The mash-up genre had been around for quite a while before Danger Mouse put out The Grey Album in 2004, but it’s arguably the album to put the style on the map. He took the notion of blending two completely different bands and made it last for an entire album’s length, and though a lot of its popularity stemmed from the controversy with EMI entertainment, it was an incredibly well done, as Danger Mouse himself put it, “art project.” The same idea is present with the relatively unknown Wait What, who had his own great idea in combining the xx’s invitingly dark yet dreamy debut, with the hard hitting, streetwise raps of the Notorious B.I.G.

The cover of Biggie Smalls' sex tape

It’s a tad surprising how well equipped some of the xx’s music is to be rapped over, something which is made evident immediately with Dead Wrong (Intro). Christopher Wallace’s voice jumps right in as the drums kick up, and despite the hazy, melancholic beat it almost sounds uptempo. Basic Hypnosis blends the quirky percussion and hook of Basic Space with the confident, carefree flow of Hypnotize for an odd yet perky listen, which again, despite the melancholic backdrop almost sounds fun. There are of course, some downright harrowing moments on The Notorious xx as well. Suicidal Fantasy brings some of Wallace’s darkest and most personal rhymes to the forefront, while Everyday Shelter sharpens his story of frustration with a life of dealing, both accomplished by pairing him with a wavering guitar hook and scant keyboards.

The biggest downfall of the Notorious xx is, unsurprisingly, that it’s a typical mash-up album armed with little more than an inspired idea. Where Danger Mouse’s Grey Album was loaded with different ideas on how to manipulate the Beatles’ songs into beats, here the beats follow a simple formula on each track that gets repetitive very quickly: intro, loop, maybe a chorus with a vocal, and end. On multiple listens, the songs still sound good, but they lose their replay value somewhat quickly. One of two moments where DJ Wait What really deviates from his blueprint is near the end of The Curious Incident of Big Poppa in the Nighttime, in which Romy Madley Croft’s vocals are slightly chopped up. The other is in One More Chance for a Heart to Skip a Beat‘s chorus, which almost sounds like banter between Croft and Wallace. However, their trade-off simultaneously shows the technical zenith and conceptual nadir of the album, as it feels more (perhaps intentionally) funny than atmospheric; it’s basically Croft responding to Smalls’ ode to his penis in a fashion that may as well be “hmmm… well, he do got that good dick.”

The xx and the Notorious B.I.G. do end up sounding far better matched than one might think, even to the point of seeming obvious before the fact. The intimate and atmospheric music of the group really underlines a lot of Wallace’s more personal and sensitive lyrics, resulting in a truly beautiful and unique listen. DJ Wait What doesn’t offer much more creativity past the initial idea, however, and while The Notorious xx is definitely worth hearing, even if only for novelty’s sake, it doesn’t hold up for very long.

Gorillaz is a band that has become known for delivering the unexpected and mapping out the uncharted. The third album from the Damon Albarn/Jamie Hewlett brainchild, Plastic Beach, has its moments, but does not really live up to the expectations that have no doubt been amassing in the five years since their sophomore album, Demon Days.

The Dali-esque beach Gorillaz find themselves stranded on

The album opens with the bluntly titled “Orchestral Intro,” a one minute opera-like symphony without words that misleads the listener into thinking this could be the tone for the rest of the beach-themed narrative. But no, the neo-operatic sounds of 2D, Noodle, Russel, and Murdoc are quickly counteracted by the bass line of track two, “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach,” which is rich with the under appreciated baritone sound of Snoop Dogg’s lush voice. And yes, I realize I’ve described Snoop Dogg’s vocal stylings with the same reverence usually given to Pavarotti, but you have to admit Snoop has the same croonishly soothing voice of a howling bloodhound. The album then takes a swift turn for the worst on track three, “White Flag,” a conglomeration of sounds that really shouldn’t even have made the cut. Yes Damon, you like non-white influences, you’ve renounced your faith in Britpop, we get it. That don’t mean you gotta punish us with “White Flag.”

2D: One of Damon Albarn's possibly numerous alter egos

“Rhinestone Eyes” has some of the album’s more standout lyrics, but without the accompanying beats to make it a favorite, a gross oversight when you’ve got poetic verses like: “Your rhinestone eyes are like factories far away/Where the paralytic dreams that we all seem to keep/Drive on engines till they weep.” Following “Rhinestone Eyes” is the anthemic “Stylo,” the video of which is vaguely reminiscent of “Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and includes a reaction to the sound of a police siren that I’m sure we all wish we could carry out. As for the Bruce Willis cameo, all I can say is, if it’s not Christopher Walken, don’t even bother with the presence of a celeb.

Damon + Jamie = Gorillaz

The tracks that come after “Stylo” and before “On Melancholy Hill” are, to put it as euphemistically as possible, something you could find on an album being distributed (a.k.a. thrust into your face with malice and overtones of resentment) by the various aspiring hip hop artists begging for money outside of Mann’s Chinese Theater. However, if you can make it though that interim period to “On Melancholy Hill,” it is well worth the wait. The song is among Gorillaz’s best work and far overshadows the anticlimactic “Plastic Beach” featuring Lou Reed that precedes it.

Gorillaz: So innovative, even Madonna had to take notice by duetting with them at the 2006 Grammy Awards

“Broken” is also another track of high interest, the common denominator (excuse the math analogy, I can’t fucking stand it when people use them, but it was necessary in this case) on this, one of the precious few songs that can be deemed “brilliant,” being that Albarn’s vocals are prevalent. And I suppose that leads me to my primary conclusion about Plastic Beach: More Damon, less B-rate rap suffusions (Snoop and Mos Def excluded).