Blur's Think Tank

The last chapter in the tragic history of Blur? Sure hope so.

I bet you I can guess the title of one of them.

Sweet Song is absolutely gorgeous. Possibly the best thing they've done since "This Is A Low".
"Ambulance" and "Out of Time" are very excellent too!
"Caravan" is a real grower and it sounds like how the Doors should have sounded.

I'm not keen on the way Blur are adamant on trying to get another "Song 2" - they managed it once and it's not worth doing it again.
The other tracks, I'm sad to say, are "meh". Okay, but a little self indulgent. Damon seems to be getting VERY sloppy as a lyricist and a lot of the tracks sound unfinishined in comparison to earlier works. Like 13, the whole thing feels shambolic and thrown together too quickly.

Does anyone know if Graham played on any of the tracks or not? Why did he leave Blur?

nf

It sounds like a lot of the record could have been good if they'd actually bothered to put the work in and not just flitted on to the next bit without fleshing out any ideas. And, yeah, Damon's lyrics are fucking appalling now - "we're all drug-takers in the summer tonight"? drug-takers? Who the fuck says "drug-takers"?; he's also become embarrassingly fond of that dying-seagull noise he started making on 13. It isn't a song, apparently, unless Damon yelps over what could have been a decent intro. Also, there's a sub-par rerun of 'Essex Dogs' on here. Need I say more?

13 was far better: self-assured, honestly experimental (by Blur's standards), and actually containing some decent songs. This is just half-arsed.

destroy
the rest

they're about to come on bbc 6
in 5 minutes to talk about it.

Just curious, because it's the best fucking track on the record.

Loving this way more in 2012 than 2003. Anyone else?

The laziness in arrangements, lyrics and tempo that felt like a sideways/down move, at best, at the time, feels right when I hear it now.

"Crazy Beat" is still tough to love, of course. ahh well!

this was always my favorite blur album

whoa.
what are your other fave blurs?

think i'm this, now:
modern life/13 > park life > think tank > great escape > blur > leisure

tbh i'm not a huge blur fan. i guess i rate this, park life, 13... and then mostly prefer gorillaz albums. i like it when albarn is doing more world-dilitante style, which is basically think tank

This is a really solid album. "Crazy Beat" is total shit though. I listened to the Blur albums in order the other day and it seems like a logical step after 13, but without Graham the step is a bit unsure. Great b-sides too, as seems to always be the case.

This album would be a lot better without Jets, Crazy Beat and We've Got a File On You. Ambulance is such a great opener, probably my second favourite after For Tomorrow. It might be my third favourite Blur album after Parklife and Modern Life Is Rubbish. Sweet Song and Battery In Your Leg are such stunning songs. If they ever made another album I'd want more songs like those.

Parklife
Blur
MLIR
The Great Escape
13
Leisure / Think Tank (tied)

Leisure and Think Tank have their ups and downs. I don't think I could remember every song on Think Tank TBH.

I heard Under The Westway the other day. Fucking offensively bad. What's up with Damon's voice? Dreadful...

"Westway" is a bit (ok... A LOT) Bowie/Mott do "Whiter Shade of Pale," but it's grown on me.
Same with "The Puritan."

I was really excited about this one back in 2003. I'd been impressed by "Music Is My Radar" and its b-sides. Relistening now, and Think Tank sounds about like I originally thought. Basically ok, nothing wrong with it, but eventually uninspiring. I still think Music Is My Radar is a pretty great mix of Can and Some Girls Rolling Stones.

Anyway, Crazy Beat suffers for being Bugman2, and isn't nearly as good as Bugman. And the sequencing on the album is bad. They should have just released the highlights as a bunch of singles and left it at that.

Third best album after Parklike and Modern Life Is Rubbish.

'Crazy Beat' owes more to The Kinks' 'Misty Water' than anyone seems to have noticed

No love for Out of Time? It's my favourite thing of their by miles..

It's very nice. Their last truly great single IMO

Out of Time is great. I also like Caravan a lot.

Not one of my favourite Blur albums, it has to be said. Have a soft spot for 'Ambulance', 'Out Of Time', 'On The Way To The Club', 'Good Song', 'Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club' and 'Battery In Your Leg' (which is the easily the highlight of the album for me).

I guess 'Caravan' could have been a brilliant track - the chorus has a lovely melody and I like it when the melodica kicks in, but overall I don't like the way they've treated it in the studio.

'We've Got A File On You' is the kind of inoffensive punk number they could pull out in their sleep.

'Gene By Gene' and 'Sweet Song' are okay, but I could easily live without both. I know 'Sweet Song' is moving for some, but it doesn't do anything for me.

'Brothers And Sisters' and especially 'Jets' are, in my opinion, aural excrement.

