REVIEW: Gorillaz - The Mountain
- Amy Smyth
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
An album that experiments with polar genres while the lyrics debate the themes of mortality, grief and love. The Mountain is a fifteen track album released just as GORILLAZ reach the 25th anniversary of their debut album and tells the story of everything they have learnt between then and now. It contains umpteen collaborations, each of them bringing their own flavour to every single track, creating an album with waves of emotion and power.
The album is heavily based on the bands time in India and is influenced by a range of genres from all across the country, it imitates as well as welcoming aboard India's own musicians. The first track is an instrumental that sets the tone for this with collaborators DENNIS HOPPER, AJAY PRASANNA, ANOUSHKA SHANKAR, AMAAN ALI BANGASH, and AYAAN ALI BANGASH helping to carve a beautiful landscape featuring various Indian instruments such as Sitars, Bansuri and a collective of Indian drums. Four minutes passes in a flash leaving you with relaxed, inquisitive and colour filled visions in your mind, ending with echoed and layered speech repeating the name of the album over and over. Track two The Moon Cave starts much more mystical with heavenly strings intertwined accompanying the same Indian instruments introduced in the last track. Eventually an 80’s style synth beat kicks in, a traditional GORILLAZ groovy bassline joining it. The beat switches halfway through becoming syncopated and bringing in the rich voice of BLACK THOUGHT to rap over the rest of the track. The beat dances around his words, it's groovy and addictive all while sticking with the Indian theme.
The Happy Dictator starts with the distant bustle of a public place before DAMON ALBARN brings his distinctive monotone vocals that have layers of lyrics, picking apart the modern word we live in with wild metaphors that confuse your brain to analyse. The entire track is back and forth in a conversation with SPARKS before they come together in the end to sing in unison, their voices stacking together superbly. THE HARDEST THING is a special track featuring the recently passed TONY ALLEN. He collaborated with GORILLAZ on many projects in the past such as THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN and ROCKET JUICE & THE MOON. He has a legacy as a pioneer of afrobeats as well as being one of the most renowned drummers in the world, the track discusses grief and how strange it can feel. A beautiful tribute to someone close to the band as well as providing comfort for those listeners that may have also lost those close to them.
The next track Orange County echoes the words and tube of the last track, remixing it into a new track and giving it another alternate life. It continues the discussion of grief with the additional input of the features BIAZARRAP, KARA JACKSON and ANOUSHKA SHANKAR. The God of Lying is next opening with lines that question spirituality and the unknown. The track features British post punk band IDLES and is psychedelic, like your mind is waving in and out of consciousness. The lyrics delve into the dreary headlines that we see and ask if we as people have grown numb to the world and its hardships, just to drone on and go to work as the system has taught us to do. The Empty Dream Machine creates a vast landscape that almost carries on from the last track, a monologue that shows an individual waking up from their routine and questioning their existence. BLACK THOUGHT come back for this track to add to the monologue meanwhile ANOUSHKA SHANKAR experiments with her sitar in the background.
The Manifesto brings perhaps the most unexpected fusion in the album. It melds together Indian instrumental and features the Argentine rap of TREUNO then flipping that on its head halfway through, adopting a hip-hop beat and welcoming American rapper PROOF to the track. The final section of the song sees all these elements coming together, not messy at any point yet still leaving the listener unable to predict any section coming. The Plastic Guru questions a person's beliefs and is based on a personal experience two members of the band had in India when meeting a Guru. This track is one of multiple where JOHNNY MARR of THE SMITHS features on the guitar using Indian scales along with the sitar, blending into one another pleasingly.
As we delve into the latter half of the album Delirium brings a break to the theme of the album, moving away from the Indian style. Choirs sing in the background while DAMON monologues in the foreground, the chorus arrives with a bang with a heavier beat and funky bass line, 80s esc synths and this brings this track's feature. MARK E. SMITH, who sadly passed away in 2018, has vocal lines in this track that were presumably recorded long ago, GORILLAZ worked with him for the PLASTIC BEACH album released in 2010. Another special feature that can only be made possible when you've been in the industry for so long and had the chances to work with such great figures.
Damascus opens with echoing vocals before bouncing into an Indian drum style beat with electronic synths riffs dancing around it. The vocals are delivered by YASIIN BEY and OMAR ALMASIKH in both English and Arabic, being originally written for the PLASTIC BEACH record the track has had many lives before this one, with many different names and versions being mentioned across various interviews. It's another rare fusion that makes the album so unique. The Shadowy Light calls back to the first track with a heavily Indian style instrumental, this time with synths and a piano melody. The vocals are first brought to life by both DAMON ALBARN and ASHA BHOSLE with a chanting call and reply echoing behind it. The song almost rings like a song of prayer while the lyrics question what should be prayed to, a fabulous juxtaposition.
The third to last track is Casablanca which is much more relaxed than the rest of the album , as close to a ballad as GORILLAZ get. The beat sways and is joined by a harmonious choir and humming strings, slotting together to fill the track to a pleasing instrumental. Bringing another oxymoron DAMON sings about uncertainty and life in all its grandness along with its many sadnesses. The Sweet Prince enters with a sweet bansuri solo and a mellow beat. The track features the bansuri, electric guitar, sitar and hard as well as others all rolled into one, blending together. It's experimental without sounding disturbing its own balance at any point, it's another track that like the last is honeyed and delicate in tone. The very last track of the album The Sad God brings multiple elements from the album all together, its chords and lyrics whisper of an end, the end of the album and the end of everything. BLACK THOUGHT has one last intellectual rap before a two minute outro, the last words repeating themselves as the bansuri and sitar dance around each other one final time, closing the album fulfillingly as it rings out.
Ultimately the album is a genius fusion of the typical style of GORILLAZ and various genres from across the world. The variety in features recorded both now and long before this album's fruition bring a deeper level to the discussions of grief and mortality, meanwhile the instrumental features, being heavily influenced by India, season the album with another layer of adventure and vitality. It gives you everything, all at once all while maintaining the surface level of being purely enjoyable music, it's everything an inspiring musician lives out their lives to make.
Score: 10/10
The Mountain was released on 27th February 2026 via the Orchard / Sony.
Words: Amy Smyth
Photos: Gorillaz & Reuben Bastienne-Lewis
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