Blur - Blur

Dont judge an album via it's singles.

OK I'll admit I bought thier best of album for two reasons, Song 2 and the clever artwork and after a few listens I loved it. What I loved in particular was the songs off that album which were taken off the album "Blur", Song 2 is a given but also the amazing calm and catchiness of Beetlebum and the electronicly driven On Your Own. So on the back of those songs, I assumed this was Blur's best album and bought it.

I had high hopes on first listen and I was conflicted. How could an album with some such amazing songs be so... bad? The first few songs are great but once part 2 of the album kicks in you end up fastforwarding through all the songs until you reach the end. I've only listened to the whole album twice and couldn't again, and unfortunately the "white noise" path would be the one they followed in future years. March 24, 2008

Movin' On...

After the Brit Pop movement got exhausted, bands began to break off and move into very different directions. After the Great Escape, Blur treaded into really fuzzed-out and tripped out territory. A place where the White Sripes would eventually come from. And the results are mind-blowing. Where the weird sound effects gurgling on prior albums was subtle and hinted at, on this album it they hit you like a brick.

For those of you who heard Song 2 and thought this album would be a non-stop indie rock force-to-be-reckoned-with, I don't know what to tell you, if anything, Song 2 is just a small part in this mind-trip experience. So be warned.

The cd starts out on radio-friendly terms with the Beatlesque Beetlebum, and it serves as the perfect intro to where Blur are at on this cd. The verses are pure minimalist indie-rock style, and they break into a soothing radio-friendly chorus, and the outro builds up into a torrent of buzzing and blurry sound-effects that eventually eclipse the song they're grounded in. It encapsulates what's about to come over the next hour. Song 2 is the indie-rock extreme of the album rocking like a beast. And then you head into Country Sad Ballad Man which is the polar opposite, a psychedelic slow-burner with uncountable layers of acoustic, and electric guitars, bass, drums, and indefinable bubbling noises.

Like White Blood Cells by the White Stripes, this cd has no flow to it at all, and on listening to this the first time around, you have no idea what the hell is going to happen next. In the indie/psychedelic texture of this disc, Blur explore pop music, rock, ballads, pure psychedelia, and the unknown (Essex Dogs). It is one hell of a listen that will leave you mystified and coming back for more.

If you're looking for rock music at it's simultaneously most mystifying and haunting, this is a must. June 9, 2006

Movin' On From Britpop

My favourite album's tend to be the one's where a successful band leaves behind their signature sound and ventures into new realms that you wouldn't have expected them to and this is no exception. That's not to say that Blur were always the indie pop meets music hall of 'Parklife' and 'The Great Escape', there was definitely evidence of them wanting to be a more challenging band on their second album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' and prior to becoming Blur their previous incarnation as art punks 'Seymour' showed they were musically more ambitious than any of the Britpop bands of the mid-nineties.
Still, this album shocked the majority of Blur's fanbase and surprised their critics at the time of it's release. Some of the songs have a demo feel to them and the so-called 'Lo-fi' production helps the album to flow well and give it a unique character no matter how diverse each of the songs are from each other.
It's my personal favourite Blur album and was the first that I bought by them. I'd heard the singles 'Parklife', 'Girls And Boys' and 'Country House' along with everyone else in the country at the height of Britpop mania but I wasn't a big fan of indie till 1997, year zero for me in terms of developing my own taste in music beyond my parent's taste's!
So this album truly introduced me to the world of Blur and I revelled in it from start to finish. Graham Coxon instantly became my teenage idol and has inspired me as a guitarist ever since i heard this for the first time. He might disagree but I would say that this is his album more than Damon's even if he only actually wrote just one of the songs (the chirpy acoustic strum of 'You're So Great'). It was Graham who became sick of the Britpop scene they inspired and the member who most fought for a change of direction. His guitar playing dominates this album and gives it a playful, sloppy one take feel that no Blur album previously had (including 'Modern Life...).
As for the songs themselves, there is a variety of styles on here from short punk blasts ('Song 2', 'Chinese Bombs', 'Movin' On') to haunting pieces (the instrumental 'Theme From Retro', 'Death Of A Party' and my favourite song on the album 'Strange News From Another Star') to eccentric pop (the under-rated single's 'M.O.R' and 'On Your Own'). 'Beetlebum' has to be one of the most unusual and therefore brilliant number one singles of the last ten years! 'Look Inside America' is the only track that harks back to their Britpop sound which is ironic considering it's subject matter! 'Country Sad Ballad Man', 'I'm Just A Killer For Your Love' and 'Essex Dogs' are the songs that require more than one listen to get into but are worth it once you do get your head round them.
You can trace the roots of '13', 'Think Tank', Graham's first four solo album's and even Gorillaz here on this album.
Blur were the nineties Beatles and this is their 'White Album'. April 30, 2006

Hasn't left my cd player!

I first discovered Blur through Damon Albarn's side project, Gorillaz. Needless to say, Blur sounded completely different from the "zombie hip-hop" of Gorillaz, but I liked it - a lot. This is the third Blur CD I have, after their greatest hits album and "Parklife."

1. Beetlebum - great song, jams for a bit too long at the end 9/10
2. Song 2 - Whoo-hoo! Like Nirvana on ecstacy. 10/10
3. Country Sad Ballad Man - extremely catchy. One of the more experimental ones - 10/10
4. M.O.R. - kind of...eh. grows on you after a while, though. 7/10
5. On Your Own - catchy, nothing spectacular. 6/10
6. Theme from Retro - average. This is where I begin to get worried. 5/10
7. You're So Great - YES!!! This song is so great. And the reason it doesn't sound like Damon is because it's sung by Graham Coxon. 10/10
8. Death of a Party - spooky, but extremely beautiful. 9/10
9. CHINESE BOMBS - hated it first listen, got better, not nearly on par with Song 2. 8/10
10. I'M JUST A KILLER FOR YOUR LOVE - great guitar. 9/10
11. LOOK INSIDE AMERICA - very pretty piece. Damon could tone down the vocal gymnastics, though. Sounded like he was warbling in some parts. 9/10
12. STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR- another very pretty song. Probably the calmest one on the CD. 10/10
13. MOVIN' ON - not bad, not memorable - 7/10
14. ESSEX DOGS - personally, I love this one, but it's an acquired taste. 10/10

February 24, 2006

A little different, but just as good

I read in several places that they were being inspired by Pavement's lo-fi stylings at the time. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but this album definitely has a different vibe from their prior releases, and it is, once again, an excellent record. Damon, Graham, and the rest seem to be able to do any style they want and do it well. Incredibly strong from front to back. January 14, 2006

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