Albarn’s Gorillaz: a side project that’s actually good

The release of Plastic Beach, the new album by Damon Albarn's cartoon band Gorillaz, is a grim reminder that side projects have been something of a curse to the discerning music fan in recent years. As soon as a band has made their name and built a following they temporarily go their separate ways and hatch some new short-lived supergroup.

In the case of Arctic Monkeys this led to the colossally overrated The Last Shadow Puppets; for The Strokes it means every member of the band has released a solo album (each sounding like a cheap knock-off of their mother band); while for Jack White of The White Stripes it has entailed a series of attempts to demonstrate how many mates he has.

Out of loyalty, fans pretend to like these bands' jamming sessions, but ask anyone interested in the life and times of Dave Grohl what they'd prefer - another album by Them Crooked Vultures (his project with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones) or the return of The Foo Fighters?

I have nothing against artists stretching their creative wings but the brutal truth is that most of these projects result in inferior music - a waste of time that would be better used to concentrate on what made the band famous in the first place.

There is an exception, though, and it's serial side-project man Damon Albarn. From The Good, The Bad & The Queen to the opera Monkey: Journey To The West  to cartoon band Gorillaz, who release their third album Plastic Beach on Monday, there is no way Albarn's imagination could have been allowed to grow in Blur, the band he left behind in 2003.

Blur played a short series of reunion shows to much uncritical acclaim last summer. But I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed by the exercise. Compared to where Albarn has gone since they seemed a very one dimensional proposition. It all felt like a sellout, a reunion to appease the accountants and the nostalgic demands of thirtysomethings whose taste had got stuck in 1997.

Plastic Beach is not the greatest album of all time, although it is already being hyped as the album of the year, but it is a lot of fun. Like so few albums, especially those by regular indie bands, hearing the songs for the first time is a bit of a trip - it's so full of ideas and styles and twists bursting for your attention.

Part of the reason for that is the cavalcade of guest vocalists (Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, Bobby Womack, Snoop Dogg, Gruff Rhys) but it's also because it's playful and there's a sense of artistic freedom.

Albarn's real genius goes beyond his musical magic: it's also in his ability to rein all the mess of creativity together - like a movie director - and end up with a rich, yet instantly commercial, pop record.

Add to this the incredible detail of the concept - including Jamie Hewlett's drawing and videos - and it's easy to understand why Albarn and Hewlett have already suggested this will be the last Gorillaz release: it simply raises the side project bar too high. ·