Damascus Lyrics – Gorillaz | from “The Mountain”

Gorillaz are scaling epic new peaks with The Mountain, their ninth studio album dropping February 27 on their own Kong label, and Damascus with Omar Souleyman and Yasiin Bey rolls in like a midnight caravan—dusty trails of rhythm blending into something urgent and alive.

This 11th track stretches to about four minutes of boundary-blurring electronica, fusing Gorillaz’s animated weirdness with Syrian dabke pulses and Yasiin Bey’s poetic flow over producers James Ford, Samuel Egglenton, Remi Kabaka Jr., and the band’s core. It’s a heady mix of genres—trip-hop haze meets Arabic folk swagger, with hand percussion from Viraj Acharya adding that live-wire spark.

Lyrically, it’s a navigation anthem: shipping fantasies from Damascus to Point Nemo, dodging corporate corniness like Starbucks for real Turkish coffee, all while chasing stars in the dark. Themes weave cultural collision and quiet rebellion—hush habibi, time to make noise—turning personal drift into a global call, recorded across London, Devon, Mumbai, Damascus, and New York for that true wanderer’s edge.

The Mountain carves out 15 tracks of collaborative chaos, a multilingual tapestry in English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, and Yoruba that feels like summiting a sonic Everest. It opens with the title cut’s sitar swells featuring Dennis Hopper’s narration and Anoushka Shankar’s strings, dives into soulful caves with Black Thought and the late Trugoy the Dove, then hits highs like Sparks’ dictatorial pop twist and IDLES’ lying gods. Standouts include Bizarrap’s trap-laced Orange County and Trueno’s manifesto fire, closing on reflective shadows with Gruff Rhys and Asha Bhosle. It’s Gorillaz at their most expansive, less cartoon caper, more worldly dispatch. The visualizer dropped December 13, already pulling a quarter-million views, with fans geeking over the Syrian nods and jasmine-scented vibes.