By Daniel Paiz

The Gorillaz have been making music for a couple of decades now, and those tunes have always been a musical pulse of the world around us at that time. There are grander themes beyond timeliness, however. The journey of this musically animated bunch helps to find a balance, and grief and love are the center of everything here.

Grief and love might not seem similar at first glance. However, they are two entities that swirl around each other constantly. The Mountain is the newest series of tunes from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, as they process losing loved ones. Their trip to India solidified what fans across the blue marble will be hearing soon.

Here are 5 tracks to prep you for The Gorillaz’ newest album The Mountain before the February 27th late night release.

“On Melancholy Hill” – Plastic Beach

Reflection is a heavy part of processing emotions, and when grief is getting processed everything can play out like a movie. Interactions happen on replay. Reliving certain moments, whether they are happy or sad, can become a comfort show of sorts. This song is a highlight reel of this state of mind when dealing with grief and death. The soundscape offers a place to relive. 

The church bell at the end of the song is almost a call back to reality. The foggy zone of memory and recollection takes one out of their present moment. It’s almost like a daydream, but in a vein of grief.

Melancholy is quite literally the definition of prolonged sadness or gloom, and grief can fuel that. 

“El Mañana” – Demon Days 

This track could almost be described as a grandparent to “Melancholy Hill” when it comes to the sounds and beats throughout. Reflection runs amok on this track. Themes of death, disbelief, separation, and resignation litter the chorus. Imagery is often looking into the future due to the events of the past and present. That’s quite simply put here:

I saw that day

lost my mind

maybe in time

you’ll want to be mine 

These lyrics along with several others from this track reflect grief’s stage of depression, and processing those stages is ongoing. Acceptance hasn’t arrived yet. Processing all that’s happening is a Ferris wheel of sorts.

Something interesting worth noting, both these first two songs have an emotional build of sorts with about a minute of music left. Once there’s about a minute left, the release of emotional buildup happens and the song slinks into a resignation of sorts. There’s acceptance that the sadness has merged with this new reality. That’s intriguing to see on two projects five years apart. 

“Oil featuring Stevie Nix” – Cracker Island

Reflection is a recurring theme for this Stevie Nix-assisted track. Love and grief intersect with reflection throughout, and it leads to some fairly visual lines. On the surface grief is simply perceived mostly as pain, loss, and sadness.

But when digging deeper, grief is usually due the loss of a loved one as they pass on from this world. The more one loved or cared, the harder and more prolonged this cycle can be. Tying the ideas of reflection, grief, and love together nicely would be these following lines:

fly out of the doldrums

and recall the log

from the early database

of your love (of your love)

If unfamiliar with doldrums, they are areas lacking any kind of movement; it’s a space of uncertainty and being stuck in more ways than one. Memories can lead to this, especially when recalling loss. Fast forward ahead in this song, and some darker lines showcase where one can go:

I was on my own there

I was all alone

I got lost, intangible

But that’s the place you reach when

You can’t help yourself anymore

Grief can be enveloping to the point of being stuck in it and can lead to prolonged grief. There is some silver lining in this in that when feeling that much, it meant the love was quite strong. It will of course take time, but that kind of love can help someone to rebuild. Memories can build as much as they can limit. 

This is a recurring theme in a lot of music from the Gorillaz: while grief and dismay abound, love still arises. 

“Silent Running featuring Adeleye Omotayo” – Cracker Island

There’s a sad beauty to the sounds of this song, as it teeters between sadness and happiness. This is yet again the journey of grief, and this track emphasizes that several times with the mentions of waves and their said impact. 

Movement is often used as a vehicle to guide along an idea. The Gorillaz are quite literal with that usage in the running motif. “Stop cause you’re killing me” and “Stop or you’ll make me cry” reflect processing grief (and also avoiding danger when it comes to cults). There’s fluid movement between emotions encountered along this journey. 

Trying to escape this process isn’t possible, as several times “as I get caught up in nowhere again” ends a verse to remind the listener. Getting out of grief only happens by going through it. The narrator doesn’t want to accept this, as the chorus shows what they’re waiting on:

It feels like I’ve been silent running (silent running)

Through the infinite pages I’ve scrolled out

Searching for a new world

That waits on the sunrise

Continuing through the journey of grief has to be the path and not waiting for something else. In the larger context of the album, Cracker Island is a project more so digging into the cults that follow those in wealth and power. It also focuses on connection or a lack thereof (how people end up on islands of their own making). Grief often comes down to connections made by the griever, as connecting with others helps to process loss. 

“Orange County featuring Bizarrap, Kara Jackson, & Anoushka Shankar” – The Mountain

This album is about death, grief, and processing all of that. It’s also about how these things impact our world and those around us. There are a multitude of emotions felt during this time. 

Processing and working to understand them is the journey. The title of The Mountain is to bring about the idea of levels one must climb. There are different heights of emotions, and getting towards the top is a continuous process. Summiting the proverbial mountain isn’t the end either, as one has to descend as well.

A bit on the nose here, but falling off the side of the mountain leads to an abyss of despair. Grief and pain lead to disconnecting from others. Navigating and processing grief leads to getting back on the mountain and gaining new perspectives. Time is a bit abstract here, as everyone has a different road to travel.

Another key element folks ponder and process is how one will continue on the loved one’s legacy, and their overall impact with both family and society at large. Emblazoned upon this listener are such lines to ponder:

Your legacy frightens me will

I keep it gold or let it spoil,

Before I get the chance to grow old,

Questions of existence, grief, impact and more all rise within these lyrics. Every level of life brings about these questions in our modern day. Like everything noteworthy in life, it will take time to unravel how things will go next.

That’s a fairly nice thing to look forward to with this album.

What to expect from The Mountain

Grief is a spectrum, like many aspects of life. There will be joyful and comical moments, followed closely by sadness and exhaustion. The tracks already released for this project reflect that. The Gorillaz will inevitably have jams spanning this spectrum. A rather enjoyable factor about tunes from this group are how many times you can listen to a track, and it gives a little something extra. Listening to songs over and over is not a priority or even a concern for a good chunk of music out there today.

Perhaps this album might assist in a grander scheme of shifting away from singles and focusing on experiences via the album process. Life is cyclical and what is old can become new again. Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn might just have that idea waiting for listeners at the closing summit of this project.