Where “Damascus,” “The Manifesto,” and Sparks-assisted pinger “The Happy Dictator” play to their unlikely collaborators’ strengths, the bombast of songs like “The Plastic Guru” and “The Shadowy Light” teeters into folly.
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Where “Damascus,” “The Manifesto,” and Sparks-assisted pinger “The Happy Dictator” play to their unlikely collaborators’ strengths, the bombast of songs like “The Plastic Guru” and “The Shadowy Light” teeters into folly.
Gorillaz’s best work since 2010’s Plastic Beach.
‘The Mountain’ as a full-bodied world-building affair; arguably their most rich and complete since ‘Plastic Beach’.
The Mountain is by some distance the most ambitious Gorillaz album yet, a multilayered musical tour de force that brings meaningful strands of hope to the deaths, chaos and delirium.
The result is the most substantial and satisfying Gorillaz album since the widescreen 2005 art-pop masterpiece Demon Days and its almost as impressive successor, 2010’s sprawling Plastic Beach.
The emotional backbone of The Mountain, however, pushes that expert musicianship beyond the typically reliable Gorillaz sound and into new territory, adding more heart and humanity than this cartoon crew has ever mustered.
Something you’re more likely to listen to from start to finish than play with your finger ready to click fast-forward, panning for the best bits. The result is an unexpected career highlight, a quarter of a century in.
Over 15 tracks, a giddy mix of moods, genres, cultures, languages and time periods is woven together with virtuosic ease by Anoushka Shankar’s liquid sitar, Johnny Marr’s shimmering guitar and Ajay Prasanna’s gliding bamboo flute.
The multicultural and multilingual mosaic they construct never goes deep enough, often struggling to match the ecstatic build-and-release and bittersweet existential odysseys of Gorillaz’s earlier work. Mountains aren’t quite moved here, only slightly prodded.
Grief, cross-cultural exploration, and musical experimentation coexist effortlessly, grounding the record and giving it both emotional resonance and sonic adventure. This is an album which proves Gorillaz can stretch their sound even further while remaining entirely in control.
Indian instrumentation adds a new tool to Damon’s sonic arsenal. In the wrong hands, the results could be gimmicky but here the Gorillaz formula never waivers. .... The decision to mine the Eastern take on death - a much more optimistic alternative to our Western one - frequently yields joyful results.
Ultimately, The Mountain blends darkness with light to explore the thrills of existence in Gorillaz’ own idiosyncratic way.
The Mountain is a rich, rewarding take on living with and after loss, brimming with feeling, character and vibrant pop purpose. [Feb 2026, p.100]
The Mountain might be a bit of a hard listen at first, but if you give it time, you’ll appreciate it as one of the finest things Albarn has ever made.
A wide-reaching album that relies on classical Indian orchestral arrangements as often as it does the far-out electropop that Gorillaz have built their brand on.
Its 15 tracks are filled with cheery major-key singalongs, sitar-soaked synth-pop bangers and whimsical waltzes that serve as ecstatic celebrations of life, rebirth and reinvention. [Mar 2026, p.20]
The Mountain successfully captures Gorillaz’ individuality without repeating it, pushing the band even further into this new era of experimentation with some of their most daring yet honed music in years.
As The Mountain progresses in a shower of sitars and sarod, marked by bold, global influences and unmistakable Gorillaz pop flourish, it asserts the virtual band’s capacity for theatricality without caricature.
It would have been easy to expect the music to sound heavy, even morose, following such tragedy. But some of the deepest wellsprings of renewal come from places of profound loss, and The Mountain proves it. This is a rejuvenating record. A healing record. One that finds light without pretending the dark isn’t there.
Where “Damascus,” “The Manifesto,” and Sparks-assisted pinger “The Happy Dictator” play to their unlikely collaborators’ strengths, the bombast of songs like “The Plastic Guru” and “The Shadowy Light” teeters into folly.
Gorillaz’s best work since 2010’s Plastic Beach.
‘The Mountain’ as a full-bodied world-building affair; arguably their most rich and complete since ‘Plastic Beach’.
The Mountain is by some distance the most ambitious Gorillaz album yet, a multilayered musical tour de force that brings meaningful strands of hope to the deaths, chaos and delirium.
The result is the most substantial and satisfying Gorillaz album since the widescreen 2005 art-pop masterpiece Demon Days and its almost as impressive successor, 2010’s sprawling Plastic Beach.
The emotional backbone of The Mountain, however, pushes that expert musicianship beyond the typically reliable Gorillaz sound and into new territory, adding more heart and humanity than this cartoon crew has ever mustered.
Something you’re more likely to listen to from start to finish than play with your finger ready to click fast-forward, panning for the best bits. The result is an unexpected career highlight, a quarter of a century in.
Over 15 tracks, a giddy mix of moods, genres, cultures, languages and time periods is woven together with virtuosic ease by Anoushka Shankar’s liquid sitar, Johnny Marr’s shimmering guitar and Ajay Prasanna’s gliding bamboo flute.
The multicultural and multilingual mosaic they construct never goes deep enough, often struggling to match the ecstatic build-and-release and bittersweet existential odysseys of Gorillaz’s earlier work. Mountains aren’t quite moved here, only slightly prodded.
Grief, cross-cultural exploration, and musical experimentation coexist effortlessly, grounding the record and giving it both emotional resonance and sonic adventure. This is an album which proves Gorillaz can stretch their sound even further while remaining entirely in control.
Indian instrumentation adds a new tool to Damon’s sonic arsenal. In the wrong hands, the results could be gimmicky but here the Gorillaz formula never waivers. .... The decision to mine the Eastern take on death - a much more optimistic alternative to our Western one - frequently yields joyful results.
Ultimately, The Mountain blends darkness with light to explore the thrills of existence in Gorillaz’ own idiosyncratic way.
The Mountain is a rich, rewarding take on living with and after loss, brimming with feeling, character and vibrant pop purpose. [Feb 2026, p.100]
The Mountain might be a bit of a hard listen at first, but if you give it time, you’ll appreciate it as one of the finest things Albarn has ever made.
A wide-reaching album that relies on classical Indian orchestral arrangements as often as it does the far-out electropop that Gorillaz have built their brand on.
Its 15 tracks are filled with cheery major-key singalongs, sitar-soaked synth-pop bangers and whimsical waltzes that serve as ecstatic celebrations of life, rebirth and reinvention. [Mar 2026, p.20]
The Mountain successfully captures Gorillaz’ individuality without repeating it, pushing the band even further into this new era of experimentation with some of their most daring yet honed music in years.
As The Mountain progresses in a shower of sitars and sarod, marked by bold, global influences and unmistakable Gorillaz pop flourish, it asserts the virtual band’s capacity for theatricality without caricature.
It would have been easy to expect the music to sound heavy, even morose, following such tragedy. But some of the deepest wellsprings of renewal come from places of profound loss, and The Mountain proves it. This is a rejuvenating record. A healing record. One that finds light without pretending the dark isn’t there.
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