdbk.com