Blur tracks poll - the RESULTS thread

btw I really want to do exactly what Mr Brutish-Short has done here (right down to an image preceding each result) but with XTC songs.

I had the same though, except it was about Pavement, but then I realized I'm a big enough Pavement fan to care. I'd vote if someone else ran it, though.

I realized I'm a big enough Pavement fan to care.

idgi, wouldn't that make you the ideal person to run it?

Oops, I left out a very important "not" in there.

ahh righto

Daavid - Blur are well known among fans for their bsides. I treated their singles as mini events as a kid. They were the kind of band, like the Boo Radleys who I love for similar reasons, who used bsides to let off creative steam by experimenting, and a lot of fucking around and being silly. This let me into their world, their mindsets as much as big hits and albums. They were also highly prolific; often being forced to leave perfectly great songs off of albums to make room for slightly less good songs. God knows why something like young and lovely might be left off modern life.

Oh that was a response I started writing hours ago btw stupid iphone

often being forced to leave perfectly great songs off of albums to make room for slightly less good songs. God knows why something like young and lovely might be left off modern life.

I get why that happens. If it interrupts the flow of the album, or in some cases merely the narrative, it's out. For the life of me I can't think where Young & Lovely (cheers to the people who posted links & the youtube upthread btw) could be slotted into MLIR without buggering it up.

An album like Think Tank, on the other hand, is such a random munge of styles and themes that you could stick anything anywhere and nobody would notice.

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20. Trouble In The Message Centre
(8 votes, 1 first place, 193 points)

one for the 'great demos' thread this one; the demo wipes the floor with the finished version.

Blur need to release a rarities anthology stat.

I wasn't a fan of Trouble In The Message Centre at the time - it sounded too eighties and new wave. Now I love it for this exact reason. Must've been a bit of a risk doing eighties pastiche so close after the fact.

Great song, although it didn't make my 22 - not sure how that happened!

and obv i was that 1 first place. robbed.

I checked my ballot and voted Yuko & Hiro number one as well, so either one of our votes wasn't counted or the points posted should say two number ones.

Delighted to see Trouble in the top twenty, it was my number one.

xp: Yes, you're right - and don't worry your vote has been counted.

Correction: Yuko & Hiro (2 first places)

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aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahaha

19. Clover Over Dover
(7 votes, 2 first places, 196 points)

A truly gorgeous song.

Of the songs that got three or more votes, Clover Over Dover got the highest average score per voter. Those that like it, really like it.

I've only ever been to Dover twice (ferries) but this song still invokes very strong memories of Dover. The whole album is weirdly evocative like that.

Wow yeah, I do love it. I didn't think I loved it as much as I do 'til I put it on after I'd voted, while reminiscing about something else, and the combination was so overwhelming that I had to back and amend my ballot. So one of those #1s is mine.

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YES

18. Chemical World
(9 votes, 205 points)

oh

(sugary tea, you see?)

Ah, see I thought it was <REDACTED>

I love Chemical World. Hope I voted for it - can't remember!

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xp I was trying to think of what will probably end up #1 on this board and I assumed it would be Chemical World! Can't wait to see the rest!

17. Best Days
(10 votes, 216 points)

Quite surprised by how much of 'Great Escape' has made it. 'Best Days' is ace especially when damon slightly speeds up as we get into the chorus.

I think this is my favourite on Great Escape. Such a sad and delicate melody, even for Blur. Didn't Graham write or sing this one?

Yes, this is the best thing on The Great Escape.

Always disappointed with Great Escape but forgot that it's not a middling album but rather half genius and half nonsense.

Yes, it's absolutely that - massive highs, huge lows.

TGE was really the first album to make any kind of impression in Aus. Obv the self-titled album (specifically Song 2) was the breakthrough, but Parklife did so poorly here that I found it in a cut-out bin for $10 right as it was smashing up the British music press.

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16. Trimm Trabb
(13 votes, 220 points)

Love a bit of Trimm Trabb. It was going to be a single, but I doubt it would have worked. Couldn't have been made in any other era than post-Blur LP.

When listening to '13' I tend to skip from the end of 'Battle' thru to 'Trimm Trabb'. Love that one.

That's the bit I skip TO!

# "Battle" – 7:43
# "Mellow Song" – 3:56
# "Trailerpark" – 4:26
# "Caramel" – 7:38
# "Trimm Trabb" – 5:37

Trailerpark aside, this is the best run on the album.

Trimm Trabb always reminded me of the Shake-n-Vac advert.

Highlight of 13 imo - well, after Coffee & TV but that always seems like an outlier on the album whereas Trimm Trabb nails what they were trying to do sonically.

I think this poll highlights that the best songs on The Great Escape really were the ballads. Hoping that the very best one will make the top ten.

Oh hell Mark G never going to be able to hear it without that in my head now!

i don't hear it.

Writing a Gil Scott-Heron obit recently, I said that GSH was one of the few songwriters who could do satire and empathy equally well. Damon was far better at the latter and that pretty much explains the quality chasm down the middle of The Great Escape. The satire was too flip and flimsy and directed at mediocre targets.

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