― 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
I still like the odd track on their albums. For instance, I really liked "Coffee And TV". None of them ones on "Think Tank" stick out in particular, on the other hand, the worst tracks aren't as awful as the worst ones on "13" and even "Blur".
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 7 January 2006 22:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― elgolfo (elgolfo), Sunday, 8 January 2006 02:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Christopher Costello (CGC), Sunday, 8 January 2006 02:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mippy (Mippy), Sunday, 8 January 2006 15:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Sunday, 8 January 2006 17:26 (eighteen years ago) link
don't worry imago we were planning to erect a statue of you itt. i have the top ascii artists in the country working on it as we speak.
― all this time I thought you were British (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 27 July 2023 20:47 (eight months ago) link
I hope the names of every Blur album actual sentient humans posting itt think this new one is better than are incorporated into said ascii statue
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:09 (eight months ago) link
the great escape has a few great highlights but is mostly them running out of steam & at their most annoying, so i never want to listen to it
― ufo, Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:19 (eight months ago) link
It’s one of the most depressing albums I’ve ever heard, can’t say I ever really enjoyed listening to it but that has nothing to do with its quality.
― brimstead, Thursday, 27 July 2023 21:25 (eight months ago) link
(the great escape)
Deflatormouse OTM about TOPMAN. It is absolutely that album's "eye of the duck"
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Thursday, 3 August 2023 23:07 (eight months ago) link
The Great Escape always reminded me of something like Seven & the Ragged Tiger. Eye of the storm kind of records. Very confident, but with more than a touch of hysteria beneath the surface, production tarted up to make up for the dip in song quality. Overcooked... and interesting on occasion.
― mr.raffles, Friday, 4 August 2023 14:51 (eight months ago) link
i like this album a lot! it's made me go back and listen to all of Blur's catalogue, which TBH I was not overly familiar with outside of the debut, s/t, and 13.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 4 August 2023 15:34 (eight months ago) link
https://tapenotes.co.uk/project/tn119-blur-james-ford
― MaresNest, Friday, 4 August 2023 23:58 (eight months ago) link
^ Podcast about the making of the new rekkid.
i love the great escape :)
but i am a miserable person
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Saturday, 5 August 2023 05:02 (eight months 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 (eight 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 (eight 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 (eight 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 (eight 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 (eight 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 (four 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 (one month ago) link
My wife was looking at it…
― Sony's Sports Walkman Universe (morrisp), Friday, 23 February 2024 04:24 (one month 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 (one month 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 (one month 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 (one month 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 (one month 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 (one month ago) link
Wow… sounds like she lucked out
― Sony's Sports Walkman Universe (morrisp), Saturday, 2 March 2024 07:35 (one month ago) link
That's awesome morrisp, they should have a blast.
― Bee OK, Saturday, 2 March 2024 21:32 (one month ago) link
Watched the entire Brit awards thinking they were perfoming ;/
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 2 March 2024 23:48 (one month ago) link