“Gorillaz” is a popular British alternative band, and the most successful virtual band in the world. The band was created by “Blur” lead singer Damon Albarn and comic artist Jamie Hewlett, featuring fictional members 2-D, Murdoc, Russel, and Noodle. The idea came up in 1998 and they started releasing music in the 2000s. Since then, the group has broken the boundaries of the music world, collaborated with over 50 artists and orchestras, and released tons of albums, EPs, and singles. Soon this year, the group plans on publishing their 8th big album.

Speculation of a new album likely started when the band started posting on social media again. Their recent posts have revolved around mentions of older music, performances, and artworks. The throwback posting started on January 29th with a YouTube video titled “NOSTALGIAZ“, which is a compilation video featuring tiny clips from old music and collaboration videos. The video was likely made in celebration of an unspecified anniversary, as the video thumbnail and caption have the quote “Makes the first 25 years feel like 9131 days.”

Fans’ suspicions were confirmed in an interview with frontman Damon Albarn, hosted by French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles. The interview was hosted in regard to his recent project “The Magic Flute II: La Malédiction”, an electro-pop opera made as a sequel to an opera by Mozart.

At one point in the interview, Albarn was asked, “What are your plans for 2025?” to which he humorously responded, “I’m finishing a new Gorillaz album. One opera and one new Gorillaz album seem like enough for 2025! Unless someone accuses me of taking my foot off the gas!”

Another time info on the new album was brought up was by the Instagram account “everythingorillaz“, a fan account who made a post on March 26th showing a message they received from artist Jamie Hewlett, who told them, “yes, the new album is coming out this year.”

Additionally, the post featured a miscellaneous quote from Albarn, reportedly from a French podcast that says, “6 more weeks and it’ll be finished.”

All fans of Gorillaz know that each album comes with a storyline. Their storylines can range from something absurd, creative, and deep like in their 2010 release “Plastic Beach”, or something more toned down yet equally deep like in 2018’s “The Now Now”. However, this album’s storyline may be revealed much later than expected, perhaps after or closer to the release, as nothing about their future work has been mentioned by the band directly. Something we do know about the components of the album is the setting: India.

A Consequence of Sound article relays some information from Albarn, who said he will be going “to India with Jamie(Hewlett) to start working on a new Gorillaz album.”

Given all we know, we can expect the new album to be a lovely blend of unique stories, deep themes, stunning art, good music, and cool collaborations. Each Gorillaz release is different from the last, yet still keeps their same realistic themes and undying musical spirit. Though many things regarding the album are unknown, we can bet that the best is yet to come.