Review Summary: Gorillaz's most ambitious odyssey
Full video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdZaa7hzPlc
The first thing you feel when you hit play and hear
“The Mountain” (the opener) is wonder. It’s whimsical, bright, and immediately drenched in Indian classical motifs — strings, sitars, gorgeous ornamentation. It would be easy for it to sound tacky if it wasn't done with such authenticity and genuine reverence for the culture, and it sets the tone for the entire album’s sonic palette. This record is colorful as hell. Think the glossy synth vibes of
Plastic Beach, but blended with Indian instrumentation, psychedelic electronics, and a truly global set of vocal performances.
Tracks like
“Damascus” explode with Arabic dance-hall grooves; Omar Souleyman absolutely pops off, and Yasiin Bey continues his undefeated streak of sounding cool while sounding effortless. It's the moments like this where Gorillaz meld the Indian or Middle Eastern sounds with hip-hop which are utterly unique and fantastic. On
“The Moon Cave” you get this groovy, low-slung bassline and a reliably excellent verse from Black Thought, bouncing against a posthumous verse from Trugoy the Dove - which flows surprisingly well. Meanwhile
“The Happy Dictator” is a straight-up bop.
It’s euphoric, dancey, and yet the lyrics are essentially propaganda from a wannabe strongman promising “no more bad news.” It's satire you can dance to — which honestly might be the most Gorillaz thing ever. And then you’ve got
“The Manifesto” a multi-phase mini-epic that shifts beats through it's longer runtime.Treuno drops Portuguese bars over a latino pop beat, and then boom: a posthumous Proof verse that is straight-up fire.
But despite how many different things are going on here, it's all remarkably cohesive. If anything, the album is almost too cohesive — especially toward the end. A few of the more chill, hypnotic tracks like
“The Shadowy Light”,
“Casablanca”, etc. start blurring together. Not bad, but the vibe gets same-y. Some bloat could’ve been trimmed. Still, the synth, funk + sitar fusion across the album is bold, colorful, and surprisingly warm.
The album’s narrative draws clear lines to modern society: The rise of strongmen who weaponize charisma, popularism in the digital age, and audiences desires for easy answers.
“The Happy Dictator” and
“Delirium” paint these systems as seductive and danceable… which makes the satire even sharper. Propaganda you can get down to.
We also get a lot of themes around loss and grief. Some of the most emotional Gorillaz tracks in years are on this record.
“The Hardest Thing” starts dipping into themes of heartbreak. Then
“Orange County” hits with this bittersweet, reflective tone about both romantic loss and losing loved ones. Damon’s long-term relationship ending is clearly woven into this. I can see some poo poo-ing the 'kooky' vibe but I am into it and the whistling is very Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, and that touch transforms the track — it’s incredibly bittersweet.
“The Sweet Prince” is a tribute to Damon’s father filtered through Indian views on death and reincarnation, with a really beautiful outtro.
All of these threads sit under a broader theme of The Mountain representing the journey of life, the pursuit of clarity, and the struggle against the illusions we cling to. The closer,
“The Sad God” loops the album back to the opener and ends in shockingly bleak reflection: humanity rejecting spirituality in favor of conflict, delusion, and technological distraction. But even in its darkest moments, the album feels human in a way Gorillaz haven’t been in a long time.
The Mountain is one of Gorillaz’s most ambitious, colorful, and emotional albums to date. Given the amount of ideas present, it could have easily collapsed under the weight of it's ambition, but instead if pulled off with the level of finesse which have made Gorillaz such a special act. The Indian and Middle Eastern influences are handled with authenticity and taste. The narrative is smart and surprisingly cohesive. The tributes to fallen collaborators add real weight. The vibes and grooves are immaculate. And musically, it’s the first time since Plastic Beach that the band truly feels like they’re building a world again. Not perfect — a little long, a little bloated — but absolutely a great record and easily their strongest modern release.
