But don't you think that had more to do with Oasis overtaking them in terms of sales and as a cultural phenomena? I sincerely doubt that that Damon would have hid himself away had the Great Escape sold more records than What's the Story (Morning Glory). That's part of what makes Damon so annoying, he tries to cover up Blur's failings with talk of high-minded ideals that don't really exist.*
*I don't really believe that Blur selling less records than Oasis is a failing, but I will bet a dollar to a donut that Damon did at that time.
― Nicole, Wednesday, 28 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
in 1990 i was nine years old. i haven't ever been to reading, and i don't know who nick grant is. do i look like him, or something?
― matthew james, Wednesday, 28 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
You're right; I didn't make my point very well. It just seems to me that Parklife has been misinterpreted over the years. Damon's ambiguous criticisms were taken as celebrations, which perhaps explains The Great Escape's more direct approach on songs like He Thought Of Cars, Best Days and The Universal. But who wanted to hear any miserable shit like that in the autumn of '95?
This doesn't make The Great Escape a good album or What's The Story a bad one. I just appreciate Blur's attempt to say a little with their 60s/70s influences, rather than just celebrate them as Oasis do. If they fail to achieve their ambitions, so be it, but I think there's enough worthwhile and enjoyable songs here and there over their albums to justify their existence. The fact that Damon's an idiot doesn't really bother me.
― John Davey, Wednesday, 28 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
Most of the discussion has centred on 'Parklife'/'Great Escape'. What does anybody else think of 'Blur' and especially '13'?
― Dr. C, Thursday, 29 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― brent d., Thursday, 29 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Tim, Friday, 30 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Nick Greenfield, Monday, 2 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Kris S., Monday, 2 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Ally C, Monday, 2 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
As for me, a benighted American youth with almost no knowledge of British pop culture beyond a typical obsession with Black Adder, Red Dwarf and Monty Python -- I really like Blur. Their songs sound good to me. I like their (metaphorical) love affair with Syd Barrett, with Pink Floyd or solo. I think all their albums, except for the first (which I've not heard) are quite good, verging on great. "Tender," "It Could Be You," and "Coffee & TV" are particularly sublime, in my estimation.
BTW, what's "pomo" or "po-mo" ?
― Jack Redelfs, Sunday, 23 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 23 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Thursday, 29 May 2003 21:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Calz (Calz), Thursday, 29 May 2003 21:25 (twenty years ago) link
apart from that: the debut is dog-food, the self-titled fifth is patchy, but with some good tunes. 13 was spoiled by orbit's over-elaborate production. the new one is a step back in the right direction, but not back to their best.
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 29 May 2003 22:42 (twenty years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 29 May 2003 22:58 (twenty years ago) link
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 29 May 2003 23:01 (twenty years ago) link
― Matt K, Friday, 30 May 2003 01:20 (twenty years ago) link
― gallantseagull, Friday, 30 May 2003 05:29 (twenty years ago) link
― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Friday, 30 May 2003 07:51 (twenty years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 30 May 2003 10:48 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 30 May 2003 13:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Calz (Calz), Friday, 30 May 2003 16:10 (twenty years ago) link
― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Friday, 30 May 2003 17:41 (twenty years ago) link
no i haven't just been listening to crap, thanks snarkers.
― marc h. (marc h.), Thursday, 5 January 2006 04:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Christopher Costello (CGC), Thursday, 5 January 2006 04:53 (eighteen years ago) link
("13" >>>>>>>>>>>>> "Kid A", obv.)
― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 5 January 2006 06:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 5 January 2006 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link
i wish mr coxon would get back to some of the guitar work he was up to at that point...
― bb (bbrz), Thursday, 5 January 2006 19:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:14 (eighteen years ago) link
Blur are probably the most consistent guitar band of the last decade (or fifteen years, whatever).
― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Thursday, 5 January 2006 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 6 January 2006 09:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Friday, 6 January 2006 09:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 6 January 2006 12:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Friday, 6 January 2006 14:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Leeroy, Saturday, 7 January 2006 01:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Saturday, 7 January 2006 04:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― lyra (lyra), Saturday, 7 January 2006 05:02 (eighteen years ago) link
in my high school anglophile days I would've said classic without hesitation. now? well, more on the C than the D side. at least the good tunes still slay most of the other britpop awfulness.
― pompe vers le haut du volume (haitch), Saturday, 7 January 2006 05:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― noizem duke (noize duke), Saturday, 7 January 2006 06:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 7 January 2006 06:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― pompe vers le haut du volume (haitch), Saturday, 7 January 2006 06:45 (eighteen years ago) link
1. Parklife2. Modern Life Is Rubbish3. The Great Escape4. Blur5. 136. Leisure...Think Tank
― zeus (zeus), Saturday, 7 January 2006 09:56 (eighteen years ago) link
No, I won't.
― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Saturday, 7 January 2006 10:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― zeus (zeus), Saturday, 7 January 2006 11:48 (eighteen years ago) link
Hey Wogan Lenin, name one time Blur did Bugman "already, but better about a million times before"
Thanks.
