Virtual alternative mainstay Gorillaz released their long-anticipated ninth studio album “The Mountain” on Feb. 26. It marks the band’s first album released on their own label, Kong, since departing from Parlophone, as well as their first since 2023’s “Cracker Island.”
“The Mountain” is an album about death. It is about the experience of death, what it means to live with grief and how we stay in a relationship with the departed. One would probably expect, then, a rather somber tone going into the record. That one would be surprised hearing what a sanguine, emotional delight and celebration of life awaits them on top of “The Mountain.”
Alongside their trademark alternative hodge-podge of genres, Gorillaz co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett inject the record with heavy influences from Indian classical music, inspired by the duo’s time recording in India. Combined with tasteful hip-hop beats, these instruments and themes elevate “The Mountain” into thunderous, bright shouts of joy from the valley of death.
The album opens with the title track, a sweeping, gorgeous tonesetter that is almost entirely an instrumental ensemble of sitar, sarod and bansuri. The exception comes at the end, with the late Dennis Hopper repeating the album’s title. “All good souls come to rest,” he whispers, a nod to the album’s theme and lineup of late collaborators.
Besides the Indian influence, arguably the most notable part of “The Mountain” is the extensive roster of deceased artists who collaborated with Gorillaz on past records. The ensuing track “The Moon Cave” takes soundbites from the legendary Bobby Womack and De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove. Combined with contemporary powerhouses Jalen Ngonda and Black Thought, these archival cameos feel newly vibrant and deeply respectful, a theme that resonates across the record’s 15 songs.
Singles such as “The Happy Dictator” and “Orange County” form the low-key emotional backbeat of “The Mountain,” showing longtime fans that Gorillaz is still in touch with its early genre-blending masterworks. The album mellows a bit as it goes (“The Empty Dream Machine” is a mid-record standout), but never loses its scope and epic feeling. As with every good Gorillaz song, there is a distinct fire, a plain love for the music at the album’s core that never fades.
There are very few artists from this century that can convince Trueno and Johnny Marr to feature on the same album, let alone against a backdrop of death and Indian classical music. Most of them, like Gorillaz, are already riding on the back of killer, critically-acclaimed albums. Most would probably be satisfied with that.
The only one daring to do more, and doing so with overwhelming victory, is Gorillaz.
9/10 (Must-listens: “The Happy Dictator,” “The Empty Dream Machine”)
