Plastic Beach (2010), the third studio album from animated quartet Gorillaz, began as a project called Carousel in 2007. Originally meant as a piece of work presented but not performed by Gorillaz, it debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 in its first week, and revealed a new sound for the band. Plastic Beach uses Krautrock, funk, dubstep, and more somber, melodic pieces as well as expected electronic, techno grooves. The numerous featured artists fit in seamlessly, giving the album a diverse and eclectic sound with transitions, various samples and cohesive musical styling. Although Plastic Beach has less alternative rap and hip-hop, trippy flows and the usual heated, funky enjoyment than Gorillaz (2001) and Demon Days (2005), it still earns its own merit within the featured artists and skillfully produced sound.

After a brief, swelling “Orchestral Intro” featuring sinfonia ViVA, Snoop Dogg introduces the album with the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble in “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach”. Electronic, tense beats coincide with Snoop’s languid, relaxed freestyles: “It’s like wonderland/ Now fascinate me, picture and animate me/ Cause I'm rollin’, deep holein', click clacking, crack-a-lacking, full packing, mo' stacking/ Acting a fool when I teach/ Welcome to the world of the Plastic Beach”.

The dissonant “White Flag” follows and features Bashy, Kano, and The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music. Notice: the album’s sixteen tracks possess four with only Gorillaz as the artists: the wonderfully funky, catchy “Rhinestone Eyes”, the chilled out and slightly glum “On Melancholy Hill”, “Broken”, a spacey, soothing track, and the impressive finale “Pirate Jet”.

I can almost promise that the infectious first single “Stylo”, featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack with his first recording in fifteen years, will have you walking around humming: “Love electricity/ Shockwave central” over and over in your head for days. Even fictional band member Murdoc describes it as “crack funk.”

A collaboration with artists Gruff Rhys and the usual De La Soul, “Superfast Jellyfish” glides consistently, using neat samples from a 1986 commercial for Swanson's TV Dinners. “Empire Ants” and the nicely understated “To Binge” features Little Dragon, an electronic band from Sweden. Less funky and eccentric, both have oceanic feel, prickly synths and delicate female vocals from Yukimi Nagano, surely wooed when Gorillaz member 2D serenades her in “To Binge”: “But I just have to tell you that I love you so much these days.”

A personal favorite, “Glitter Freeze” uses Mark E. Smith and seems purposefully placed as the electro-chaotic-techno-mess in the middle of the delicious Plastic Beach sandwich. “Some Kind of Nature” follows, with rock god Lou Reed slyly, but a little too deadpan, singing above a silky, golden beat. Mos Def then carries the quirky “Sweepstakes” with his cool, laid-back style, reportedly having recorded the entire track in one take. The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon feature on “Plastic Beach,” a track with dense synthesizers and tricked-out vocals.

“Cloud of Unknowing,” with Bobby Womack and sinfonia ViVA, thankfully does not close the album. Though Womack movingly croons: “Waiting to see what the morning brings/ May bring sunshine on its wings,” and a swelling orchestra skims under him gracefully, the track does nothing for Plastic Beach and further deviates from the funky, synthy sound that Gorillaz fans worship.

Plastic Beach shifts gears from track to track, creating an overall groovy, musically gifted and wonderfully produced sound. Although fans may be disappointed at the calmer, more soulful tracks and though it possesses no songs similar to the ground-breaking “Clint Eastwood” or “Feel Good Inc.,” Plastic Beach has its own story, flow and production.