Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s band released a new single, The Happy Dictator — a collaboration with Sparks — on Thursday (11.09.25). The track will be followed by their ninth studio album The Mountain, out on March 20, alongside a UK and Ireland tour beginning on March 21 in Manchester, England.
The album, which premiered earlier this month during a “mystery show” in London, was recorded in London, Devon, and India. Hewlett revealed the project was born from the pair’s shared grief over the loss of close family members. He told Rolling Stone: “It was all like: ‘This is f****** weird, there’s a reason why we’re here’. Losing our fathers, and losing my mother-in-law, and then being in India as an artist. Visually, if you’re an artist and you go to India and it doesn’t blow your mind, then you must be blind, you know? Everything is insane and rich and colourful and mad and tragic and beautiful. Damon worked with a lot of fantastic Indian musicians. We just had the best time, and we were so inspired and excited by the experience.”
Hewlett has also explained that the record was designed to be heard as a complete body of work, urging fans to listen from start to finish instead of picking out individual songs.
He said: “You’re supposed to listen to it from beginning to end. What we’re asking is, take the time to sit with your earphones and listen for however long the album is, and look at the artwork, and then just lose yourself in this story. Don’t cherry pick a song, listen to it all. We’re trying to bring back that idea of taking time to invest in something, instead of this culture of scrolling.”
The new project includes collaborations with artists such as IDLES, Paul Simonon, Johnny Marr, and Anoushka Shankar. Damon said he was especially excited to work with Anoushka because her father Ravi Shankar’s music played a big role in his childhood.
He told the magazine: “I probably listened to Ravi Shankar before I listened to The Beatles when I was a kid ... [So] to have Anoushka Shankar on the record is not only a real privilege, but the connection with my dad and his love of Ravi Shankar is great.”
Before launching The Mountain Tour, Gorillaz will perform at the Pulse of Gaia Festival in Madrid, Spain, on September 20. The tour will then open at Manchester’s Co-Op Live venue on March 21.
The band will go on to perform in Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Cardiff, Nottingham, Liverpool, Belfast, and Dublin, before closing the tour in London with a show at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20.
