Blur: Classic Or Dud

That demo Death of a Party is pretty cool! (xpost)

Back in 2001 when this thread was started, Blur were one of my biggest favourites, but I kinda lost interest in them soon after "Think Tank" was released. I still like them, and my answer to the original question in the thread title is definitely "Classic!" (with a capital C and an exclamation mark), but I must say that some of their music hasn't aged very well. The cheery/uptempo tracks from their first few albums are as difficult to like as "Alright" by Supergrass these days - they're not bad songs but there's something a little bit annoying about them. Or perhaps I just played them too many times back in the day... Many of the deep/mysterious/way-too-serious tracks from their latter albums have lost some of their edge too.

But Blur still did a lot of good stuff, and they were one of the more interesting bands throughout the nineties. Perhaps all their different styles didn't impress everyone, but at least they tried to experiment with different ideas without (usually) going too far - that's something that I've always liked about Blur.

TGE (and to a lesser degree, Parklife and MLIR) also suffers from some prime CD-era bloat.

I say, ditch "Quango", ""Top Man", "Ernold Same", "Dan Abnormal", and maybe "Entertain Me" (I've always liked the vibe of "Entertain Me" but it seems to fall a bit short of the mark it was aiming for), do a bit of re-jiggering, and you have a cracking Blur record, certainly their most immaculately produced and featuring some absolutely remarkable guitar playing.

"Best Days" is my fave Blur track after "Beetlebum," achingly sad from deep-in-the-bones place.

I like 'Entertain Me' a lot, because it takes the musical template of 'Girls and Boys' but lyrically looks at things from a different angle altogether. 'Girls and Boys' is far more upbeat, in the sense of "we're off on holiday to Greece to forget about our lives for a little bit and we're gonna make the most of it and have a good time."

The escapism in 'Entertain Me' comes across as much less optimistic to me: "the boredom of a sober week/the weekend's here, hip hip hooray/to make the blues just go away" ... it seems less like a celebration of the end of the working week, or looking forward to a break from the working week, and more like weekly self-medication due to general unhappiness. Or at least that's what I get out of it.

what kills the vibe of Best Days on TGE for me is all the woozy, sea shanty/tearoom-orchestra-on-a-boat stuff.

*however*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flUnDtO7_gI

I wouldn't change a single thing about 'Best Days' on the album, really. I particularly love those descending guitar lines after the chorus!

Yeah, the production on the album recording is perfect.

Loving the "Best Days" love. I recently decided it's my favorite Blur song, just around the time I decided Quango is total shit.

"My Terracotta Heart" is on Spotify.

Gorgeous.

Two more tracks from Later...

Go Out
My Terracotta Heart

Arriving late to the conversation coz I've been away from home and unable to open youtube clips on my phone, but I'm underwhelmed by the two tracks about 50 posts upthread. I don't dislike them, but they don't really do anything for me either, just seem like B-side filler.

Repeated listens have improved the Blur tracks for me -- especially Go Out and Lonesome Street.

Anyone noticed the inclusions of distant sirens in some of these tracks? Studio bleed? thematic device?

The album is now streaming on iTunes.

Yup. I'm going to wait until it hits Spotify.

listened on some french stream

this album is bullshit, absolute bullshit, but that's what i expected tbh

all creative ingenuity and spark is gone, replaced with albarn's dismal crooning and worthy lyrical themes

the only two songs of any worth are the two longest ones - everything else feels completely throwaway

blur's worst album by about a zillion miles

gonna say it again: listen to the teleman album instead

it's mostly an equally dreadful follow-up to everyday robots. despite coxon supposedly being the driving force behind the album he barely feels present.

agreed that it's easily their worst. would have been better off not happening really

has any band ever come back with their original line up after such a long spell away, and done anything better than only half decent? i mean.. maybe but not many leap to mind.

wire

This is a lot better than I was expecting. Ice Cream Man to Pyongyangis a good run. I'm just not a big fan of the first three and last two songs. They should should stick to the more mellow songs in my opinion. It's songs like Ong Ong, Go Out and Lonesome Street that seem forced and don't work at all for me.

the mellow songs just feel pretty tuneless to me generally, in the same way as damon's recent solo material. not that ong ong is any better

Meh.

