Gorillaz - The Mountain
★★★★
KONG
Gorillaz' 15-track, double album-length The Mountain is a product of personal grief, Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett both having lost their fathers within days of one another (the former travelling to the Ganges to scatter his dad’s ashes). This heavy air of mortality is spun out into an album that is elegiac but ultimately celebratory; part-recorded at various locations in India and involving the sitar contributions of Anoushka Shankar and the 92-year-old singing legend Asha Bhosle on The Shadowy Light.
Fittingly, it also includes off-cut recordings of now-departed Gorillaz contributors Tony Allen, Dennis Hopper and Bobby Womack, while Casablanca effectively melds The Clash and The Smiths as Paul Simonon and Johnny Marr join forces. The Empty Dream Machine and Delirium both feature achingly melancholic melodies from Albarn, juxtaposed in the latter with the forever excellent ranting of Mark E. Smith. The result is Gorillaz’ most ambitious, and moving, record to date.
The Mountain is out February 27 on Kong.
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Tracklisting:
1. The Mountain (feat. Dennis Hopper, Ajay Prasanna, Anoushka Shankar, Amaan & Ayaan Ali Bangash)
2. The Moon Cave (feat. Asha Puthli, Bobby Womack, Dave Jolicoeur, Jalen Ngonda And Black Thought)
3. The Happy Dictator (feat. Sparks)
4. The Hardest Thing (feat. Tony Allen)
5. Orange County (feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson And Anoushka Shankar)
6. The God Of Lying (feat. IDLES)
7. The Empty Dream Machine (feat. Black Thought, Johnny Marr And Anoushka Shankar)
8. The Manifesto (feat. Trueno And Proof)
9. The Plastic Guru (feat. Johnny Marr And Anoushka Shankar)
10. Delirium (feat. Mark E. Smith)
11. Damascus (feat. Omar Souleyman And Yasiin Bey)
12. The Shadowy Light (feat. Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys, Ajay Prasanna, Amaan & Ayaan Ali Bangash)
13. Casablanca (feat. Paul Simonon And Johnny Marr)
14. The Sweet Prince (feat. Ajay Prasanna, Johnny Marr And Anoushka Shankar)
15. The Sad God (feat. Black Thought, Ajay Prasanna And Anoushka Shankar)
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