THE WORLD'S BEST NEW MUSIC

On the face of it, The Mountain is simply the ninth album of engaging pop music by an animated "virtual group". That its subject and inspiration should be death and the afterlife seems incongruous and complicating, perhaps foolhardy. But after decades of musical and humanitarian involvement in Western Africa, Asia (and pretty much everywhere else), it is perhaps no surprise that Damon Albarn and company assembled a multicultural caravan of collaborators to bring it to life. That the dominant cultural axis of the featured artists runs roughly along a parallel from UK through Casablanca and Damascus to the subcontinent (Mumbai, Turkmenistan and Rajahstan) seems ominous, given the geopolitical sensitivities involved in some of those places, however the band's motivation appears apolitical in this case. Albarn and Gorillaz co-founder Jamie Hewlett had both experienced the loss of close family members prior to travelling to India to work on the album, in 2024.

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The album's name was inspired by the duo's first visit to Amber Fort in Jaipur, as well as a mountain they visited in western China during the production of the opera Monkey: Journey to the West. 

Musical collaborators influencing the sound include Indian singer Asha Bhole and Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman. Other contributors (performing in five languages - Arabic, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Yoruba) include Idles, Kara Jackson, Yasiin Bey, Johnny Marr, Black Thought, Anoushka Shankar. Additionally, the album includes the voices of a number of deceased figures: Bobby Womack, Dave “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur, actor Dennis Hopper, the Fall’s Mark E. Smith, Detroit rapper Proof, and drummer Tony Allen.

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As an album designed and distributed for mass consumption, by a group of humans semi-disguised behind the masks of cartoon characters, The Mountain is a truly ironic, post-modern work. It's inclusiveness is the inverse of the insular, nationalistic fascism that is threatening Western Democracies. As a suite of songs, it invites extended attention - counter to reductionist trends fed by small-screen media (although of course Gorillaz YouTube channel features these too.)

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But the music is what we all came for and despite it's inspiration, this is an overwhelmingly joyous and enjoyable set. As the boys intended, it does invite end-to-end listening - and repeat, repeat, repeat. It is certainly my favourite album so far this year, and is likely to remain among my best for the whole year, methinks.

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