Classic - Out of Time, Sweet Song, Battery
V good - Good Song, Ambulance, Caravan
OK - On the Way to the Club, Gene By Gene, File on You
Regrettable - Jets, Brothers & Sisters, Moroccan Peoples
Tragic - Crazy Beat

I'd actually rank 'Crazy Beat' above 'Jets' and 'Brothers And Sisters'. But only just.

I want Blur to release a a track called 'Okay Song'

"jets" rules

tons of trippin' itt

Has anyone figured out if "My White Noise" will actually be hidden somewhere on the album, or was it just an outtake that got lumped in with the original album leak?

Just curious, because it's the best fucking track on the record.

― paul cox (paul cox), Sunday, April 27, 2003 1:55 PM (9 years ago)

Baby ilm me 9 years ago was otm. It's still the best fucking track on the record (though I prefer the Albarn vocal to the Phil Daniels vocal).

Always liked 13 and Think Tank but both albums are mired by clunkers. Just for fun, I put together an imaginary album using the best of both these albums, taking out some of the sloggier tracks as well as the daft abrasive punkers and now you've got a really great, mostly subdued, psychedelic record which, in my eyes, stands up with the rest of their catalogue:

https://open.spotify.com/user/1153731601/playlist/2PgDpdU3704ar184nrvj9L

1. Out of Time
2. Coffee & TV
3. Trimm Trabb
4. Sweet Song
5. Ambulance
6. Battle
7. Optigan 1
8. Good Song
9. Caramel
10. Mellow Song
11. Black Book
12. Beagle 2

really weird what happened to Blur. i mean if you look at Radiohead; the last album was still treated like it was A Big Deal, after they'd been away 5 years. fine by me, i liked it a lot. but the last Blur album.. i mean no one gave a toss did they? and they hadn't made an album with that line up since the late 90s. maybe the fact that it was complete rubbish didn't help matters like, but still. people seem really down on Blur these days.

it was complete rubbish and that's the difference between Magic Whip and A Moon Shaped Pool

I mean, let's be fair, Think Tank has some absolutely great work and some tracks that wouldn't have even made it to the b-side stage on previous albums. I'd like to be more charitable to 13 (the good to shit ratio is much higher), but there are still some absolute clunkers littered all through

Feels like Albarn just got a bit lazy or bored with writing fully-formed songs soon after the s/t album and became more interested in jammy, production-led stuff which is fine, except often it sounded unfinished and a bit aimless. Magic Whip sounded like them trying to go back to the s/t style of songwriting, but again the songs felt unfinished. They don't really seem to be 'about' anything much and the vocals are still totally unremarkable

yeah agreed, he definitely forgot how to write 'song' type songs around then. much as i like a lot of what came after, he was never going to write a song as complete as Blue Jeans ever again.

no, and it's why i really really don't like much he's done outside of Blur either. In retrospect the s/t one was their peak. I wouldn't have said it at the time but it walks the tightrope between songs qua songs, slightly experimental territory without getting too noodly, and none of the retrospectively embarrassing character-style stuff on the Life trilogy

Neither A Moon Shaped Pool or The Magic Whip were anywhere near Radiohead or Blur's best work, but it is true that Blur are pretty much seen a band that were at their best in the '90s. Radiohead don't have this problem because they never split up or had any line-up changes and remained a prominent band throughout the '00s.

Albarn hasn't made a truly great record since Demon Days either, regardless of what the fanboys will tell you.

13 and Think Tank were both divisive albums on release for different reasons - both have some stunning highlights.

The parts of The Magic Whip I like - and granted, there aren't many - I like a lot.

I had no interest in Magic Whip because it was frustrating to hear a band go from 13/Think Tank to such a pap retread of their earlier days

Magic Whip was boring. Still spin Think Tank occassionally and at the very least it's fun. :-)

Is The Magic Whip really a retread of their earlier days? It's a flawed record, but that doesn't strike me as being one of those flaws. I hear more Gorillaz on the record than early Blur.

Probably shows how little I listened to it. I dunno I probably should've said it felt regressive in comparison to the weirder place they ended their career on initially.

I'll keep 'Lonesome Street', 'Thought I Was a Spaceman', 'My Terracotta Heart', 'There Are Too Many of Us', 'Pyongyang' and 'Mirrorball'

I'll destroy 'New World Towers' (dull momentum killer), 'Go Out' (terrible choice of single) and 'Ice Cream Man', 'Ghost Ship' and 'Ong Ong' (which all would have worked better as Gorillaz tracks)

imo Go Out is comfortably the best thing on it

I think Think Tank did remarkably well considering how albums by their 90s heyday contemporaries - Pulp, Suede, Manics - fared with the albums released closest to Blur's. There just wasn't a massive amount of enthusiasm for a new Blur album, except from the devotees, so I would say it's relative success was a small victory in the face of everything...

