The Mountain (Gorillaz album)
The Mountain is the upcoming ninth studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz, set to release on 27 February 2026. It is to be released through Gorillaz's label, Kong, distributed by the Sony Music subsidiary the Orchard. This is the first Gorillaz title to be released without the participation of Parlophone or Warner Records since the band's hiatus.
The album features numerous appearances from musicians and actors, including posthumous appearances from Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, David Jolicoeur from De La Soul, Tony Allen, Proof, and Mark E. Smith. It will feature performances in English, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, and Yoruba. It will be produced by Damon Albarn, Remi Kabaka Jr., James Ford and Samuel Egglenton.
The album was debuted and performed in full in 2025 at a show during Gorillaz's 25th anniversary "House of Kong" exhibition, with a supporting tour scheduled for 2026.
Background
The first mention of Gorillaz's ninth album came from an interview with Damon Albarn ahead of their headlining Coachella 2023 performance, commenting that it would "take somewhere never been before". Albarn further described it as a "paradigm shift" and "very different" in a July 2023 interview with the Broken Record podcast. Later, in a December 2023 interview for Les Inrockuptibles, Albarn stated that work would begin on the album following the completion of The Magic Flute II: La Malédiction, his adaptation of The Magic Flute Part Two, and that he and Hewlett would travel to India to do so. In March 2025, Albarn told Les Inrockuptibles that the album was nearing completion, and in a later interview with Radio Nova he mentioned it would be complete in six weeks' time.Albarn and Hewlett both experienced the loss of close family members prior to their time in India. Both described the album as a cohesive and conceptual work exploring ideas of death and the afterlife through the band's fictional characters. Hewlett said people listening to the album are "supposed to listen to it from beginning to end", saying that they were "trying to bring back that idea of taking time to invest in something, instead of this culture of scrolling".
Production
The album's lead single, "The Happy Dictator", was inspired by Albarn's visit to Turkmenistan, where he learned of the dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov – in an interview with Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1, Albarn said of the song: "The point of ‘The Happy Dictator’ is that the Turkmenbasi wanted everyone in Turkmenistan to only think happy thoughts and sleep unaffected by the doom of the world, and just keep everything upbeat, so he kind of banned all bad news. When I was there, I was kind of inspired by that". The song features American band, Sparks – a collaboration which came about after the band left a note in Albarn's dressing room at the Primavera Sound Festival encouraging him to reach out to them if he wished to collaborate in the future. The band hinted at a collaboration between the two with an Instagram post of the group in Albarn's studio in London."Damascus" was originally recorded for inclusion on the band's third album, Plastic Beach – however, the song was left off the finished project, in favour of the song "Sweepstakes". In a 2023 interview with Zane Lowe, Albarn confirmed the original title was "Fresh Arrivals", and featured Yasiin Bey and Syrian dabke artist, Omar Souleyman. The song marks Bey's third collaboration with the group following the aforementioned "Sweepstakes" and the single "Stylo".
Release
On 3 September 2025, the album was revealed and performed live in its entirety as the final "mystery show" of four shows coinciding with Gorillaz's 25th anniversary "House of Kong" museum and art exhibition in London. Eight days later, the band officially announced the album, revealing the title, cover artwork, and the original release date of 20 March 2026 and releasing the lead single "The Happy Dictator" concurrently. The band are scheduled to promote the album further through The Mountain Tour, with concerts in Europe between March and June 2026. A deluxe version of the album was also announced, with the addition of four bonus tracks, which include contributions from Niloy Ahsan and Pamela Jain, as well as additional contributions from the Hindu Jea Band Jaipur and Anoushka Shankar, who both contributed to the standard edition of the album too. One of the bonus tracks is a cover of Kishore Kumar's "Mere Sapno Ki Rani", from the 1969 Bollywood film Aradhana.On 17 September, the band premiered the song "Damascus" at Brian Eno's Together for Palestine concert at Wembley Arena in London alongside Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey, where Bey also recited the English translation of Imam Muhammad b. Nāsir al-Darʿī's The Prayer of the Oppressed. On 8 October, the band released "The Manifesto" as the second single. On 6 November, the band released "The God of Lying" as the third single. On 2 December, an additional "House of Kong" exhibition in Los Angeles was announced, alongside two shows of the full album at the Hollywood Palladium in February 2026. On 12 December, "Damascus" was released as the album's fourth single. On the same day, Gorillaz announced that The Mountain would now be released earlier, on 27 February 2026.
On 15 January, the band released "The Hardest Thing" and "Orange County" as a double single. Argentinian producer Bizarrap, who worked on the latter, released an alternate mix of the song a week later, on 23 January.
Track listing
Notes- indicates an additional producer