Gorillaz - "The Mountain" (2026)

Gorillaz' post hiatus records have been a bit hit and miss, with the project feeling like it lacked a consistent direction from album to album. Humanz stuck out like a sore thumb with its darker, more drab atmosphere on first release. And while musically it has aged better than I ever thought it would, lyrically it sounds so dated with it's core conceit of "what if Trump won the 2016 election" when we've had a decade of the man dominating the news cycle. It is also too long and a complete mess, jumping from style to style with no cohesion between tracks. The Now Now was a sort of half course correct, being are more stripped back, simpler album with less features and a more consistent vibe. There's some good songs on there, but as a whole it is a fairly forgettable release from the band that drew comparisons to 2010's The Fall (a somewhat throwaway side album that Damon Recorded on his Ipad while on tour for Plastic Beach).

Song Machine was a complete change of pace, with Damon and Jamie eschewing the traditional album rollout for a series of 'episodes' comprised of a standalone track built around the style and skillset of the song's feature. This resulted in the best crop of Gorillaz songs since Plastic Beach, but removed any of the broader themes and imagery the project is known for. A season 2 was in the works, but for some reason was scrapped in favour of a more traditional record, Cracker Island, that leaned back into the cartoon band's 'lore' for the first time in a while, but really didn't do much with it's occult theme and is honestly the most tired and by the numbers Gorillaz album yet.

The Mountain, is once again another switch in direction for the band, with the first rumblings of the record a couple of years ago claiming that it would be a spiritual sequel to Plastic Beach. And in some ways it very much is. The record is a big, ornate sounding album that is start studded with features, and has some core themes that run throughout without being too restrictive to date the album. But The Mountain is very much its own beast, with two distinct factors that really make it stand out from the previous Gorillaz cannon. The first is that, following on from a couple of trips to India that Jamie and Damon took, the record features a notable influence from traditional and contemporary Indian music genres - which is something entirely new to the band. The second is that the record features a core theme on death and the afterlife (inspired by both Damon and Jamie losing their fathers in the run up to recording), and such Damon has decided to dig the Gorillaz archives for recordings from previous collaborators who have since passed themselves. These posthumous features are all very tastefully included and to someone not in the know, would just feel like they were recorded for the album and not repurposed from sessions from decades past.

The record opens up similarly to Plastic Beach with a big ornate, orchestral intro. However in the place of the swooning strings of the Sinfonia Viva Orchestra is an ensemble of Indian and Indian-origin musicians playing a piece in the style of traditional Indian classical music. What results is quite an eery and mysterious opening to the record which leads into the next track, The Moon Cave, perfectly. The core of the The Moon Cave is textbook modern Gorillaz: dreamy, whimsical synthpop with a few extra elements thrown in to spice things up. The sitars and flutes continue on from the title track, and are meshed with the hazy synths and a beat switch up and hip-hop verse from Black Thought and the late Dave Joliceour of De La Soul. The track is pretty low-key, but has massively grown on me since release with the dreamy atmosphere and themes around going to 'the moon cave' as a sort of place to metaphorically wash yourself in the water there and let go of the past to make a fresh start.

The next song on the record, The Happy Dictator featuring Sparks, was released as the lead single and is the first of several that deal in the record's other major theme - that of power, control, autocrats and false prophets. Inspired by how Sapamurat Niyazov, the dictator of Turkmenistan from the dissolution of the USSR to his death in 2006, banned bad news in the country as a form of control over his subjects. The track plays into Sparks typical zaniness and pairs it with synthy Gorillaz sound, and because of that very much felt like a Song Machine off-cut on first listen. It certainly works well within the albums context, but I wouldn't say it is the strongest Gorillaz single out there. The God of Lying, featuring Joe Talbot of IDLES, falls into similar territory for me. The Track is built around a dubby off-kilter rhythm that feels like a softer Clint Eastwood, but lacks the punch and genuine weirdness that made the song stand out so vividly 25 years ago. Talbot is also doing his more dejected 'arty' approach to the vocals that has characterised the more recent IDLES records, but its a style I just don't think off he pulls off in much of an interesting way. His strength was always in the rage and fury of the early IDLES records, not this much more wordy, 'tasteful' approach. The song is by no means bad, but taken in isolation outside of the album just feels like an echo of previous Gorillaz highs.