Sadly many describe it somehow as if Crazy Beat and the sax solo in Jets were the entire album.

I seem to remember Know Your Enemy doing quite well. Heathen Chemistry too, bizarrely. But yeah, We Love Life deserved better and Suede were on the slide creatively as well as commercially. Life On Other Planets was a bit of a sales nosedive for Supergrass as well.

I meant Lifeblood specifically as closest to TT's release, which limped to something like number 13 in the charts. Know Your Enemy was still something of a minor event at the time, I guess. Whole lotta floppin' goin' on from 90s acts.

Yeah, Lifeblood definitely performed poorly - I actually thought the Manics were over during that period, particularly when the solo albums appeared, and was very surprised when they bounced back. Even though the records at either side did far better, I prefer Lifeblood to Know Your Enemy and Send Away the Tigers these days. I think it's aged far better.

the first two posts itt are gold

needed a rethink...
bleccchhh.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 07:02 (fourteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh wait... it's getting better

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 07:06 (fourteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

xpost Lifeblood I consider to be quite fantastic despite it being viewed as a dead duck at the time, by the public and later the band themselves. Seems to have become a fan favourite too. Have no idea to listen to Send Away The Tigers ever again.

idea? desire. ability to be arsed. tired.

The Manics are probably the last people anyone should ever listen to for opinions on their own music.

I remember a lot of people expecting Think Tank to be terrible - at the time there was indeed a widespread assumption that Albarn needed Coxon in order to develop his ideas or keep him "in check" ... Albarn was cast as wanting to play the pop star and Coxon was cast as the guy who wanted to always steer Blur in odder, weirder, more uncommercial directions.

As everyone later found out, Albarn turned out to be the exploratory one, while Coxon mostly fell back on pretty basic, guitar-led indie rock.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Wednesday, July 26, 2017 11:16 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Shades of how the Lennon/McCartney relationship was perceived. My dad's generation sees Lennon as the 'edgy' guy and McCartney as the soppy poppy dude, whereas mine remembers Lennon as a meat-n-potatoes rock classicist and McCartney as the guy who jammed with AMM and did Temporary Secretary. The reality is that both sides are right.

I'm listening to some of the recommended tracks off The Magic Whip. I felt absolutely nothing about this album when I first came to it. I think the production is kind of thin and shitty compared to their best work (some of Think Tank suffers from this too). But 'Thought I Was A Spaceman' is actually very nice. Not much of a 'song' in the Blur sense and sort of jammy and krautrocky but I'm tempted to tack it onto the Spotify playlist I posted in my revive.

Yeah, the production on The Magic Whip is kinda thin, especially in comparison to the other Street produced albums, and I think a lot of it was down to the way the record was made... I think if it had been made with everyone present and focused from start to finish, it would be a different story.

Also, and this is not to be a slight on the rhythm section or Coxon, but Damon was responsible for writing the lions share of Blur's material.

Blur are a big oomphy band in my mind. Magic Whip has pretty much no oomph to it at all.It sounds like a Damon solo album with added Graham

And even on Think Tank, apart from maybe Out of Time and a couple of others, I couldn't really tell you what the hook or chorus is. I've heard the album a good heap of times since it came out and I'm still not sure how about half the songs go, whereas I'd be able to recall very strongly how all the songs on Parklife go. Not saying that Blur should be so one-dimensional as to only make big pop singalongs (they proved on 'Blur' that they were able to go in other directions), but the missing element certainly makes TT/TMW sound like a different band entirely

I think there's parts of The Magic Whip that sound like Blur, parts of it sounds like Gorillaz, and it occasionally lapses into solo Damon sleepiness ('New World Towers') ... there's nothing on there that's anything like solo Graham. I'll leave solo Alex out of the discussion, because none of that shit is worth taking seriously.

I can recall how all the songs go on all their albums, fwiw.

Some of Coxon's guitar playing is just as unlistenably abrasive as Damon's singing. At this point I think I'd happily take "Clover over Dover" and put the rest of the catalogue aside.

Loved them at the time, though.

The S/T album was pushed a lot as "Graham's album", though I wonder had they chosen to record "Alex's album" instead what such a thing would be like. I'm picturing 'Hanging Around' in place of 'You're So Great' and the lead single being something akin to 'Vindaloo'/'Naughty Xmas (Goblin In The Office)' with a token track for Damon ('Theme From Sunnyside Farm')

Jesus christ, there's a "what if" I don't even wanna contemplate...

