While the concept of a virtual band seems more believable and accepted in 2026, when Gorillaz emerged from another dimension at the launch of the new millennium, it was something peculiar and unexpected. Brainstormed by Blur’s Damon Albarn and Comic Artist Jamie Hewlett as a satirical reaction to the vacuous manufacturing of Pop music by record labels during the late ‘90s, Gorillaz invented a compelling alternative reality with the characters of the band being D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Russel Hobbs (drums). Only building on this story since 2000, with various wrinkles along the way, Gorillaz has proven to be a striking combination of visual art and musicality.
Far and away different than anything else out there in the last twenty-plus years, their mix of Hip Hop, Electronic, Rock, Pop, and much more, Gorillaz have captured the imagination of listeners from their 2001 Gorillaz debut and 2005’s Demon Days through to 2017’s Humanz, 2018’s The Now Now, 2023’s Cracker Island, and everything in between. Plotting to make each of their records sonically different, while also interjecting new visuals, in 2026, Gorillaz deliver perhaps their most broad-reaching collection of songs to date with The Mountain.
Set for release on February 27, 2026, through Gorillaz’s own label, KONG, The Mountain is their ninth studio album and once again takes you on an extremely unconventional musical journey. Providing context to it all, The Mountain is said to be a metaphor for life’s journey, and how you travel through it to the peak. A heavy subject matter of life, death, and curiosity about what comes thereafter, Gorillaz’s primary creators, Alban and Hewlett, derived deeper inspiration from a trip to India following the death of their fathers.
A loss that weighed heavily on their hearts, their trip to places like Jaipur, Mumbai, and Delhi brought them closer to Eastern philosophies. Having spent most of their lives in Western culture, the foundational Hindu and Buddhist ideas, such as Samsara (a concept of a continuous cycle of birth, death, and rebirth) and Moksha (final liberation, achieving the ultimate spiritual goal), provided an enrichment that did not exist before. Again, concepts that might be foreign to those in the Western world, Gorillaz’s The Mountain interweaves these ideas into a musical escapade that acts as a celebration of life, which Alban and Hewlett sought to make a more optimistic post-death party playlist.
With this background in mind, going into The Mountain, you will now have a better understanding of the musical approach on the album that fuses Indian Classical music, Hip Hop, and Electronic Pop. Sticking with the theme of the life and death, The Mountain also does well of interjecting the voices of those who have passed on into it all, including Soul legend Bobby Womack, Afrobeat Drummer Tony Allen, The Fall’s Vocalist Mark E. Smith, De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove, and the voices of iconic Actor Dennis Hopper, as well as Albarn’s own dad, Keith Albarn.
Clearly a very personal record, the album also includes living collaborators such as world-reowned Sitarist Anoushka Shankar, Argentian Bizzarap, Sparks, IDLES, The Clash’s Paul Simonon, iconic Guitarist Johnny Marr, The Roots’ Black Thought, Bollywood legend Asha Bhosle, Mos Def, Syrian Omar Souleyman, Amaan & Ayanna Ali Bangash, as well as De La Soul’s Maseo and Pos.
Making it an extremely worldly adventure with Pop, Rock, Electronic, and Indian Classical musicians involved, upon first listen, you might be taken aback, but once you open your mind, you will find it engaging the senses. Consisting of a total of fifteen songs, the album jumps around with an eclectic mixture, with many standouts including “The Moon Cave,” quirky “The Happy Dictator,” the perky “Orange County,” and a smoky, mesmerizing “The Empty Dream Machine.”
From here there are many other unexpected twists and turns, but perhaps one of the most capativing moments comes with the opening title track (which really sets a mood with the sitar playing and voices from beyond in the backdrop toward the conclusion), “Damascus” (with its imposible to resist Middle Eastern melody), and the dream-like “The Sweet Prince.”
Overall, The Mountain is anything but a straightforward record. It is highly experimental and could be a bit bizarre to the average ear, but isn’t that the attraction to Gorillaz in the first place? All things considered, The Mountain is a bold, cathartic record that takes the somber reality of losing someone you love and the feeling that they are gone forever, morphing it into hope that their spirit still lives on. That is why Cryptic Rock urges you to climb The Mountain and gives it 5 out of 5 stars.
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