Blur: Classic Or Dud

Sorry, much as I loathe to argue with anyone about their subjective tastes, let alone use sanist language, but that is totally barking mad

lol.

interested to try this one, and maybe spin Magic Whip and 13 again. Coming across Blur at any point the last decade has been like... what did I ever like about them?

My friend was repping for Avalon yesterday, which to me is a pretty nothingy song. I think Barbaric is easily one of the best things they've done in ages though

But it's frustrating me that Barbaric sounds very similar to some other song I can't quite place

This album's no 13, which is my personal favourite.

Whilst it's a pleasant listen, it's so much focussed on a single mood of wistful regret and the concerns of aging that it just mostly washes over me unmemorably. It needs more changes of mood, and more Graham.

The Bowie influence is a bit too obvious for St Charles Square, and do I hear his influence again in "Russian Strings" with 'where are you now" echoing Bowie's 'where are we now?".

Another vote for The Magic Whip being probably their best album

Thought I Was A Spaceman and Pyonyang alone are top 10 Blur songs

they're tuneless dirges that answer the question "what if 13 was bad"

Thought I Was A Spaceman and Pyonyang alone are top 10 Blur songs

― PaulTMA

Those are the two songs I remember liking from that album, but the rest left me cold.

yes 13 is the best one but an awful lot of you need to be quiet and relisten to Modern Life Is Rubbish as a matter of urgency tbh

will get around to this one when I've properly steeled myself but imo Damon's brain went to mush decades ago so I'm not expecting anything

Strange to leave off The Rabbi and The Swan off this one. They'd easily fit

the cd presents them like they're part of the main album, didn't realize at first they're extra tracks. they fit well enough in the sequence, too, even after that culminating noise.

Graham song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xtzkToqKJQ

Baffling that these weren't included. Sticks and Stones is easily better than, say The Eveerglades

I will say: I've already listened to this album more times than Magic Whip

Agreed that the bonus tracks are all better than a few songs on the actual record. Especially strange considering that this is already by far Blur’s shortest record - and *still* would be if they were all on it! It would be greatly enhanced by their inclusion.

That said, after loving the singles and being initially underwhelmed by the second half of the record, I am finding new depths and layers to enjoy about it with each listen.

I’m a card-carrying Magic Whip defender, and miss that album’s “all the different eras of Blur at once” eclecticism - but there no denying that there is an emotional depth and consistency that isn’t present on any Blur record besides 13 and maybe (the very underrated) Think Tank.

In short: a grower, in the best way. Thankful for this unexpected return.

Agreed that the bonus tracks are all better than a few songs on the actual record. Especially strange considering that this is already by far Blur’s shortest record - and *still* would be if they were all on it! It would be greatly enhanced by their inclusion.

That said, after loving the singles and being initially underwhelmed by the second half of the record, I am finding new depths and layers to enjoy about it with each listen.

I’m a card-carrying Magic Whip defender, and miss that album’s “all the different eras of Blur at once” eclecticism - but there no denying that there is an emotional depth and consistency that isn’t present on any Blur record besides 13 and maybe (the very underrated) Think Tank.

In short: a grower, in the best way. Thankful for this unexpected return.

Despite reservations, it's good to have a new record.

I was caught up in a personal wave of Blur nostalgia by this record and regretting that I didn't get it together to see them at the recent Wembley shows. But seeing the twitter clips of audience interaction bit for Girls and Boys turned me right off the idea.

I agree that this album is a big grower. Several of the songs I wrote off before have started to poke their leaves out the ground. It's really hard to separate something like this from their previous work though.

"Blur Night" on BBC 2 next Saturday, including archive performances, and a new concert for a small audience recorded earlier this month - for those who aren't fully sated by the new record.

Jeez that encore is a hardcore fan's dream:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/blur/2023/eventim-apollo-london-england-7ba48ea4.html

Wow. Mr Briggs? I don't even remember how that one goes and I'm a fan fan

I should really go listen to those Leisure B-sides again

Theme From An Imaginary Film has got to be up there with the least expected songs they could play. Would have freaked out had I managed to be there

Oh my god that encore

BRIGGS, CLOVER, THEME

That's great. Its always a thrill to see some of the old b-sides get some love. Young & Lovely and Luminous have been played in some recent sets too.

I really like Theme. A friend and I were talking about our top three Blur songs, and while I couldn't seriously include it, it would certainly be an honourable mention.

I saw them play both Luminous and Young & Lovely across two gigs last month, but my god...Theme

reading the last few posts i was surprised to find Theme From Retro is such a fan favorite. wtf is Theme From An Imaginary Film??

i'm not into this. prefer Theme From Retro

Here's Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTc3MSWuylk

I missed Theme From Retro chat, feel compelled to say I love it. The last embers of their Cardiacs influence caught in a celestial dub smog. :)

xo found it but thank you

so, much as Damon grates, i love Graham's playing on the mk1 albums, especially the s/t. it's so awkwardly fussy and pushes hard against the grain of the songs.

feel like he caught some flack for toning it down on his solo stuff. 'what happened to all the wacky noises?' the guitar is a lot less interesting there, i guess cause it's hard to sabotage your own songs like that.

on the new stuff i've heard he's sort of doing the wobbly Graham sounds, but his parts sit quite comfortably inside the track. the textural element isn't disruptive, seems it's there just to refer back to their previous work? and Damon is still annoying.

i'm out.

