Blur tracks poll - the RESULTS thread

Yeah, wtf??

Are all those points from Out of Time I wonder? I remember when I worked in a warehouse in 2003 I overhead some of the lads talking about it saying "I like this one - it's a proper song!" and I guess I kind of knew what they meant.

Actually 13 is far more than the sum of its parts, so really it's not that surprising.

I guess. There are very few consensus highlights on 13 - it's more of a "I like this one, but you like that one" kind of thing. Still, given how few really great songs are on Think Tank (plus a lack of big hits) it's still surprising it won out.

This thread has convinced me to definitely try and catch them next time they play live. Any idea what they're up to at the moment? Are they recording anything or planning any kind of tour, or is that it?

Nothing announced.

Planning, thesedays, = "keeping it very secret, denying everything, until the day of announcement"
i.e. Album release, tour, etc.

So, who knows.

i can imagine them doing a radiohead, yeah. I wonder if, saying they do make a new album, whether it'll be any cop at all. I did like Fool's Day, but there's no way of telling if it would work in an album context.

The problem with any new Blur album would be making it sound democratic and giving Graham as much clout as Damon. I like Think Tank but I mentally file it alongside Gorillaz or The Good, the Bad and the Queen rather than other Blur records. I wonder if Damon could let go of the creative reins sufficiently to allow the old Blur chemistry to work again.

My biggest shock.. No one pushing for Tell Me Tell Me or Long Legged out there?

I posted before I saw the list :( at least Mixed Up got love but TMTM only voted for by me I assume. Pity! Love those Seymour songs!

Well, one thing that this thread has shown is that they did a heck of a lot of work over their active years.

And, the work they would do in the future, potentially, is of the same ilk as before (recording, touring, media, etc)

Whereas a bunch of re-unioned bands would have a couple of members who virtually dropped out/retired, and one who carried on majorly (e.g. the VU).

Again, the world is much the same in 2011 as it was in 2003.

Ah, Pressure on Julian didn't make the top 60, so that's two songs from my list that didn't make it.

113 Jubilee 12

This is a surprise. Also Peach at #109.

A little surprised that M.O.R. didn't feature much higher up the chart, Albarn's best Bowie knockoff. Didn't make it into my 22 but would've made my 30.

Does anyone rate "All We Want", the Tender b-side? Always liked that, though not quite enough to include in my list.

@MarkG I know I'm a weird atypical Blur fan for a start, because my favourite albums are Leisure and 13 and my least favourite is probably Parklife (only because I don't even consider Think Tank a Blur album really) but I've always been a weird atypical Blur fan, even at the height of my participation in Blur fandom (online or otherwise).

Duane: it's pretty great! I haven't heard that in a long time. I was much more about All Your Life in terms of their three-letter titles starting with All though..

dammit I should have voted

It only would have been for 4 songs but it would have pushed "Music Is My Radar" into the countdown

Beetlbum is as an amazing song. I remember someone at the time saying how amazing it was that a song which is half instrumental could get to number one.

lol I was finding "Beetlebum" incredibly boring until the singing stopped

half instrumental? I have to listen to it again now.

Missed the poll. Would've voted for "Popscene" just because it reveals something important about Damon Albarn (that he's a spastic smartarse). Top songs would've been from 13 though... I love that album. Tender goes on a long time and is kind of obvious (big gospel chorus etc.), but I like to imagine the catharsis of having 10,000 fans in an arena singing "get through it" with you. "Coffee and TV" is an introvert anthem but (maybe appropriately) really hard to sing along with.

Let me rephrase. My favourite Blur albums are Leisure and side 2 of 13. If the whole of 13 were like the second half of it, it would be my favourite, but because it isn't, Leisure is.

Also Modern Life Is Rubbish >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Parklife but mainly because of the super aggro bass sound on MLIR, like I swear Alexander the James' music man actually grew TEETH on some of those songs.

Parklife is a nimbler, more streamlined version of MLIR really. It repeats a lot of tricks, but somehow I still prefer Parklife because it's absolutely all killer whereas there are tracks like Turn It Up and Coping, plus a few dull hoary moments towards the beginning which aren't bad in themselves, but kind of weigh MLIR down.