...a lot of the myth surrounding Damon being the "pop one" and Graham being the "experimental one" came about because of the change in sound from The Great Escape to Blur, but Damon was still the lead writer on Blur (and 13) and had demoed most of the album prior to the band working on it...

13 is one of my favourite break-up records ever, it's messy, sprawling and conflicted. Think Tank is probably the perfect follow up

I'd like 13 more if it were about 15-20 minutes shorter.

I'd like it if it were approx half as long. it's very much a 50% great / 50% terrible record for me

'Swamp Song' is the one I particularly dislike, and 'Tender' didn't ever need to be that long.

Basically, what happened post-The Great Escape is that Damon began his smack period, which I'm guessing ended after either Think Tank or while making Demon Days ...

Think Tank is a great album except for the ones done with Fatboy Slim

I'm not convinced that Fatboy Slim actually did very much. I can't hear his influence at all on 'Gene by Gene' ...

The secret intro track on Think Tank is godawful, I don't recall my version having that tho

Mine does. There's also a different version of it.

Listened to TT yesterday, still absolutely love it and would place it behind only Parklife and MLIR. However 'Crazy Beat' is so obnoxious I bet it has sullied some people's perception of the entire album and the decision to include that dire sax solo at the end of the otherwise fine 'Jets' can surely only be blamed on some kind of drug consumption. I would welcome a further barrel-scraping box set simply to present a version which edits it out.

don't tell anyone, but i kinda like that sax solo...

Crazy Beat really does make TT into a curate's egg. Such a stinker. Makes me think of the Boo Radleys' 'Kingsize' which I always thought of as a dodgy album but realised that was entirely down to the inclusion of 'Free Huey' which taints the whole thing

got a radio hit in mind

ha it is so the Free Huey of that album

i never minded it, shameless and soulless attempt at a hit single it may be. Free Huey, on the other hand, is one of the least pleasurable songs I've ever heard.

don't tell anyone, but i kinda like that sax solo...

― Frederik B, Friday, July 28, 2017 3:37 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

'Crazy Beat' is really no better or worse than any other Blur track in the same mould, IMO. Negative opinions on it tend to be OTT - I can think of close to fifty Blur songs that are worse - many of 'em B-sides.

Listening to the album again the other night, I found myself kinda liking 'Jets', although I'm not fond of the sax solo...

don't tell anyone, but i kinda like that sax solo...

― Frederik B, Friday, July 28, 2017 10:37 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Because it reminds you of your favourite porno?

Dude, your weird obsession with me and porno is beginning to be kinda creepy. Fuck off, will you?

Well, you do come across as a seasoned wanker, to be fair.

One track that never seems to get talked about on this album is 'Caravan' ... I can understand that the spare production and fuzzed vocal may not be for everyone, but it's quite a beautiful song - particularly when the melodica kicks in... love that bit.

Well, you do come across as a seasoned wanker, to be fair.

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), 28. juli 2017 19:01 (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's not so much the trolling, as it's the fucking boring boorish masculine way you do it. I made fun of your music taste, make fun of mine. Don't begin attacking me on whether or not I fuck enough, don't allude to women as trophies in your fucked up crusade. Just fuck off with that regressive shit.

You sound like you need to relax, mate, the tension is palpable. Have you lost your favourite porno?

i never minded it, shameless and soulless attempt at a hit single it may be. Free Huey, on the other hand, is one of the least pleasurable songs I've ever heard.

― afriendlypioneer, Friday, July 28, 2017 12:01 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's plenty of moments in Blur/Albarn's history that you could point to and say "that was an attempt at a hit single", even some of their best ever tracks, so that doesn't bother me so much... I agree that you'd have to go deep into Blur's B-sides to find something as unpleasurable as 'Free Huey'... definitely!

great album

absolutely, remove a few songs and it's perfect (Crazy Beat and WGAFOY iirc)

Can't believe this is four years apart from The Good, Bad, Queen album. I always sort them in the same micro-Albarn-continuum. There are quite big dips on here, but the post-millenium anxiety of Out of Time and Caravan still sound really fresh and relevant to me.

The fifth message in this thread is from me, 14 years ago. I find my old comment pretty embarrassing to re-read - I actually ended up warming to the album a lot and I really like most of it now!
And I like The Magic Whip even more, far more in fact, so I'm very happy that this wasn't their last chapter after all.

xp Albarn is best when he's working with bold, primary-coloured music. When he gets sloppy and impressionistic I lose a lot of interest, and that's something he's become increasingly prone to

Fox Mulder, the new Gorillaz is very bold and primary-coloured though, and it's horrible.

I actually think his writing is able to make for delicate and sophisticated impressionistic songs. It's just that his pervasive persona inevitably spills some quanity of cheese over everything he puts out, and that cheese goes much better with primary-coloured music.