9 years ago i wrote about a bunch of young gorillaz who had caught my ear, invaded my brain and were about to take over the u.s. with their animated look and otherworldly sound (the “gorillaz in our midst” real edge magazine feature is on the bottom of this post).

15 million albums sold later, it’s great to see that success has not gone to their cartoonish heads … because the gorillaz’ 3rd studio album “plastic beach” (out today) is their best yet.

listen to all of “plastic beach” here & say amen, y’all … “AMEN!”

as you know, jack johnson is undoubtedly my favorite musician, but it’s also safe to say that the gorillaz are my favorite 21st century band–with their ever-evolving-eclectic collabo of creative characters.

and one day, when u2 decides to pass the mantle on to the next greatest rock band on planet earth, bono’s gonna have to find out how to enter this virtual world where damon albarn & jamie hewlett existentially exist.

bbc’s mark beaumont writes: The Plastic Beach back story – colourful fluff about cyborg bassists, kidnapped singers and islands made of trash – might make you think the whole cartoon band conceit is wearing a bit thin. Listen, though, and it makes more sense than ever. Only behind such a distracting smokescreen could Damon Albarn get away with conducting a project as sprawling, daring, innovative, surprising, muddled and magnificent as Plastic Beach: not just one of the best records of 2010, but a release to stand alongside the greatest Albarn’s ever been involved with and a new benchmark for collaborative music as a whole.

prefix magazine’s craig jenkins writes: It becomes clear early on during Plastic Beach, the third album from Gorillaz, Albarn’s multimedia project with artist Jamie Hewlett and a veritable phalanx of in-demand producers, session musicians and collaborators, that the time that has elapsed between Plastic Beach and 2005’s Demon Days has been spent globetrotting and absorbing new influences. Plastic Beach takes the group’s trademark dance-pop sound and wraps it around the world, ensnaring a diverse cast of characters for an album filled to the brim with disparate but vibrant ideas. At times it feels like the underlying thesis of Plastic Beach is to foster as many unlikely musical pairings as possible. The album, then, has made for some strange bedfellows. Lead single “Stylo” pairs rapper Mos Def with legendary soul shouter Bobby Womack over robotic, Moroder-esque proto-disco. Elsewhere, U.K. grime darlings Bashy and Kano meet the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music on “White Flag,” which Ping-Pongs back and forth between lush Arabic music and glitchy 8-bit calypso. Opener “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” teams Snoop Dogg and his blunt-damaged, off-time delivery with the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble for a slab of woozy, futuristic electro-funk. Snoop hasn’t sounded this genuinely kooky in years. The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble returns later on for “Sweepstakes,” a busy polyrhythmic waltz that employs a scene-stealing army of multi-tracked rapping and singing Mos Defs for what Mos is calling the best thing he’s ever done as an MC. Albarn is really cooking with the whole spice rack this time.

rolling stone’s rob sheffield writes: Plastic Beach has a loose environmental theme, inspired by Albarn’s visit to a Mali landfill. The tropical island where the Gorillaz hang out is a “plastic beach” of industrial-waste products, so they recycle all the debris into shiny new toys. And that’s the musical plan as well, mixing up bric-a-brac from around the world. Albarn hasn’t totally given up his day job — Blur are back in the headlines after recent reunion shows. But Plastic Beach proves that he’s most truly himself when he turns into a cartoon.

here’s the orchestral trailer for “plastic beach” …

and here’s yet another stylin’ single that i cannot get outta my head …

Stylo (Feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack)

Gorillaz | MySpace Music Videos