Gorillaz Return to Take On 'X Factor'

With the Blur reunion done and dusted, Damon Albarn has refocused his attentions on his cartoon band, Gorillaz. Speaking to veteran music journalist Paul Morley in the Guardian, the ever restless Albarn revealed that the new album -- Gorillaz's third -- is to be called 'Plastic Beach' and has been recorded as a pop statement in direct reaction to 'The X Factor.'

"I'm making this album the most pop record I've ever made in many ways, but with all my experience to present something with some depth to it," Albarn explained.

"I've tried to connect pop sensibility with trying to make people understand the essential melancholy of buying a ready made meal in loads of plastic packaging. People who watch 'X Factor' might have some emotional connection to these things, that detritus that accompanies what seems the most essential thing in people's lives these days, the celebrity, the voyeurism."

Albarn also divulged that yet another side project -- this time with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and Afro Beat legend Tony Allen -- was near completion and that, time permitting, another album by The Good, the Bad and The Queen could be on the cards.

As revealed on Spinner on Monday, Blur's bio-doc, 'No Distance Left to Run,' opens in cinemas in January.