Music.

The Mountain is Gorillaz’s new album. It’s about death - about the natural cycle of life, worked out across continents and languages. Damon Albarn’s father died during the making of it, and his ashes are in the river that runs through the recording sessions. Anoushka Shankar threads through most of the album - that’s where a lot of the Indian rhythms come from.

Favorites:

• The Happy Dictator (feat. Sparks). Albarn wrote it after visiting Turkmenistan, where the dictator banned all bad news so nobody would feel anxious. The song is upbeat for the same reason. Very catchy.
• The Hardest Thing → Orange County. These flow into each other. Tony Allen - the Afrobeat drummer who died in 2020 - opens The Hardest Thing. Orange County repeats “the hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love” over an upbeat, optimistic sound. The cycle of reincarnation. Sad someone passed away, but that’s normal, just part of life.
• The Manifesto (feat. Trueno and Proof). Argentine rapper Trueno and the late D12 rapper Proof, with bansuri and sarod underneath. About facing death without fear. Incredibly fun.
• Damascus (feat. Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey). Yasiin Bey rapping about modernity vs. tradition - “Turkish coffee, Starbucks, get off” - and Omar Souleyman singing in Arabic over the top.
• The Sad God. Closes the album. Reprises the melody of the title track but darker. Makes me feel like I’m levitating.

It feels good and satisfying. Lifts me, slows me down, speeds me up. Makes me want to go to India and the Middle East - places I’d never normally want to go, just to get a glimpse into the life there.