My email address is imaginary film 😍 A friend’s dad brought me the Special Collectors Edition back in the late 90s from a trip to Japan.. incredibly jealous to be stuck in Canada without any chance of these shows. B-sides and early albums ftw though.

Some thoughts about the album tracks which I wrote the other day for something else (albeit remixed):

I'm really falling for The Ballad. It's the backing vocals, they've crept up on me. From the title alone I half-harboured a desire for it to be as grandiose as Roy Wood's The Song, but it has its own humble stateliness. It reminds me of the Divine Comedy's Regeneration a bit. Something about the watery Wichita Lineman-ish guitars that come in, and how they slide off the upwards jets of strings. Like smears of sunlight peering through thin blinds.

Maybe modern production aside (stuffy, everything-close-mic'd), Barbaric is real good. Again, the carful layering of vocals is really starting to make itself known. Speaking of the modern production, I'm not generally a fan of that drum sound. The Tame Impala/Yves Tumor sound as I used to call it before I suddenly realised it was suddenly on everything. But it can work for me in the right contexts. It means that, come Russian Strings, I'm actually being reminded of.. the last couple Paul Weller albums? Definitely, I think. This is On Sunset-ish.

There isn't much Blur precedent for The Everglades. Lovely baroque flourishes coming from those acoustic arpeggios. The intro and mid-section of Goodbye Albert remind me, strangely enough, of the Dave ident music but submerged in haze with maybe a slight Yuko & Hiro flavour. Does that surface through the flanging? Perhaps. But the fatalistic use of More Specials muzak on The Great Escape is sort of mirrored here, as it was To Binge. Yet like To Binge, i'm not haring any fatalism. It's beautiful, resolution decidedly not smothered out. This is going to be a favourite and it's mostly down to Graham.

Far Away Island is interesting to me. Past the red herring organ at the start, there's instantly classy Blur stylings in there, concealed a little. That's to say I immediately feel something on that chord change at 0:24, 0:39 etc. (He Thought of Cars!) And the way the last line in a verse arrives at the start of where the next one should begin. Just reminds me why I love this band, in a rather sideways way. This is a sweet waltz, perhaps their finest - a happy ending for the Debt Collector and Ernold Same.

Avalon is a shapeshifter. It's built on blasts of horn but they sound so ethereal. This is, in its own subtle way, celestial stuff. Familiar news from another star. And then there is The Heights. Dave Rowntree... It's not even necessarily that this is a clear highlight for him, its just that he's really up in the mix and sounds great. Has he ever sounded so metallic? Note that as it rises into white static, swoonsome harmonic interference is still audible behind it. Drone and harmony - shoegaze - the deep fried chime that begins Leisure. It feels like an appropriate way to end.

Except it isn't, really. The Rabbi should maybe have found a way into the body. But so should The Swan, for its rhythmic deviation if nothing else - a slow-mo breakbeat painted in with brushstrokes. I'm gonna need to give these ones a bit more time than the others.

I think I know all the words to Mr Briggs still. That guitar sound! A delight xp

I’ve just sung it a bit more in my head and realized I was singing Uncle Love actually. Had to look up the lyrics to Mr Briggs and now I remember- makes more sense with the new album tbh

listening to think tank again and it's a little inconsistent but most of it is some of the best music albarn had ever made, i wish he'd made more like it

Think Tank is probably one of the most uneven albums I have in my collection. Totally agree that there's some of the best music of his career on there. It's hard to imagine Damon coming up with something as magical as Ambulance, Out Of Time, Sweet Song or Battery In Your Leg now. It's frustrating such gorgeous songs sit aside Crazy Beat, Jets and We've Got A File On You.

here to once again be the only person saying that "jets" rules

Interesting to frame this new album against The Great Escape, whereas at first I was comparing it to 13, Think Tank and Magic Whip. There are definitely similarities (and not just the album cover, which I think of as also being a reference to David Hockney)

kitchen person OTM. I feel the same way about 13 too.

I don't mind "Crazy Beat," to be honest...

All of Think Tank rules - except Crazy Beat, which partly rules

I've said it before but I don't at all mind the basic sound of it, and Fatboy's Kalifornia duck voice. Where it really slips are the yeah yeah yeah yuh YEAHs and the lyrics (esp second verse).

Nothing wrong with Jets. Damon folding in his jamming with Alex and Dave from the s/t and 13 with learned experiences with Dan the Automator and cast. The exact roomy breather that benefits being track 11. But groove is still not quite enough so in comes Mike Smith to scribble on it and it's the right accent colour.

listening to think tank again and it's a little inconsistent but most of it is some of the best music albarn had ever made, i wish he'd made more like it

If Crazy Beat weren't on Think Tank, I think that album would have an entirely different reputation. Maybe Albarn's most ethereally gorgeous album, for the most part?

and it's funky too

sit aside Crazy Beat, Jets and We've Got A File On You.

Count me in the "Think Tank rules" camp.

Jets is fantastic until that sax solo stinks it up. Other than that and Crazy Beat, Think Tank is absolutely top notch