The Hardest Thing and Orange County are a pair of songs that sit together between The Happy Dictator and The God of Lying, and follow more in the line of The Moon Cave revolving around coming to terms with grief and loss. They are a sombre and melancholic duo, with The Hardest Thing essentially serving as a triumphant woodwind and trumpet intro to the more poppy and uptempo Orange County. The songs are direct in their message about letting go of a mentor figure and the worries about living up to their legacy, and very much hit the spot - they feel very end credits-y. As the middle of the record approaches, the two themes start to meld together with The Empty Dream Machine, where Damon as 2D sings about the struggle to come to terms with grief and the desire to look for external solutions to the pain. The song has subtle Indian influences but is one of those moody, slightly autotuned R&B cuts that are always my least favourite on a Gorillaz album. It's fine but does nothing for me.

It's only when we get to The Manifesto that I feel like the album is doing something truly new for a Gorillaz record. The song is a seven minute, multipart banger that initially fuses Indian pop with Latin Rap courtesy of guest rapper Trueno, but then half way through flips on its lid into a hardcore hip-hop beat and a posthumous verse from D-12's Proof recorded when he was stranded in London with Damon in London in the wake of 9/11. The verse does feel slightly shoehorned in to fit the albums themes, but you can really feel the rage and fury in Proof's vocals that it doesn't really matter to me. The song then flips back into dramatic, dancey final section to close it out. The only song that goes nearly as hard as The Manifesto is Damascus, featuring Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bay (aka Mos Def). The song is built off demos from the Plastic Beach era, and with the Yasiin Bay feature it really feels like Sweepstakes part 2. I really like the song and the Arabian influence is really cool, but the way it builds and builds to a frenzied climax is one for one Sweepstakes. I can say the same thing about Delirium, featuring Mark E. Smith. Mark's vocals are clearly taken from the Glitter Freeze sessions, resulting in the song following its lead. I'm fine with that, as Glitter Freeze is a really unique song and more of that is welcome - but I wouldn't say it's something new and ground-breaking for the group.

To continue with the Plastic Beach comparisons, my only real complaint with that record is that the final leg feels a little drawn out (despite there not really being any one song to single out as weaker than the rest), and I feel the same about The Mountain. The Shadowy light is a synth-driven doo-wap ballad about accepting that everything and everyone comes to an end at some point, and features some of the most prominent Indian language vocals on the record by Asha Bholse, but the overall tune I can take or leave. Similarly Casablanca and The Sweet Prince are dreamy, dreary synthpop tunes that breeze by this point in the tracklist (the album is over an hour long, so the fact that it slows down in the final leg really stands out). Luckily The Mountain ends pretty strongly with The Sad God, which really wraps up the albums themes in a nice little bow, being from the perspective of a benign god looking down at the world and lamenting in all the man made horrors that we as a species have created. It musically calls back to the title track making the whole experience feel very complete. It might actually be the best closer to a Gorillaz record thus far (Pirate Jet is a better song, but feels more like a coda than a closer to me).

The Mountain is a bit of a mountain of a record, but I'm enjoying that for the first time since Plastic Beach, there is more to engage with on a conceptual level. It's not some era defining staple that Demon Days and Plastic Beach have become, but it's certainly a lot more interesting than most of Gorillaz' post-hiatus work. It does feel like it's living slightly in the shadow of Plastic Beach especially (with how much it clearly draws from those sessions and collaborators), and there aren't really any songs (bar The Manifesto) that show their strengths when taken out of the album context. It's almost the inverse of Song Machine. That record is pretty much all bangers but I very rarely listen to it as a full album because there's no cohesive theme or throughline. Whereas The Mountain really works as an album, but not as a collection of songs in isolation. I'm intrigued where Damon and Jamie go next with the project, because they certainly seem more invigorated with this record in interviews than they had been with the last few.

Top Tracks: The Mountain, The Moon Cave, The Hardest Thing, Orange County, The Manifesto, Delirium, Damascus, The Sad God

7/10

PinkPantheress - "Fancy That" (2025)

 

Continuing on with my journey through the Primavera line-up, I've chosen to keep with the y2k throwback theme with PinkPantheress' latest mixtape, Fancy That. PinkPantheress' rise has been pretty substantial over the years. I remember Pain blowing up on TikTok in the back end of the pandemic, then Boy's a Liar really broke her into the mainstream a couple of years ago, and now I'd say she's one of the biggest current gen UK popstars. I've heard plenty of her big songs on the internet and on the radio (and enjoyed them), yet this is my first time fully dicing into one of her projects.