― marc h. (marc h.), Saturday, 7 January 2006 13:30 (eighteen years ago) link
For kind of obvious reasons, this album pairs nicely (shuffled or played back-to-back) with M's Ray of Light.
― dlp9001, Saturday, 7 January 2006 13:43 (eighteen years ago) link
Movin On, No Monsters In Me, Come Together, Song 2, Coping, London Loves, Globe Alone, Chinese Bombs...
Actually, I'm listening to it again and it's a bit better than I remembered it. I always filed it under "token Blur-go-noisey" track. BLUREMI is the worst (x) offender though.
― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Saturday, 7 January 2006 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link
Classic of course. My opinion on their albums is that they're all roughly the same quality(except Leisure, which is shit apart from 2 songs). They've never made a perfect 5 star masterpiece, and the fact that they don't seem to be trying for it is a huge part of the appeal to me. It's like they approached every record like it was their White Album.
Here is as good a place as any to post this. Alex on the new album:
I haven't seen any of Blur very much this year. I did run into Damon on the Portobello Road last month. He was doing wheelies on his BMX. Graham I bumped into in The Groucho Club the month before, with his new gang. He has motorbikes now. He used to like skateboards. He didn't turn up to the studio this week, despite telling the Rabbi he would. Dave, who is an aeroplane man, I've seen once this year, at Buckingham Palace. Times have changed. Dave got the Rabbi involved to smooth things out with Graham and the three of us. Lawyers had tried, but they are the worst people to resolve arguments. The Rabbi got us all together and found the love in the room. He was immense. He just wanted us to be friends again. It nearly happened, but I think this record is going to be just the three of us. It's a shame. I'd like to show Graham my tractor.
We'd had a couple of jams over the summer in a rehearsal joint called The Premises on the Hackney Road. We used to go there, all together by bus, before we had a record deal. There's an agreeable whiff of big-beard jazz and 'JCB Song' about The Premises. It's oddball muso heaven. The café has all the clients' press photos on the walls, and no one has drawn funny beards on them. The menu has gone caffè latte-pain au chocolat since the 80s, and no longer features eggy specials. We used to like those. I think Dave may have been briefly involved with the eggy-specials lady, but she's long gone.
The management were keen for us to use their new, big, posh flagship studio. They said we wouldn't have to pay for it. We wanted to be in one of the little cells, like before, though. We rocked our socks off and recorded everything on a cassette through one microphone. 'Cassette' is practically a swearword these days. Never say 'cassette' to a sound engineer. They can't handle it. I'm not sure where we're heading with digital clarity and bit resolution. The nastiness of cheap, loud pop music is often part of its appeal. Safe to say, the music of the revolution will not be in 5.1 digital surround sound. In Studio 2, the leads were noisy, the drum kit was junk, the vocals were going through a nasty guitar amp, and the bass and guitar were turned up to 10. Producers aren't comfortable with things on 10. They like eight.
Anyway, it was all wrong, except that when we listened to the tapes last week, it sounded brilliant. We tried re-recording the first track with posh mics, preamps and vintage compressors, but it sounded a bit polite compared with the 50 quid's worth of gear in Hackney. What the hell? We're going to be working with the Hackney Vibe. It rocks!
I guess we're back in business. The Foo Fighters are going to wet their pants when they hear this stuff, and they've just built a huge studio. But everyone's buying old gear now " new's seen as a bit semi-pro. I think crap equipment could become fashionable next. Thing is, if you've got a good tune, you can whistle it in the bath and it'll catch on.
― jason., Saturday, 7 January 2006 20:53 (eighteen years ago) link
blur discog run revealed to me yet again that i only really love s/t, 13, and think tank, but i do have some nostalgic affection for great escape bc it was my first blur record, also any album with “the universal” + a bunch of garbage would be significant, and it’s more than that
― ivy., Saturday, 5 August 2023 05:17 (nine months ago) link
I'm in the same boat, Blur up to TGE is a little repertory, a little camp, a little cheeky. And then Graeme decided he'd like to be in Pavement and so the albums became chaotic, dissonant and melancholy in response, which is much more interesting for me, and makes the pop jewels shine brighter.I'm loving The Ballad of Darren, those folks calling it "subdued" need their heads read. "Barbaric" is one of those chord progressions which feel timeless, as if written in the fabric of music.
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 5 August 2023 08:26 (nine months ago) link
Thanks for the podcast link - really enjoyed it. The amount of media work that the band has done to promote this record is phenomenal.
― Dr Drudge (Bob Six), Saturday, 5 August 2023 08:48 (nine months ago) link
“ And then Graeme decided he'd like to be in Pavement and so the albums became chaotic, dissonant and melancholy in response, which is much more interesting for me, and makes the pop jewels shine brighter.”
This is when I started to care about Blur
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 5 August 2023 11:11 (nine months ago) link
After being initially nonplussed by it, Darren is now comfortably slotting into my #3 Blur spot behind s/t and 13. How many comeback records are as good as this?
