Long before KPop Demon Hunters group Huntr/x were certified platinum, and back when Crazy Frog was but a weird tadpole, Gorillaz made animated bands cool. In fact, they’re less of a band and more of a whole cinematic universe. Dreamed up by Blur frontman Damon Albarn and illustrator Jamie Hewlett in 1998, the last 28 years have seen the group embark on an impressive range of adventures, from hanging out with Snoop Dogg on a remote Pacific island to partying in the Namibian desert. But, like a real band, Gorillaz have matured with time, and their ninth studio album, The Mountain, released today (February 27), sees the ragtag group travel to India in search of spiritual enlightenment.

Following the release of Grammy Award-winning 2005 album Demon Days, Albarn summed up Gorillaz’ sound as “dark pop”. While this has varied over the years, with subsequent releases covering everything from ghetto tech to Syrian dabke, this deconstruction of pop culture is still the best descriptor of the band we have today. Between the cult investigations of “Cracker Island ft. Thundercat” and the environmental activism of “Melancholy Hill”, what ties Gorillaz’ discography together is an unflinching look at the modern world and the sounds that it makes.

“That’s one of the wonderful things about animation,” Hewlett told Dazed in an interview late last year. “The real world gets parodied in a way that makes you feel more comfortable about society’s problems.” It’s this that makes Gorillaz such an important presence in music today, almost 30 years on from their formation – we certainly aren’t lacking for real world problems for the group to sink their chipped teeth into.

Below, in view of the release of The Mountain today, we rank the nine official Gorillaz albums from worst (read: less good) to best. 

9. THE NOW NOW (2018)

While the rest of Gorillaz’ discography is all about big collaborations and genre-diffuse production, The Now Now stays pretty rooted in Albarn’s vocals over psychedelic synthpop beats. On its own, this isn’t bad, but in practice, it just doesn’t feel like a Gorillaz project. The Now Now is sort of like fictional frontman’s 2D’s solo spin-off project, and maybe it should’ve been released as such. 

8. SONG MACHINE, SEASON ONE: STRANGE TIMES (2020)

Built around Gorillaz’ 2020 music video web series of the same name, in which the band collaborate with a different artist each episode, Song Machine is absolutely brimming with character. The lineup is mental: UK grime legend Kano, Octavian’s crooning alt-rap, Slowthai featuring Soft Play, 6lack and bloody Elton John on the same song; the list goes on. But this impressive diversity is also what holds Song Machine back relative to the rest of Gorillaz’ discography – while it’s cool to hear 2D adlib Elton John and Kano on the same record, it would be nice to hear more effort to tie it all together. 

7. THE FALL (2010)

The Fall is actually somewhat of a parallel to The Now Now above – both were recorded and released in less than a year, and have markedly fewer features than usual. However, The Fall is more interesting for arguably being Gorillaz’ darkest record to date. An unsettling sinking feeling follows 2D’s travels across a dystopian American wasteland on the project, from being imprisoned in Arizona to running into hillbillies and snakes in Dallas, and beyond. 

Indeed, the entire project was produced on an iPad by Albarn alone while travelling across North America on the Escape to Plastic Beach Tour in 2010. The Fall was (ironically) considered a fall-off for the group when it was released, and it is certainly one of Gorillaz’ least ambitious records, but it is definitely still worth a listen. There’s a rough gem to be found in these barren iPad vignettes. 

6. CRACKER ISLAND (2023)

Bad Bunny and MC Bin Laden on a Gorillaz album? This might sound like a departure from their comfort zone, but if anything, the biggest issue with Cracker Island is that it plays it too safe. The choice to include both of these Latin American stars in an album about far-right radicalisation online – and, in particular, white supremacy in America – is an inspired one, but ultimately, Cracker Island seems to value concept over execution.

Awash with neon-coloured synths, Cracker Island feels like a return to the sonic palette of Plastic Beach, this time with an added elegiac quality to evoke sanity being eroded in internet rabbit holes. It’s bookended by some incredible Gorillaz tracks: the title track opener featuring Thundercat, and the closer remix of “New Gold feat. Tame Impala and Bootie Brown”, but everything in between feels slightly less memorable. 

