Blur tracks poll - the RESULTS thread

Yeah that's what I kept thinking while this was running. There's just nothing going on below the surface with Oasis, you know? There's nothing hidden in the arrangements, they're not conjuring images with any resonance beyond their immediate context, and other than the first-to-second-album jump there's no progression in their career. You get a visceral thrill, which can be pretty good and has its place, but tbh I don't know how you'd have the attention span to run a poll.

I'd do a Boo Radleys one, but I don't think I'd get enough votes to make it interesting.. Plus I don't have the requisite database skills.

Ha, we should do a quick poll to see how many'd vote!

I'd vote in a Boo Radleys poll. In an XTC poll I would only be able to vote 'Making Plans For Nigel' as number one and the one that goes "Sergeant Rock is going to help me - make the girl mine..." as number two and then my knowledge would be exhausted. Since that shoegazing tracks poll last autumn I've been intending to do a shoegazing albums/EPs poll, but the scale of it keeps putting me off. I might get round to it in September.

(xp) Thanks for that youtube playlist, btw

Ha, we should do a quick poll to see how many'd vote!

Am taking this temperature now.

Okay, I might do a Boos poll, but I'm not a very good statistician. Maybe it's time to learn.

I can tell you what I did, if that helps

I don't think I've ever heard any Boos or Pavement ever. Not sure how that happened tbh.

xp oooh yes please

AA - Blur are basically a convergence of these two bands. You need both of them in your life.

I thought I knew Blur well and ended up realizing I wasn't as familiar with them (at least by song titles alone) as I thought I was. A Boo Radleys poll might as well be conducted in Arabic, because I won't know ANYTHING (even though there was a time I listened to them semi-regularly). XTC or Pavement (or maybe even The Cure) would be good general interest options, but I'm about to be occupied with the 50s Tracks poll and I need to let my brains rest up.

AA - Blur are basically a convergence of these two bands. You need both of them in your life.

?!!!!!! Onto it.

Dunno where the Boos fit it, but Blur and Pavement were members of a mutual admiration society for the last half of the 90s.

Must have missed both Pavement's and BR's cockerney roll out the barrel knees up mother brown apples and pears phases.

I think I appreciate mid-period Blur for the same reasons I love the Boo Radleys - fantastic anthemic singles, really solid albums, silly/crazy b-sides, songs about longing and despair masked by chirpy instrumentation and big choruses. Think I rate the Boos slightly over Blur, but both were equally important to me in their times.

Must have missed both Pavement's and BR's cockerney roll out the barrel knees up mother brown apples and pears phases.

― England's banh mi army (ledge), Friday, 3 June 2011 11:02 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

Ah yes, that famous Blur album where they covered only Harry Champion songs and played everything on honky tonk piano.

http://images.wikia.com/lyricwiki/images/a/a9/Blur_-_Sunday_Sunday_(Version_2).jpg

This one.

AA - things to start with:

Boo Radleys - Giant Steps
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Start with those IMO and work around. Both are from circa '93, both are sophomore albums where the band moved on from their initial shoegaze/lo-fi phase into their own particular sound. Both are also top five albums of the '90s for me.

Okay, I might do a Boos poll, but I'm not a very good statistician

I read that as do a Bros poll - would be right into that

I find it funny that so many people base their perception of Blur on a couple of b-side parodies from an EP that came out during a lull in popularity for the band. Damon really got slagged off for being "mockney", but listen to pretty much any band and listen to those accents - Liam Gallagher's a case in hand, emphasising his Manc tones to the point of preposterousness.

both are sophomore albums

a) SECOND albums!
ii) Giants Steps is the Boo's third.

Cheers DL, I'll get stuck in.

xpost
yeah, but no one's got Ichabod & I ('cept me of course) so I count Giant Steps as the second album.

I thought sophomore meant 'second' or 'after the debut' (?) - forgive me if I've been using this word incorrectly all my life.

no, it does, i just hate it! we have a perfectly good word for 'second' already.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Single artist polls I'd like to see:

a. Bowie
b. Kate Bush
c. Pet Shop Boys and related productions
d. St Et.

