Blur: Classic Or Dud

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.

Seems like critics just needing to appoint a current rock artist a genius, particularly one of Their Generation. I give Albarn a lot of respect for not taking the easy option, but nothing he's done has ever screamed out genius. It's more a case of someone putting a lot of effort in, having a lot of ambition, and really trying pretty much anything. So he's open minded, which is great, though not sure that necessarily equates with genius. All his projects also just make him more interesting/more easier to write about than most of his peers. A bit like a britpop David Byrne.

David Byrne's a good comparison. I really like the album btw. Coxon and Street make sure it sounds like Blur rather than Damon and friends.

He's so prolific which amazes some critics, perhaps. The Good, The Bad and The Queen album was the best thing Albarn was ever involved with imo.

https://33.media.tumblr.com/9efd6b765cfaf1cb72d5f9dd6172496b/tumblr_nn8ef9UUxR1rbitzio1_540.gif

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.

― Matt DC, Thursday, April 23, 2015 11:35 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's a bit harsh, whether I agree with various British rock writers or not, I'm sure they're not that charmless!

It's a conspiracy that it's getting such across-the-board great review! This thread must be the only source of TRUTH

I like this album a lot on first listen. I've never been a huge fan of anthemic Blur; it's the weird sketches and "let's build a song around this guitar tone" songs I like the most.

I'm astonished by how much I'm loving this record. Possibly second to the self-titled record for me, at this point. Might even top it. For me, it's a subtle, mature, and evolved version of the band in the best ways.

tbf

this album has a few more highlights than those already mentioned, but it is absolutely and utterly incapable of following up a good song with another good song - every time i'm led to think 'hey, this isn't so bad' it throws a brick into the gearbox

if this was an EP comprising Lonesome Street, Go Out, Thought I Was A Spaceman, MAYBE There Are Too Many Of Us (with altered lyrics) and Pyongyang, I wouldn't have anything bad to say about it, probably

but some of this is 'mature' in an intensely cloying way that latterday albarn has become infatuated with

'new world towers' is perhaps the worst blur song (there are other candidates here too)