Damon Albarn has released his latest Gorillaz album on New Music Friday – revisit Live4ever’s review and stream ‘The Mountain’ right here.
As we know by now, 25 years in, Gorillaz albums are usually defined by a theme, be that a dystopian concept, pop immediacy or the unmistakable melancholy of Damon Albarn.
The Mountain attempts to hold all three at once in what is their most ambitious effort yet; their ninth studio record is expansive yet intimate, cartoonish yet devotional: vast in both scope and sentiment.
At its heart lies the death of parents for both Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. In the former’s case, Keith Albarn’s love of Hindu art and Ravi Shankar shaped the album’s spiritual direction following the Blur man scattering his ashes in Varanasi.
The result is a meditation on mortality and samsara (the cycle of life, death and rebirth) with Anoushka Shankar (daughter of the legendary Ravi) and her sitar acting as both musical guide and symbolic bridge.
At surface level, the Gorillaz narrative finds Murdoc et al retreating from fame to mystical highlands, but the real journey spanned London, Devon, New Delhi, New York and beyond.
As on Plastic Beach and Humanz the cast is vast, but unlike those earlier records the collaborators feel embedded rather than spotlighted.
Tying into The Mountain’s themes of the next life, some no longer with us such as Bobby Womack, Tony Allen, Mark E Smith and Proof are woven seamlessly into its tapestry.
Anoushka Shankar’s sitar glows with evocative warmth on the opening title-track, immediately asserting the location while ushering listeners into an album that takes its time.
Click here for the review in full
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