― Davey D, Saturday, 5 August 2023 16:12 (nine months ago) link
Spotify Wrapped just reminded me that Blur released an album this year lol. It would be interesting to see how listening figures went for this because I must have played it so much in the week it came out that it pushed Blur into my top 2 most played artists, only to never be played again
― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin), Wednesday, 29 November 2023 20:51 (five months ago) link
https://www.brooklynvegan.com/blur-add-ca-headlining-show-with-jockstrap-ahead-of-coachella/
I might have to go to this.
― Bee OK, Friday, 23 February 2024 04:22 (two months ago) link
My wife was looking at it…
― Sony's Sports Walkman Universe (morrisp), Friday, 23 February 2024 04:24 (two months ago) link
I saw Blur with Pulp and they both were so good live, the 90s ruled.
― Bee OK, Friday, 23 February 2024 04:25 (two months ago) link
Ugh, so jealous. One of my biggest regrets was missing out on a ticket to perhaps my best chance to see Blur. They did a one-off show at the relatively intimate Brooklyn Bowl, which was a 15 minute walk from my apartment. ARRRRGH.
― birdistheword, Friday, 23 February 2024 19:48 (two months ago) link
I forgot tickets went on sale today, I checked in two hours later and it was sold out.
― Bee OK, Saturday, 2 March 2024 00:26 (two months ago) link
My wife got two pit tix. She plans to take our son, for his first concert experience…
― Sony's Sports Walkman Universe (morrisp), Saturday, 2 March 2024 00:53 (two months ago) link
The show more or less sold out in minutes. Pit tickets were priced at $125 plus fees but quickly shot up to $400, $550, and then $600 per ticket (plus fees) via "AXS Premium" (the equivalent of Ticketmaster's Platinum). Later some single loge seats popped up for around $550 each, plus fees.
Unreal.
― DT, Saturday, 2 March 2024 06:33 (two months ago) link
Wow… sounds like she lucked out
― Sony's Sports Walkman Universe (morrisp), Saturday, 2 March 2024 07:35 (two months ago) link
That's awesome morrisp, they should have a blast.
― Bee OK, Saturday, 2 March 2024 21:32 (two months ago) link
Watched the entire Brit awards thinking they were perfoming ;/
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 2 March 2024 23:48 (two months ago) link
"So, in the spirit of clarity and truth. This is probably our last gig. And obviously the last time we play this song."
Damon Albarn at Coachella. April 20, 2024
Tender
― Bee OK, Sunday, 21 April 2024 04:11 (one month ago) link
I stand by what I posted upthread 12 years ago - that Blur will still be chugging along like Status Quo. Except Quo actually had a sense of humour about themselves.
― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Sunday, 21 April 2024 09:00 (one month ago) link
Don't know if they did really, remember when they sued radio 1 for not putting them on the playlist?
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 21 April 2024 09:07 (one month ago) link
Didn't one of their singles get put on the Radio 2 playlist instead of the Radio 1 playlist, and Damon had a shitfit about it?
― you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Sunday, 21 April 2024 09:13 (one month ago) link
I suspect he got his former bandmates together last year to 'Blur-ify' what was essentially a solo album, and now they've made enough money from the tours to sustain their lifestyles, Blur will go on indefinite hiatus again.
― Dr Drudge (Bob Six), Sunday, 21 April 2024 10:59 (one month ago) link
Speaking as the biggest Blur fan I know, I thought the last two albums completely sucked.
― piscesx, Sunday, 21 April 2024 11:01 (one month ago) link
I have it on good authority that the first reunion in 2009 and the shows in Hyde Park etc were mostly organised to help Dave Rowntree out as he was financially in a bit of a state.
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 21 April 2024 11:31 (one month ago) link
Dave has been selected as a Labour candidate at the next election, not an easily winnable seat but a chance he'll be busy with that quite soon.
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 21 April 2024 11:34 (one month ago) link
I wish him nothing but all the worst luck he can possibly encounter on the campaign trail, hope he gets eaten by a dog!
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Sunday, 21 April 2024 11:42 (one month ago) link
Looks v unlikely he'll win even in a landslide - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_Sussex_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 21 April 2024 11:50 (one month ago) link
yep, he's wasting his time. 3rd place behind the LibDems even in '97.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Sunday, 21 April 2024 11:56 (one month ago) link
he's just so excited by the possibilities of Starmer Labour that it means a lot to him to at least give it go
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Sunday, 21 April 2024 11:58 (one month ago) link
my spouse said Alex James used to be cute but that now he looks like a guy who poops on the street in the Tenderloin
― brimstead, Sunday, 21 April 2024 15:42 (one month ago) link
Electoral Calculus currently has Mid-Sussex as Tories 29.6%, Labour 28.2% and Lib Dems 27.8%. He could win.
― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Sunday, 21 April 2024 21:33 (one month ago) link
I've never listened to either of them in their entirety, but I wasn't interested in any of the bits I heard
― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Sunday, 21 April 2024 21:35 (one month ago) link
Another comeback documentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxdLU_tXjEk
― Maresn3st, Tuesday, 7 May 2024 23:31 (two weeks ago) link