Blur: Classic Or Dud

I'm going to assume there are no obvious singles on this album, so the ones they've selected are very likely to disappoint out of context. Being Blur, people are naturally tripping over themselves in a hurry to be massively disappointed, as is fashionable

I don't think I'd like to be disappointed. I really like Think Tank, so as far as I'm concerned they went out on an up note. It wasn't as great as Think Tank, but I have no complaints about an album that contains a song like "Out of Time."

As 13*. I really need to proofread my posts.

Think Tank was extremely shit

I mean, it was good for two tracks, then it dived off a cliff

Well, yeah, but then after Crazy Beat it did climb back up every now and then.

"Battery In Your Leg," "Caravan" and "Ambulance" are prob in my top 20 Blur tunes

yeah those are the other two sings I'll allow

something like Brothers And Sisters has aged about as well as corporal punishment

Out of Time, Caravan and On My To The Club are great (though the last one outstays its welcome)

Being Blur, people are naturally tripping over themselves in a hurry to be massively disappointed, as is fashionable

― PaulTMA

Don't agree with this at all. I think most people want this to be really great, myself included. Suede pulled off a great comeback album there's no reason Blur shouldn't either. This latest song is the only one I've disliked so far so really not sure what to expect.

Think Tank was almost great. I could lose Crazy Beat, We've Got a File On You, Brothers & Sisters and Jets but the rest of it is solid. Ambulance, Battery In Your Leg and Sweet Song are up there with the best songs they've ever done.

.. And furthermore..

To be honest, hearing how the record was made to begin with has pretty much ensured my expectations are set quite low.

half of Think Tank was some of the very best they've done and even though the other half was forgettable it's still probably one of their better albums overall, their albums weren't usually very consistent. Good Song is lovely as well as the others people mentioned

As a non-fan Think Tank is the only Blur album I have time for, so I can understand if their historical fan base didn't like it

Right now, the Coxon-less Think Tank's got the upper hand over these three songs. "Out of Time" and "Sweet Song" will be hard to beat.

I think they're great Damon songs, but the stuff I've heard from The Magic Whip makes me realise that they weren't really Blur songs.

Out Of Time live at Hyde Park 2009 with added Coxon guitar trickery was fantastic.

I think they're a singles band who think they're an albums band.

I'm not sure I agree with that: some of their best moments for me are album tracks, rather than singles. I think they were/are an albums band, but I always thought they crammed too much stuff onto their albums. Most of the albums they released in the '90s are at least 10-15 minutes too long, IMO.

When you're a great singles band you're not allowed to be a great albums band too apparently

Modern Life Is Rubbish is perfect and has no filler. Parklife comes close but I never need to hear the title track again. I even enjoy the more throwaway songs like The Debt Collector and Far Out.

Agree with Turrican that their album tracks are often their best songs. Apart from For Tomorrow, The Universal, Beetlebum and To The End my top 20 Blur songs would all be album tracks.

Anyone see the stream of them playing the album live last night? Sounded pretty solid. A couple of the ballads could have been from Damon's solo album - in that downbeat style he has that really started with Think Thank - but there was lots of classy Coxon guitar that seemed to really elevate the material. Sounded like a well-balanced album. Hard to really judge the unheard songs on one listen, but there seemed to be quite a lot of substance.

Modern Life Is Rubbish is perfect and has no filler.

― Kitchen Person, Thursday, March 26, 2015 1:26 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hmm. I dunno, 'Turn It Up' to me is the very definition of a filler. You could probably lose 'Miss America' and 'Resigned' too and I wouldn't miss 'em. In fact, the second half of that record pales in comparison to the first half for me. 'Villa Rosie' and 'Coping' are okay, I guess, but they're no 'Star Shaped' or 'Blue Jeans'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkggNN1KNdg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shja1fzmPhU

Ong Ong is great

hahahaha is this some kind of a terrible joke or something

yeah this is just a bit o_O Graham and Alex really don't look like they're having a good time at all. They seem like a very different bunch of people to even the ones I saw at Glastonbury in 2009.

The face that Graham pulls during 'Ong Ong' is priceless. A quick look on the internet suggests it's not a fan favourite.

There Are Too Many Of Us is still the only song I really like out of the songs I've heard from this album.

Jajj, everything from this has sounded very drab so far.

yeah this is just a bit o_O Graham and Alex really don't look like they're having a good time at all. They seem like a very different bunch of people to even the ones I saw at Glastonbury in 2009.

Maybe playing 12 new songs you've never played before in front of 200 people is slightly more nerve-wracking and concentration-inducing than a two hour set of hits in front of 120,000 roaring festival-goers?

Alex is starting to look a bit like Roger Waters, was anybody else singing 'I wanna be sedated' to the chorus of Ong Ong?

I pre-ordered it based on 'There Are Two Many of Us' and considered cancelling that pre-order on the basis of the two Later videos.

'Too Many', even.

those songs are almost pranks, that is how shit they are - I'd believe it was all a stunt if I hadn't struggled through about half of Everyday Robots, which was, let's be unambiguous, one of the worst records ever made

It was a very, um, well I would put it this way: I played it when doing a midnight drive with the family, and it woke nobody.

The elephant song is the only one I anyone remembers.

I really liked about half of Everyday Robots. I haven't yet watched any of those Jools videos yet, based on the reactions here.

form your own opinion, bro!

Alex is starting to look a bit like Roger Waters, was anybody else singing 'I wanna be sedated' to the chorus of Ong Ong?

― MaresNest, Wednesday, April 15, 2015 6:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

No, but now that you've mentioned it I'm not going to be able to hear anything else!

I definitely agree with what folks have said here regarding Everyday Robots, found it to be a bit of a snoozer.

Neither of the songs are even remotely shit, perhaps not the best performance ever. But I get there's a been an I'm-first-to-declare-new-Blur-THEWORSTSHITEVER thing going on already on ILM for ages so blah

If anything, Ong Ong sounds more like Vicar In A Tutu in the melody

Well this might be radical old, but I'm avoiding hearing it before I can buy/hear the whole thing.

Not got much invested in Blur, never heard a Gorillaz or any other Albarn-y record, but this is a good album.

I don't really understand why you would think that PaulTMA? Most of us are big Blur fans and are willing this album to be great. I didn't mind Goin' Out and loved There Are Too Many Of Us but the latest three songs have been really bad. I really enjoyed Think Tank despite there being three songs I really disliked on there. There is still chance this could be a good album but I'm not as hopeful now after hearing these latest ones.

Imago is just overreacting for attention because that's his thing. We're not all doing that.

this will not be a good album. it will have 3-4 good songs max and the rest will be half-baked B-side material just like the last two albums.

Everyday Robots was a bit dreary and deadened, but not dreadful, and it's relatively engaging compared to the stuff leaked so far from this new Blur album. I still hold out hope that there will be some redeeming moments though.

I'm perhaps in a minority in thinking that The Good The Bad and The Queen album was one of the best things Albarn has ever done, and - despite it now being nearly a decade old - was confirmation of a functioning latterday mojo, so the recent greyness of his output is a disappointment.

it will have 3-4 good songs max and the rest will be half-baked B-side material just like the last two albums.

13 rules tho. you're probably referring to some other blur thing that isn't 13.