For those who have (somehow) not heard a PinkPantheress song before, her bread and butter is self-produced, short and speedy fusions of early 2000's UK garage and dance pop. Her songs are snappy and run at a break-neck pace, jammed full of hooks with not a second wasted. This mixtape is 20 minutes long with nine tracks, without second of empty space or a moment to breath. The first half of the project in particular hits you with banger after banger. Illegal opens up the record with a bang, featuring a killer Underworld sample against a classic 2-step drumbeat and a damn catchy hook. "Is this illegal?, It Feels illegal" PinkPantheress asks on the topic of a naughty or forbidden romance. No wonder it blew up on TikTok. This then runs straight into the equally energetic Girl Like Me that flips Bassment Jaxx's Romeo into a garage jam. Tonight was the lead single for the record and features the most 'stuff' out of any of the songs here: a detailed narrative, layers of airy synths, a squelchy 808 bassline, several different melodic hooks. Pink's vocals are playful and fun. It seamlessly transitions into Stars, a track built around a brilliant sample of Just Jack's Starz in Their Eyes which is just pure childhood nostalgia for anyone around my age.

Unfortunately I do feel like the short track lengths and breakneck pace leave some of the tracks in the second half to feel a little less developed and densely packed as the front end of the project. Noises is over in a flash after not really doing much and Nice to Know You's cinematic strings voiced synths don't really do much for me, and the song lacks a punchy hook like many of the others here. Stateside has blown up as a big radio single thanks to the Zara Larsen featured remix, but I feel like structurally it is the most straightforward radio-friendly pop song here with less emphasis on the garage drumbeats and edgy synths. The Groove Armada sample is appreciated though. Romeo closes out the record with a bit more an upswing as it brings back the tension and dynamics of the earlier tracks.

There's some great stuff on Fancy That, but its over in a flash and so I find it hard to truly sink into the project. The combined with the somewhat weaker second half means I'm not sure I'd ever really come back to it in full, despite how much fun the highlights on the record are. I'm still definitely going to try to catch PinkPantheress at Primavera (clashes pending), as she has a full set's worth of bangers across her career now and her live show looks like it has a lot of energy.

Top Tracks: Illegal, Girl Like Me, Tonight, Stars

6/10

Oklou - "choke enough" (2025)

 

I'm heading to Primavera Sound in Barcelona this summer, and I thought it would be fun to go through the lineup and write about some of the artists as I give them a listen. Oklou is a French alt-pop / electro-pop artist. choke enough is her full length debut and made a lot of year end lists last year, and considering my enjoyment of the recent wave of girly synth-pop, I thought this was going to be my bag. However, it wasn't quite what I was expecting (based on my admittedly limited knowledge going in) and hasn't been something I have resonated with much at all.

Compared to the brash and personality driven pop records I've loved over the past couple of years, choke enough is more of an ambient pop and minimal electronic album. Not that that's a bad thing, but I clearly had my wires crossed when I heard 'y2k aesthetic' and expected something along the lines of a BRAT or Imaginal Disk. choke enough is nothing like these albums, the mixes are sparse and clean, and the melodies are restrained and just sort of breeze in and out of these tracks. The songs flow into each other in a way where if you're not paying much attention, you could easily miss that one has ended and a new one has started. At 13 tracks and 35 mins, the album progresses quickly, not really lingering on a single moment long enough to emphasise it.

I think that's why I'm not really clicking with the album, as it just breezes by, with the more pop-leaning tracks not really having enough personality to carry them; and the more ambient-leaning ones not really creating much of an interesting or enveloping sonic landscape. The core aesthetics of the album are fine enough, with the clean, airy synths and hazy, reverbed vocals and percussion. I can see why it got labelled with the y2k tag as it feels like a video game or sci-fi movie soundtrack from that era.

Out of the tracks here, the ones I enjoy the most are the ones that are more sparce and minimal, as they create more of a serene atmosphere that I'm liking more than the poppier, more synth driven cuts. thank you for recording makes good use of negative space to highlight the simple melody that sounds like its performed on a distorted, electronic flute or the like. obvious has subtle hints of horns that poke through the reverby synths. The title track is one of the stronger more poppy tracks, with a repeated melodic background vocals smothered in distortion and reverb. The thing is, while I like them while they're on, I'm not going to remember these tracks in the long run. I find by around the point of plague dogs in the second half, I'm pretty much done with the record's sound and style. It's pretty much played all its cards by that point, and they just don't do it for me.

I don't want to bash choke enough too much, as it's more of a case that this just wasn't for me rather than any issue with the actual quality or craftmanship here. Considering all the critical acclaim it has received, there's clearly a lot of fans out there for this. But yeah, it just doesn't do it for me.

