Gorillaz have shared two fresh singles titled ‘The Hardest Thing’ and ‘Orange County’, featuring contributions from Bizarrap, Kara Jackson and Anoushka Shankar. You can listen below.
The tracks are the most recent releases from the band’s upcoming album ‘The Mountain’, which is due to arrive on February 27. Both songs, along with the rest of the album, were previously previewed live during Gorillaz’s phone free ‘House Of Kong’ mystery performance in London last September.
On the album, ‘Orange County’ is directly linked to its companion piece ‘The Hardest Thing’. The latter opens with the voice of close collaborator and longtime friend Tony Allen, the drummer who died in 2020.
The two songs reflect themes of loss and healing that run throughout the record, though ‘Orange County’ leans more toward a hopeful and forward looking mood.
The track features Damon Albarn alongside songwriter and former U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson on vocals, as well as sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, who has received 14 Grammy nominations.
Jackson co wrote the song with Albarn, alongside four time Latin Grammy winning Argentine producer and artist Bizarrap.
“You know the hardest thing is to say goodbye/To someone you love/That’s the hardest thing,” 2D, voiced by Albarn, sings softly over bright, understated instrumentation. “Every face you forgot/ Father’s jaw/ They suspend the clock/ Another start/ Get another chance to love,” Jackson adds. Listen to both tracks below.
These new releases mark the fifth and sixth tracks shared from ‘The Mountain’ so far, following ‘The God Of Lying’ featuring Idles, ‘The Happy Dictator’ with Sparks, ‘The Manifesto’ alongside Trueno and the late D12 member Proof, and ‘Damascus’.
‘Damascus’ features Syrian Bedouin music star Omar Souleyman together with rapper and singer Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. The song was also performed live at the Together For Palestine benefit concert at Wembley Arena, organised by Brian Eno last year.
Additional contributors to the album alongside Albarn and Jamie Hewlett include Black Thought, Asha Puthli, Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys, Paul Simonon, Johnny Marr, The London Arab Orchestra, Demon Strings, Chris Storr, James Copus and Matthew Gunner.
Alongside Tony Allen, several other artists who have since passed away appear on the album, including Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, De La Soul’s Dave Jolicoeur and The Fall’s Mark E Smith. These contributions are credited as ‘Voices from Elsewhere’.
In March, Gorillaz will embark on a UK and Ireland tour, highlighted by a one off headline performance at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Before that run begins, the band will play a series of warm up shows in Bradford, followed by appearances at major European festivals throughout the summer, including Electric Picnic, Primavera Sound Barcelona and Porto, and Rock Werchter.
Last year, Albarn spoke about how the album was shaped in part by personal loss, after both he and Jamie Hewlett lost their fathers and travelled to India as a way of processing their grief.
“I did things I’d never done before. I swam in the Ganges in Varanasi. I watched the bodies being burnt on the banks of the Ganges. I took my dad’s ashes there and I cast them in the river. It was very beautiful.”