Should point out when I said this is a lot better than I was expecting, my expectations were extremely low. This is easily the weakest album of theirs since Leisure.

I kept waiting for them to ROCK OUT and it just never really happened.

might listen to leisure, ty for the reminder

yeah 'she's so high' on its own is better than all of 'the magic whip', and there's the rest of the album to come!

5/5 album

I'm giving it a very generous 3/5.

it is a free world and all art is subjective, but i am curious about yr grading metrics here paultma

cos i'm a pleb innit

It's at 85% on metacritic after a dozen reviews if that means anything to anyone.

it means 'down with music critics'

The Telegraph
Uncut
The Independent
Q
musicOMH
NME
The Quietus
Clash Music
DIY Magazine

gtfo

has any band ever come back with their original line up after such a long spell away, and done anything better than only half decent? i mean.. maybe but not many leap to mind.

― piscesx, Tuesday, April 21, 2015 8:35 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my bloody valentine

Mission of Burma

Metacritic neatly demonstrates a problem with music criticism - almost ALL releases end up above 75% - there's maybe only one release each week that doesn't. This is not the case for movies, DVDs, games etc. Just music. Shows that when you aggregate it, everything is reviewed as "pretty good".

So I'm halfway through my first listen to this, and expectations were set pretty low (especially after hearing/reading about how the album came about in the first place) and... I'm still underwhelmed.

This is easily the weakest album of theirs since Leisure.

― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, April 21, 2015 3:07 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this is about right.

my bloody valentine

― Van Horn Street, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 20:42 (2 hours ago)

Was just about to post exactly the same thing

Metacritic neatly demonstrates a problem with music criticism - almost ALL releases end up above 75% - there's maybe only one release each week that doesn't.

This is kinda true, but still this album has at the moment the highest score of the last 20 or so albums listed:

http://i.imgur.com/7HtbZFe.jpg

It's also pretty near the top of the albums released so far this year:

http://i.imgur.com/eAjxylc.jpg

So far, it's only getting very enthusiastic reviews. The lowest is 80. To some extent, this is to be expected: Uncut doesn't give less than 4 stars to any band who it might want on its cover, for instance. Pretty much the same with Q and Mojo. Maybe more realistic reviews will appear closer to release date.

oh how ridiculous it is for Speedy Ortiz to be lower than Blur.

Critics give high scores to beloved established artists out of reflex. The score means nothing.

my bloody valentine

not original lineup

same lineup as in the glory years

has any band ever come back with their original line up after such a long spell away, and done anything better than only half decent? i mean.. maybe but not many leap to mind.

― piscesx, Tuesday, April 21, 2015 8:35 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

let me just add Polvo to the list

Back to the album: I think it's great. I always liked Blur, never loved them, but this has a lot going for it: it feels loose, demo-like, even with the Stephen Street flourishes. Thought I was a Spaceman and There Are Too Many of Us could easily enter my top 10 Blur songs. I also appreciate that this doesn't feel like a statement album - like "we're back!". It's just a diverse collection of lovely songs with really stunning guitar sounds laid all over it. 5/5.

i think the album's especially disappointing because the previous reunion singles were much more promising. Fool's Day isn't fantastic but it's better than most of the album, and The Puritan and Under the Westway, while much more self-consciously Blur-sounding, have a stronger melodic sense and more developed arrangements than anything on the album by far.

yeah the melodies here are so weak and cloying

Critics give high scores to beloved established artists out of reflex. The score means nothing.

Damon is probably more indulged by British rock writers than nearly anyone else, virtually every side project is treated with automatic reverence, people say "genius" with a straight face. I suspect it's because they identify with him more than 99.9% of other pop stars.