Top Tracks: thank you for recording, obvious

5/10

The Last Dinner Party - "From The Pyre" (2025)

The Last Dinner Party really blew up in 2024 following the release of their debut album, a record that really liked and still do. I think it's a really fun and well written glam and pop rock record that I've regularly come back to since its release. I caught them live later that year, and they were already playing new material, so I am not surprised they have followed up with their sophomore quickly (although maybe a little surprised at how quickly, I think the lead single was released when the band was just about wrapping up their tour for the Prelude To Ecstasy).

That lead single is titled This is the Killer Speaking, and was one of the new songs played by the band when I saw them on tour. Musically and lyrically, it picks up right where Prelude To Ecstasy left off. It is a glammy and over-the-top pop rock banger telling the tale of a scorned lover out to get revenge on their ex. While the debut's lyrics were a bit more fiery and pointed, This Is The Killer Speaking leans more into the camp and it works. Not every song has to be pointed critique of patriarchal dynamics within society. The other song they played live was also one of the pre-release singles, being Second Best. The song is about exactly what it says on the tin, walking away from someone who treats you like you're second best. The track leans into the band's Sparks influence, having dramatic staccato vocal passages and a punchy rhythm section. The song just builds and builds into a frenzied climax and is easily my favourite song on the record.

The rest of From The Pyre really follows on from those songs, being just more of what made the first album great. On a musical level, the only really distinguishing feature is the switch from James Ford to Markus Dravs as producer, resulting in the strings taking a little more of a backseat on these tracks, replaced with punchier, more prominent guitars in the mix. Similarly, lyrically the band are playing around with a lot of the same ideas and themes as the debut, but in a less tight and cohesive way. All of the tracks on PTE reinforced one another in a way that I don't think they do as well here. The opener, Agnus Dei, revolves around desire and not feeling good enough for someone, comparing it to Catholic mass and the apocalypse. The song is good opener, with Abigail Morris' dynamic vocals and lush instrumentation; but if the song was packaged as part of a deluxe version of the debut I wouldn't have batted an eyelid.

Count The Ways feels a bit more distinct, featuring the more guitar heavy mixing I mentioned previously. Once again, the band are exploring themes of tortured love and wanting to stay with someone who is 'twisting the knife'. Rifle feels like a mid-2000s Muse track, with heavy use of loud-soft chorus-verse dynamics and pentatonic scales. The song explores the male desire for violence and killing; but unlike past songs where they've touched on these subjects, it's approached from a less feminine / romantic angle, but a more 'above it all' parental viewpoint. It's certainly an interesting perspective from the band; and I wish the song had bit more of a hook to go with it - because it isn't the most melodically developed song on the record and is sort of compensating with the brash guitars choral backing vocals.

Woman is a Tree kicks of the second half with a nice change of pace for the band, being a spooky, dramatic, folk tune. It sounds like some culty campfire tune - again with engaging themes around comparing womanhood to be a strong and stable tree that provides nourishment to those around it. I Hold Your Anger follows this up with a song that feels pretty run of the mill for the band at this point. The song is sung by the Keyboardist Aurora Nishevci rather than Abigail, which is the songs most unique element. Otherwise it's a fairly dramatic glam rock cut about a woman holding everything together in a relationship. Sail Away, similarly, is musically a pretty bog standard piano ballad that doesn't really grab me. I think the lyrics are pretty good, but they're wrapped up in an instrumental that I think is merely just fine.

The Scythe is the real showstopper of the second half. The song was originally written by Abigail years ago as a breakup song, but has morphed into a more general song about grief and loss overall. It is an absolutely massive sounding power-ballad with twinkling keys, a vintage 80's sounding drumbeat and layers upon layers of background strings and organs. Abigail wails the lyrics on the chorus "Don't cry, we're bound together / Each life runs its course" with so much passion and power it's hard not to feel some sort of emotive response to it. It's a shame that the closer, Inferno, follows this up with a bit of a dud. The song is a jangly indie rock song with subtle glam rock touches, but it really doesn't pay off the emotional weight of The Scythe and feels like a bit an unsatisfying way to end the record if I'm being honest.

From The Pyre is very much more of what worked on Prelude To Ecstasy. There are some genuinely great cuts on the album that are fine additions to the band's canon. However it does feel a little second album syndrome-y, with a couple of moments that feel like the band treading water and on the whole not feeling quite as tight and cohesive as the debut. I hope that with a couple of albums under their belt and being big names in British indie now, they can take just a little bit longer to craft album 3 into something with its own unique identity.

Top Tracks: Agnus Dei, Count The Ways, Second Best, This is the Killer Speaking, Woman is a Tree, The Scythe

7/10