GORILLAZ Share New Track ‘Orange County’ feat. Bizarrap, Kara Jackson & Anoushka Shankar

Gorillaz are back behind the wheel, choosing the long road instead of the shortcut and releasing ‘Orange County,’ a new track that arrives paired with ‘The Hardest Thing.’ This isn’t a loose single engineered for algorithmic survival. It’s a statement that insists on patience, sequence, and attention.

‘Orange County’ features an unlikely but precise constellation of collaborators: Bizarrap, Kara Jackson, and Anoushka Shankar. Together, they shape a track that feels open-ended and searching, unfolding rather than announcing itself.

It follows directly from ‘The Hardest Thing,‘ written by Damon Albarn and anchored by the voice of the late Tony Allen, Albarn’s longtime collaborator and friend. Allen’s presence is spectral but grounding, his voice carrying the weight of loss without dramatics. The line “You know the hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love” lingers, dissolving slowly into the emotional atmosphere of ‘Orange County.‘

Where its companion track moves through grief and endurance, ‘Orange County’ tilts toward release. Kara Jackson’s vocals arrive with a quiet intensity, intimate and unguarded, as if spoken rather than performed. Anoushka Shankar’s sitar lines stretch the song outward, adding a cinematic, almost devotional dimension that resists spectacle. The production, handled by Gorillaz and Bizarrap, stays restrained, allowing space to do the work instead of filling it.

Both tracks will appear on ‘The Mountain,’ Gorillaz’ upcoming ninth studio album, due February 27, 2026 via the band’s newly launched label, KONG. Spanning 15 tracks, the album reads like a deliberate collision of voices, histories, and energies. The guest list moves freely across genres and generations, bringing together IDLES, Yasiin Bey, Black Thought, Johnny Marr, Omar Souleyman, Paul Simonon, Sparks, Trueno, and more. The record also carries echoes from the past, with appearances from Bobby Womack, Mark E. Smith, and Tony Allen woven into its fabric.

There’s a sense that “The Mountain” isn’t built for instant gratification. It’s structured as a climb, one that acknowledges strain, memory, and repetition. The decision to release ‘Orange County’ and ‘The Hardest Thing’ as a single, continuous experience reinforces that intention. These are songs meant to be lived with, not skimmed.

That philosophy extends to the road. The Mountain Tour 2026 begins with two sold-out warm-up shows in Bradford on March 13 and 14, before officially launching in Manchester on March 20. The run stretches across UK and Ireland arenas, culminating in a large-scale London date at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20, supported by Sparks and Trueno.

With ‘Orange County,’ Gorillaz sound less interested in reinvention than in clarity. The track doesn’t chase urgency or novelty. It moves at its own pace, carrying grief, collaboration, and momentum in equal measure. It feels like a band comfortable with the distance they’ve traveled, and willing to keep going, even when the road gets steep.