Gorillaz – The Mountain (Kong) (13th Floor Album Review)

Gorillaz are back with their 9^th studio album, The Mountain. The virtual band are exploring new territory (literally!) in this new outing. The release is joined by an 8-minute music video, a debut slot on Saturday Night Live, and a European tour.

It’s been almost twenty-five years to the day since Damon Albarn and Co finally released a rather explosive number named Clint Eastwood. With him and collaborator Jamie Hewlet both recently losing close family members, the group have aimed to explore the themes of death and the afterlife. They’ve also travelled to India to record the LP, heavily embracing the musical influence of the region.

Now, I’ve sat in enough curry houses and listened to enough mid-sixties George Harrison songs to have appreciation for the title-track overture that opened The Mountain. Sitar, bansuri, and – one my favourite percussion instruments – the tabla were all very present. I was quite excited.

But, of course, this is a pop album. So, alas, electronic beats and Albarn’s seemingly-irritably-disinterested-and-filtered-through-a-1950s-telephone-voice-that-he-tends-to-favour-when-performing-in-Gorillaz joined the Indian influence on The Moon Cave. If sitar isn’t your thing, don’t panic, there is a fairly wide range of musical styles that are littered (rather liberally, of course!) all throughout the fifteen tracks. I was personally even more excited to hear the melody from The Mountain return in the final track The Sad God in full 8-bit brilliance.

If you know you’re Gorillaz lore, you’ll know that the virtual band draws from a plethora of guests for each release. Of course, The Mountain is no exception. It needs to be admired just how wide this range of extras is. Fittingly, Anoushka Shankar – daughter of the late, great Ravi Shankar – is fairly prominent, performing on a good handful of the tracks. But, let’s not forget that this has got Johnny Marr, Idles AND The Clash’s, Paul Simonon featuring. Oh? Alternative music isn’t your thing? There’s plenty to impress the hip-hop fan; Black Thought, Mos Def and Trueno (who performs a pretty great Spanish language rap on The Manifesto) have their moments in sun. Oh, and Sparks give us a great synthy new-wave influence on The Happy Dictator.

As mentioned, death and loss are the key themes of the record. Please don’t expect an hour of miserableness. The Hardest Thing is perhaps the song that best sets a negative mood you might associate with mourning. However, for the most part, Gorillaz give us fairly fun and quirky melodies. Of course, these layered over a rather varied palette of sound. There’s some catchy stuff in there, and there’s also some melodies that might take some time to enjoy. But overall, I found each of my listens a really enjoyable experience. And that’s ultimately what they are aiming for. An album we can commit to from start to finish.

I think it’s really sweet that they’ve included recordings of special guests on previous Gorillaz records who are no longer with us. Bobby Womack, Dennis Hopper, Proof and Tony Allen are a few notable mentions. In fact, they even had some Lou Reed to include (which sadly his estate did not allow).

The Mountain provides a worthwhile listen. Gorillaz set a mood heart-warming in places, melancholic in others, while exploring a meaty topic. Fans should expect to find comfort and familiarity in the genre-mashing of its fifteen songs, whilst enjoying the new innovations that the Indian influence brings. And of course, there is just so much going on in this release, I think everyone will find at least something they didn’t think they needed.

Daniel Edmonds

The Mountain is due out February 27th on Kong Records