How Gorillaz Explore Grief and Mortality On New Album ‘The Mountain’

This piece was penned by a contributor from the Genius collective.

More than two decades after their self-titled debut, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s virtual outfit Gorillaz continues to explore imaginative and unexpected creative frontiers. On their ninth studio record, The Mountain, they embark on a transcontinental odyssey, blending their signature blend of alt-pop and hip-hop with Indian and Hindu cultural motifs to craft a profound, moving examination of loss and human mortality.

Production for the album commenced shortly after the launch of 2023’s Cracker Island. During the creative process, both artists tragically lost their fathers within a ten-day span. Hewlett, familiar with the Indian landscape through his mother-in-law’s engagement with Eastern therapeutic practices, suggested that he and Albarn travel there together as a method of processing their bereavement. The Mountain serves as the ultimate distillation of that journey.

The cover art, depicting the Gorillaz ensemble—2-D, Russel, Noodle, and Murdoc—ascending a mountain peak, mirrors Albarn’s inward voyage toward reconciling with sorrow. He has reached a point of accepting life’s trajectory and the inevitability of death, a reality that confronts everyone eventually. After a four-decade career in music, Albarn finds himself grappling with the sobering experience of witnessing his contemporaries and kin pass away.