5. HUMANZ (2017)

Breaking Gorillaz’ longest hiatus to date, running between 2010’s Plastic Beach and 2017, Humanz is perhaps the band’s most underrated record. Even held against the rest of Gorillaz’ bonkers discography, Humanz somehow manages to catch listeners by surprise, opening with the bombastic ghetto tech cut “Ascension feat. Vince Staples” and later featuring left-field contributions from Popcaan, Pusha T and Kelela. 

Indeed, despite being set in a “dark fantasy” world in which Donald Trump won the 2017 US General Election (imagine that, eh?), Humanz actually sits on the more lighthearted end of the Gorillaz spectrum. It’s all about partying at the end of the world, and the liveliness of these soundscapes is partly due to the inclusion of producer (and the voice of virtual bandmember Russell Hobbs) Remi Kabaka Jr as the first new Gorillaz member since the group’s formation. We only wish that Donald Trump’s real-world election win was as fun as Humanz sounds. 

4. GORILLAZ (2001)

This one comes with a disclaimer: I think “Clint Eastwood”, and especially the Ed Case remix featuring Sweetie Irie, is the single best track Gorillaz have ever released. Every good party I’ve been to – every single Notting Hill Carnival I’ve been to, even – has played this tune at least once. Both the original and the remix are jewels in the history of UK music.

The catch is that the rest of the project just doesn’t live up to this peak. Partly recorded in Jamaica, and heavily influenced by dub in its spacey, reverb-drenched production, Gorillaz is a brilliant album in a vacuum. But held against the dark pop highs of Demon Days, the visual distinctiveness of Plastic Beach, or even the narrative richness of The Mountain, it just doesn’t quite hold up – it’s just slightly less polished.

3. THE MOUNTAIN (2026)

Yes, we truly think that The Mountain is up there with the best that Gorillaz has to offer. Its central concept of death and the afterlife, executed with posthumous contributions from Eminem collaborator Proof, Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen and De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur, and illustrations set in India (based on Albarn and Hewlett’s own travels across the country in 2024), all combine to form a musical story that only Gorillaz could tell. 

It’s also partly due to these posthumous contributions that The Mountain ties with Song Machine for best features on a Gorillaz project to date – elsewhere including Idles’ frontman Joe Talbot, Argentinian hip hop legends Trueno and Bizarrap, and some especially standout features from The Roots rapper Black Thought. We’re calling it now – The Mountain is on Gorillaz’ own Mount Rushmore. (And before you complain that the album only came out today, we’ve had the project in our headphones for a few months now.)

2. PLASTIC BEACH (2010)

This is how to make eco-conscious music that is actually good (*cough* Lil Dicky’s “Earth” *cough*). Gorillaz’ third studio album, which landed a full five years after Demon Days’ breakout success, Plastic Beach is notable for being the band’s first true concept album – a trend which continued throughout the remainder of their discography, but never quite reached the peaks of this one. Set on a fictional, Great Pacific Garbage Patch-type island and even featuring vocal samples from Sir David Attenborough himself, Plastic Beach has two of Gorillaz’ most recognisable songs: “Stylo feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack” and “Melancholy Hill”.

Full of expressive synths, funky guitar trills and plodding electronic percussion, the project is awash with a nostalgic, sepia tone that speaks directly to its central message of protecting natural beauty before it’s gone. It’s a strong sonic identity that is also reflected in what is perhaps the most visually recognisable era in Gorillaz career, with most of the project’s music videos featuring golden hour depictions of the titular Plastic Beach Island. 

1. DEMON DAYS (2005)

It really couldn’t be anything else, could it? Demon Days isn’t just the best Gorillaz album, it’s one of the best albums of all time. 2001’s self-titled release might have been their debut, but it was with Demon Days that Gorillaz truly became the group they are today. It’s a sonic leap ahead of this previous release: it was the first to truly articulate the group’s dystopian ‘dark pop’ sound, it was the first to weave real-world commentary into their virtual setting, and it was the first to propel them to international recognition. 

The concentration of bangers on this release is overwhelming: melancholic grunge track “Feel Good Inc.”, post-apocalyptic pop cut “Dare”, dusty funk-hip-hop crossover “Dirty Harry”; the list goes on. Painting soundscapes as vivid and distinctive as its illustrations, Demon Days really does sound like a comic strip brought to life. While later records might have had more ambitious concepts or more impressive features, Demon Days remains the definitive Gorillaz project.