Man you are so wrong. Coping and Turn It Up are gr8! Turn It Up especially just has the most amazing little melodic hook and of course one of Alex's trademark "I'm supposed to playing root note & kick on this one-chord bit, but instead I'm going to wander about the fretboard like a ferret in a cage" riffs.

The only songs I skip on MLIR are Blue Jeans and Miss America. (Both of which placed, which is mad crazy talk to me.)

I listened to "Blue Jeans" yesterday for the first time and thought it was really, really boring.

they're due some remasters but i guess we're getting them at their 20 year anniversary point like Suede's/ Manics' / Primals etc maybe not Leisure though..

yeah I never got the Blue Jeans love. baffles me to this day.

But but I rlly rlly want a remaster of the Japanese version of Leisure...

"She's So High"
"There's No Other Way"
"Bang"
"I Know"
"Slow Down"
"Repetition"
"Bad Day"
"Sing"
"High Cool"
"Come Together"
"Inertia"
"Mr. Briggs"
"Fool"
"Birthday"
"Wear Me Down"

(the only way I get to not have to choose between Sing and I Know. I fucking love I Know (it's that damn bassline) but it's a crime that Sing was left off the US release for it.)

Blue Jeans isn't bad, but it's not THAT good, and that's another prob I have with MLIR is that some songs are duplicated on the album (Blue Jeans/Resigned very similar in feel), whereas no two songs on Parklife sound the same at all.

Do not actually take issue with MLIR btw, just saying why Parklife edges out.

and here are the ones that didn't make it:

63 Sunday Sunday 48

I made a youtube playlist of the top 60 (61) songs:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL6B4E0C64EF241DEF&feature=mh_lolz

I made that CD of the "MLIR" draft 1 tracks.

Will play it later and report back...

I'm sad this poll is over now... did someone say they were thinking of doing the same with Pavement tracks?

iirc Johnny Fever said he wants one but doesn't feel up to running it. I'll start an XTC one in a couple of weeks.

That means I'm gonna have to get some XTC albums outside the greatest hits comp (which I love, but have never considered exploring outside of).

ha!

You just couldn't do a poll like this with Oasis tracks:

1) Not many 'undiscovered' gems
2) A heck of a lot of songs that are "ok I suppose, ho hum"
3) never really 'tried something new which didn't quite work'

The closest parallell is "This is a low" to "Champagne Supernova". Beyond that, there's not much that matches up. Oh, "She's so high" is a bit like Oasis, that's it...

Yeah that's what I kept thinking while this was running. There's just nothing going on below the surface with Oasis, you know? There's nothing hidden in the arrangements, they're not conjuring images with any resonance beyond their immediate context, and other than the first-to-second-album jump there's no progression in their career. You get a visceral thrill, which can be pretty good and has its place, but tbh I don't know how you'd have the attention span to run a poll.

I'd do a Boo Radleys one, but I don't think I'd get enough votes to make it interesting.. Plus I don't have the requisite database skills.

Ha, we should do a quick poll to see how many'd vote!

I'd vote in a Boo Radleys poll. In an XTC poll I would only be able to vote 'Making Plans For Nigel' as number one and the one that goes "Sergeant Rock is going to help me - make the girl mine..." as number two and then my knowledge would be exhausted. Since that shoegazing tracks poll last autumn I've been intending to do a shoegazing albums/EPs poll, but the scale of it keeps putting me off. I might get round to it in September.

(xp) Thanks for that youtube playlist, btw

Ha, we should do a quick poll to see how many'd vote!

Am taking this temperature now.

Okay, I might do a Boos poll, but I'm not a very good statistician. Maybe it's time to learn.

I can tell you what I did, if that helps

I don't think I've ever heard any Boos or Pavement ever. Not sure how that happened tbh.

xp oooh yes please

AA - Blur are basically a convergence of these two bands. You need both of them in your life.

I thought I knew Blur well and ended up realizing I wasn't as familiar with them (at least by song titles alone) as I thought I was. A Boo Radleys poll might as well be conducted in Arabic, because I won't know ANYTHING (even though there was a time I listened to them semi-regularly). XTC or Pavement (or maybe even The Cure) would be good general interest options, but I'm about to be occupied with the 50s Tracks poll and I need to let my brains rest up.

AA - Blur are basically a convergence of these two bands. You need both of them in your life.

?!!!!!! Onto it.