10 Perfect Music Albums That Defined The 2010's

9. Plastic Beach - Gorillaz

Once the next decade got underway, Damon Albarn at least had some reason to celebrate. After the amazing success of Demon Days with Gorillaz, he seemed to permanently distance himself from his Britpop past and make something that was a lot more interesting than anyone was expecting at the time. As a creative though, now wasn't the time to kick back. Damon was looking to double down.

While Demon Days may have been a dissection of darkness, Plastic Beach was a much more thoughtful version of Gorillaz, with messages about the way that we are treating the planet. Although this sounds like the stuff that you would hear on a Captain Planet special, you would never doubt the music for a second, especially with the guest stars that are working on here. Much like Demon Days, every song on here feels like a different aspect of Damon's vision, like Rhinestone Eyes' trip hop style beat and Bitter Freeze's zany cartoon-like instrumentation.

This also might be some of the best features that any Gorillaz album has ever had, bringing back favorites like De La Soul while also finding ways to integrate people like Lou Reed on Some Kind of Nature and Bobby Womack's glorious belt on Stylo. Damon was already an artist of many faces, but after this album, something different was at play. We were looking at a mad genius that was letting loose in the studio.