Blur: Classic Or Dud

yeah i don't agree with this. MLIR came out well before Definitely Maybe and was the benchmark of their sound. Anything else that came after was entirely independent of what Oasisever did.

I can sort of see why he thinks this: The whole Oasis escapade could make someone run a mile from making more 'commercial stuff, but Damon's always been a musical butterfly really.

If there was no such thing as Pavement, then Blur would still have been playing roughly the same style they did in the mid 90s.

-- Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 21:25 (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

fixed!

...I kid, I kid..

I love them. The Great Escape was a bit disappointing, but apart from that, I think they were brilliant.

Of course you do, even your username is a Blur song! :D Who am I to talk, my email is based on Theme From An Imaginary Film.

The Great Escape is a very, very good album in my view, and I'm infamous for preferring their more experimental stuff. It knocks the spots off MLIR and Parklife. I'd even prefer it to "Blur" these days.

To me, The Great Escape, apart from The Universal, epitomised Britpop at its very worst. The lyrics are weak, the melodies barely register, and the songs lean too heavily on horns and other production flourishes. Maybe I need to listen to it some more, but as it stands, it's the only Blur LP I cannot stand.

Fake Louis.

Well, it was A Blur Album, with all the constituent parts in place, including the 'character' pieces a'la Ray Davies and so on. But the buttons being pushed were all worn out.

That 'pavement' fix comment isn't so far away from the truth.

Quelle bullshit. It might still be their best album. But really you had to be there at the time.

Well, I was! Why call bull?

I like other albums more. Five, off the top of my head

multixpost
The Great Escape is the dark heart of britpop and presciently is infused with disappointment and rage. Almost as if they new what was to come post Blair's election. If you can't see past some of the more outre production touches then that's your loss.

Thank you sir.

By being "there at the time" I also meant "being in West London" which obviously everyone couldn't be but I'm just saying that when you experienced the environment every day TGE was very easy to understand and grasp.

OK, I can go with that.

there are too many total turkeys on it for me, but the highlights on it are some of their best.

xpost Oh, I do, I do. I'm not saying it's a bad album.

(thinks: Was I in West London then? mmmm... Yes. I was.)

hmmmm bhmm hummmh hummmmmnh humnn hbmn hjm hm mhm hm DUD

Asa 16 year old in Devon it didn't really do it for me.

The Great Escape was the last Blur album I discovered; I'd been holding out on it for fear it was the cliched Britpoppy sell-out disaster I'd been promised. What I got instead was this vast, dark, nauseous treaty on the rottenness of Middle England, with some cracking tunes and genuinely original arrangements. I think it's fab. Although not my favourite song, the key to the album is probably "Fade Away". To many it sounds tacky. To me it sounds fabulously diseased.

Blog this, Louis. Blog Blur.

I haven't heard the B-sides :(

I don't care.

I want 500 words on The Great Escape.

OK! I might incorporate all the other albums, tho, just for context...

No, just this one. Mention them not no exegesis.

All done. Editors out there, here's a dude who works to schedule. ;-)

The production really doesn't bother me, except in the sense that it's only there to hide a bunch of sub-par songs. And I was there, though I suppose I was too young to fully appreciate the context of the record and all that. To me, "Country House" is just a relic of the 90s, like "wannabe" or the first Britney Spears record. I love Blur, but TGE is just shite.

not one word on ilx about the hyde park show next year! my, times have changed...

is this a one-off gig or is this a "we're back" type of show?

They said this is going to be one of some other shows. They're already rehearsing. My, I really wish they'd come to America.

Discussed it already on the 'Cooler. Came to the conclusion that, after the first "oh wow, Graham's in..." reaction, we weren't that bothered.

Pretty much the least surprising reformation ever, isn't it? Though I've no idea (other than "for money") why Graham and Damon would want to re-saddle themselves with those two other pricks. They are much more fun on their own.

I dunno, it's nice for people to go have a good day out, see band, smile, etc.

If they want to make more new music, then we'll celebrate.

They're doing the 'hey we never actually split up' bit at the moment, so we'll see...

TGE is the weakest of their 3 Britpop albums, certainly, but it does have that quality of the emptiness at the heart of the 90s party. Coxon's guitar was always the best part of them, for me, and the Country House solo one of his finest moments.
Yes, they're character actors, media chancers who never made an original sound, but they did it with some panache.
I will still listen to Modern Life is Rubbish and parts of Parklife and later albums.

I've no idea (other than "for money") why Graham and Damon would want to re-saddle themselves with those two other pricks.

"Word" on the "street" is Graham's skinto and has had to flog his country pile (how big is it? etc), and so has been compelled to get in line. I must admit to a real shiver of excitement the first time i saw the new D&G arm-in-arm pics. They're a cracking team, no matter how much (or of course precisely becuase) they wind each other up.

I'd imagine there's also a degree of now-extremely-wealthy Damon helping out his evidently-gifted-but-chaotic/mentally iffy mate in a time of need.

If they want to make more new music, then we'll celebrate.

we will?

for sure! another non-graham blur album would be perhaps a little pointless, but sticking them back together for another pop will at least be interesting.

they were pointless and boring the first time round. NO MORE esp not for these awful nostalgia fests which are at least providing me with a template on how not to be when i am old.

but if you won't remember danity kane who will?

the brainwasher

see, calling blur pointless is one thing, but srsly lex if you actually think they're *boring* i can only assume you've only heard singles?

dude, don't...

argh! too late...

"boring" is lex-ese for "i don't like it"

Christ almighty.

Anyone fancy a "Blur:Are Shite Once Again" T-Shirt? (Read the following in a General Crozier style Metalocalypse voice, to yourself obviously. If you don't know what Metalocalypse is, then it's your own fault and this will be even less funny than it already is)

It seeeeeems as if the seminal britpop band called Blur want to get back together again to make astounding new music. This could have catastrophic effects on our youth and middle-aged citizens. As the world's 4th biggest economy, Blur's surprise re-union could have destabilizing ramifications which are too legion to be properly explained here. Only Patrick David Xavier McMeneman-McHanarahan, our specialist re-union specialist, can even start to describe the disastrous potency of this formative party's re-grouping on the world's already dangerous pre-apocalyptic position. He says, "Their imperial designs know no bounds and we will have to use all of our vigor and guile to disperse this potential doomsday-making scenario else we sprint toward a life-ending britalocalypse". He added: "Damon Albarn-Taller than a Chinese tree; Graham Coxon: Not a bumblebee; Dave Rowntree: Diddy Doo Diddly Doo Labour loser Doo Diddly Doo; Alex James: Cheese master in more ways than one."

http://mogwai.co.uk

Well I don't care what anyone else thinks, I'm happy about it. Whatever happens can't possibly suck the way Think Tank did.

You reckon? Think Tank is a repulsive album but this is already sounding like an epic disaster.

this is already sounding like an epic disaster.

Care to explain how? I mean, it isn't as if they've announced reunion shows on the moon or a comeback space rock opera album. They've announced some shows. Bad idea? Maybe. Epic Disaster? Come on...

Fair enough.

reunion shows on the moon or a comeback space rock opera album

Either of these things would, actually make me THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD!!!!