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?
― Davey D, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 16:30 (nine months ago) link
and it's funky too
― ivy., Wednesday, 26 July 2023 16:36 (nine months ago) link
sit aside Crazy Beat, Jets and We've Got A File On You.
Count me in the "Think Tank rules" camp.
― enochroot, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 16:46 (nine months ago) link
Jets is fantastic until that sax solo stinks it up. Other than that and Crazy Beat, Think Tank is absolutely top notch
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:23 (nine months ago) link
I’m legit amazed by how much the new one has grown on me. Top 3 Blur record?
― Davey D, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:27 (nine months ago) link
oh my godddd I'm gonna have to listen to this and take some names aren't I
― imago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 19:30 (nine months ago) link
Interesting to frame this new album against The Great Escape,
there's absolutely no question that it's better than the great escape
― ufo, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:43 (nine months ago) link
I haven't heard the new one yet, but The Great Escape is a good, not bad album.
― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:46 (nine months ago) link
This one has got a similar mood. It's Great Escape meets 13
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 21:51 (nine months ago) link
I like it but it’s a Damon album backed by Blur
― PaulTMA, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 23:48 (nine months ago) link
I was thinking this, but then I started wondering how that might not apply to all Blur albums
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Thursday, 27 July 2023 07:01 (nine months ago) link
Only just learnt that Sweet Song is about Graham, and in that context it's rocketed into my favourite Blur songs
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Thursday, 27 July 2023 07:47 (nine months ago) link
it’s a Damon album backed by Blur with a bit of fan service thrown in…and that’s ok.would be my hot take if I were reviewing.
― Dr Drudge (Bob Six), Thursday, 27 July 2023 10:28 (nine months ago) link
There 's a good bit in the Apple Music interview for the album, where Alex and Damon are saying how the new record came together so easily, the old magic was there as soon as they started to play etc. It's undercut by Graham quietly saying "I've never done so many guitar takes for an album". He looks so vulnerable, you almost wonder if he's being exploited for forced labour.
― Dr Drudge (Bob Six), Thursday, 27 July 2023 10:43 (nine months ago) link
― ufo
There's nothing on here as good as The Universal, Best Days, He Thought Of Cars, Entertain Me or Yuko & Hiro. At the same time there's probably nothing as bad as Top Man or Mr Robinson's Quango.
Somehow The Great Escape is still one of the Blur albums I go back to the most.
― kitchen person, Thursday, 27 July 2023 14:43 (nine months ago) link
Was thinking about Topman recently - could potentially have been great had they increased the BPM and lost that annoying low vocal that grates from the start
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 27 July 2023 17:47 (nine months ago) link
OK let's do this now
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 17:49 (nine months ago) link
weakest opening track of their career. off to a good start here lads
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 17:52 (nine months ago) link
Jesus, that encore. That's only their second time playing "Clover Over Dover" live, ever! Possibly my favorite Blur song (it was my #1 in the Blur tracks poll) -- I would've flipped out. Gotta shout out "All Your Life" too. That's a top-tier b-side.
Not really into Ballad of Darren. Aside from "St. Charles Square" (which rules), the best moments just remind me of recent Arctic Monkeys stuff. I'm thinking, like, "So turn the music up / I'm hitting the hard stuff" from "Russian Strings," and a few other bits. Which just makes me want to listen to the last couple Arctic Monkeys albums instead. Whereas "St. Charles Square" doesn't necessarily make me want to listen to Scary Monsters, it just makes me wish there were more songs like it on the album.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:08 (nine months ago) link
Goodbye Albert is the closest thing to a good song so far imo, this has been sentimental energyless dreck
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:15 (nine months ago) link
there was something muted about St Charles Square, it never took off for me
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:16 (nine months ago) link
comfortably slotting alongside the magic whip in their bottom two albums, not that it's particularly close
the bridges of she's so high and slow down alone would put leisure above their combined virtues, the others absolutely no contest
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:20 (nine months ago) link
i mean leisure is pretty good, has loads of cool sounds and good songs, unlike this nonsense
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:22 (nine months ago) link
ooh it got noisy for no reason! really earned that noise! really built up to it! just like that battle-mellow song-trailerpark-caramel-trimm trabb suite that culminates finally in two colossal and contrasting outpourings of musical catharsis, except without literally any of the music
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:28 (nine months ago) link
i am the splash of cold water to the face that this thread hardly deserves
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:29 (nine months ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turrican_II:_The_Final_Fight
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:32 (nine months ago) link
lol, turrican probably loves this album
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 18:37 (nine months ago) link
At the same time there's probably nothing as bad as Top Man or Mr Robinson's Quango.
you know, Topman is the most TGE thing on TGE. it's like the sickly artifice underpinning the whole album extracted and enlarged under a microscope. they're not the highlights but if you take away those songs it starts to look a little more like "Parklife Part 2". whereas if you minus The Universal or He Thought of Cars it still has an identity.
idk the idea that albums would be better resequenced without the stage-setter tracks is all too prevalent on this board.
― all this time I thought you were British (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 27 July 2023 20:31 (nine months ago) link
galaxy brain here, threatening to undermine all my good work being right about blur above: mr robinson's quango is undroppable from tge
― imago, Thursday, 27 July 2023 20:37 (nine months ago) link
i mean Blur's albums are mostly uneven and this is maybe the worst thread for making this case since e.g. Parklife prob *would* be better if you cut at least a third of the songs.
― all this time I thought you were British (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 27 July 2023 20:38 (nine months ago) link
that this thread hardly deserves
agreed
― bulb after bulb, Thursday, 27 July 2023 20:43 (nine months 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 (nine 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 (nine 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 (nine 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 (nine 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 (nine 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 (nine 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 (nine months ago) link
https://tapenotes.co.uk/project/tn119-blur-james-ford
― MaresNest, Friday, 4 August 2023 23:58 (nine 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 (nine 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 (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