Especially PSB and St Etienne as they're similar to Blur in that they have so much scattered around in odd places, b-sides, soundtracks etc and would be more difficult to predict than Bowie or Bush.

no one's got Ichabod & I ('cept me of course)

I have

Me too.

My copy is weird though - the sleeve looks genuine, but the record itself has a slightly-outsized hole in the middle and no label. Actually I think it got stolen a couple of years ago.

I saw one of those for Lou Reed's "Take no prisoners" album, they are for putting into jukebokes, possibly.

(the hole is the wrong size for those 45rpm adaptors, I believe)

CTRL+F for "Pulp" - no results. Can we do a Pulp one?? :D

NoTime - thank you! Going to rock out to the playlist ASAP!

At the height of the PAvement phase, Blur were also spending a bit of time with Weezer and this Gary Numan cover was the result which I haven't heard in a few years but I remember as kind of fun/silly (aka exactly why I loved Blur so much)

http://youtu.be/A9FQdYEq2nA

That link says Blur & Weezer but it was technically Blur & Matt Sharp.

aw i missed the last couple of days and also my type-y in-ny thing has gone weird also fuck you some dude also fuck you b-side massive also i haven't read this shit also what the fuck has happened to my interface will be smaxking the kids round the head also fuck you b-side massive anyhoo top poll well done NBS

6 Badhead 340
14 To The End 238
16 Trimm Trabb 220
21 Yuko & Hiro 190
23 He Thought Of Cars 181
25 Death of a Party 168
27 Oily Water 149

pleased to see all of ^ these make the top 25 (er,27). if I'd remembered to submit a ballot, each would have had a little extra momentum. coolest surprise was seeing Badhead land just outside the top 5. That would have been my #1, I think, unless I decided to go w/ He Thought of Cars.

digging a a lot of the b-sides I had not heard (or had forgotten). b-sides I would have rated highly: Peach, Magpie.

I generally like how eclectic the bottom half of this list turned out, tho I'm a bit o_O @ all the love for various noodly clunkers from the detritus half of 13.

this was my list btw:

blue jeans
all your life
popscene
this is a low
beetlebum
sing
tender
young and lovely
resigned
end of the century
theme from an imaginary film
trimm trabb
polished stone
1992
advert
he thought of cars
you're so great
girls and boys
bone bag
so you
tame
battle

all the love for various noodly clunkers from the detritus half of 13.

eating my words as I listen to some of these for the first time in forever.. some have aged much better than I'd expected (optigan 1, 1992)

i resent the use of the word noodly but they are all shit no doubt

imo Blur (album) was always the bridge between britpop and 13. They knew where they wanted to go but hadn't yet the balls to go all the way.

They wanted to go a bit rubbish? ;-)

gaaaagh

This was my ballot (I think - I might have swapped one or two around, but I can't be bothered to double check):

1 Badhead
2 Coffee & TV
3 Beetlebum
4 Bugman
5 Mellow Song
6 Oily Water
7 Caravan
8 Clover Over Dover
9 Country Sad Ballad Man
10 End Of A Century
11 Out Of Time
12 To The End
13 Tracy Jacks
14 It Could Be You
15 Death Of A Party
16 For Tomorrow
17 Miss America
18 Magic America
19 On The Way To The Club
20 Resigned
21 Jets
22 This Is A Low

1. Yuko & Hiro

2. Out Of Time

3. Chemical World

4. End Of A Century

5. Coffee & TV

6. This Is A Low

7. On Your Own

8. He Thought Of Cars

9. Tracy Jacks

10. Entertain Me

11. Badhead

12. Best Days

13. Tender

14. Magic America

15. We've Got A File On You

16. There's No Other Way

17. London Loves

18. It Could Be You

19. Beetlebum

20. Stereotypes

21. Girls & Boys

22. For Tomorrow

The Good, the Bad & the Queen: POLL (relevant)

As a result of doing this poll, I've temporarily* fallen out of 2011 and I can't stop listening to Blur.

*I hope

Me too. It's so great!

Me too! That's the single best thing about this poll.

aaaaagh xp

:D

Yeah i've been playing them a lot since this poll too. Along with all the talk of a possible Boo Radleys poll and my Suede reissues arriving in the post I've completely gone back to the 90's this week. It's been kind of great.

Glad it's not just me