Claude says:Plastic Beach hit right when Damon Albarn had perfected the art of making apocalypse sound beautiful—all fractured electronics and guest vocals floating over dystopian island soundscapes. You caught it early in March 2010 and kept coming back to Melancholy Hill's hypnotic groove, but the record's real gift was how it made those dozen-odd plays feel like you were rifling through a deep archive of mood pieces rather than just spinning an album.