New Blur album - dud or dud?

OH GOD THE LOVE-HATE LUST RELATIONSHIP CONTINUES, PT. 437...

Okay, step back... deep breath.

So, what does everyone think about the new Blur album? Isn't it the fattest turd you've ever heard?

Damn! I did it again!

Funny, I wasn't interested at all before I heard this...

I'm by no means anti-"old" Blur, but "new" Blur is so much more to my liking.

http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/alexei.jpg

http://www.internetweekly.org/images/Kojak.jpg

*Errr, does the fact that the Rapture opened up for them excuse the fact that I went to see Blur play live? Umm... How about the fact that I walked out after four songs...? No?

Whatever it was that kept me interested is now gone. I don't want to say that "what kept me interested" was necessarily Graham, because I always thought the basslines were the best thing about Blur. But... there used to be a tension, a balance - you'd be listening to schaltzy bubblegum pop, and then there would be this weird twist and this horrible noise would intrude and make it wonderful. But now it's like the twist no longer happens.

Blur are now worse than merely bad - they are predictable and dull where they used to intrigue.

I'm expecting the little weird textural bits that act like a hook in my brain, and I didn't hear them. Then again, my experience of the album was hearing it in full in a record shop. But even before I was aware of what it was, my reaction was "ugh, this isn't very good, what is this supposed to be? It sounds like bad Blur."

first impressions? quite good, actually. i enjoyed the single quite a bit, damon's singing seems to have improved with age. it seems a lot more *tastefully* done than 13. The production on that album was way too busy, this one sounds a lot more relaxed, and the better for it.

of course, the other 8 or so tracks i haven't heard could change my opinion drastically...

love it. really. apart from crazy beat which is truely distasteful. actually did norman cook produce anything else on it? i hope he didnt get paid much for that effort.

i'm not sure about da-mons rabbitin on in the first track either. kind of ruins it for me. except for the shoutin bit. he's a world class shouter is da-mon.

word.

as for this album, i like it quite a lot. i had little to no interest in picking up 13; perhaps that might change, but i never really got around to it. my favourite song is the hidden track, but i enjoy all of it, and "Battery in your Leg" is so gorgeous. the elegiac and simple but oh-so-catchy repeated descending guitar line grabs me every time. a reminder that Graham with the band was great, yes---but they're capable of pulling something quite good off without him, as well. which surprises me---i never thought he was the sole driving force of the band, but i didn't think it'd be as good without him, either. and instead, i honestly think this is better than a lot of things they've put out. i don't dislike old Blur (cettainly not), but it's been interesting to see how they've changed over time.

Ned: what songs would you lose? i can see where it might stand to lose a few to being b-sides to singles or something, but my problem is that my opinion on which to lose seems to change regularly depending on what mood i'm in. "Ambulance" kinda lost me at first, but after it builds up it's such a good intro track that i began to feel it was fairly indispensible to the feel of the album. "Crazy Beat" should probably be a single off on its own and not even be on the album, although it doesn't really bother me (except in thinking about how often i'm going to have it drilled into my head via radio waves when it's picked up and put on Incessant Airplay here in much the same way as "Song 2" was). "On the Way to the Club" slept off a bit and then grew on me. there's a few other instances as well...a couple could probably easily be trimmed, but i'm not entirely sure which ones. :)

Whichever one was another attempt at A Loud Brawling Rock Song Oh Yeah We're Down With the Kids, for a start -- "Crazy Beat," I think.

The Fatboy tracks need to go, and the album isn't very tight, and some of the songs seem half-written, and too dependent on texture and production, but "Ambulance" is great, and the album as a whole no longer offends me. I just had to get over the idea that it's a Blur album.

So far I really like it though.

I like it. I'm getting a lot of the aforementioned sense that I SHOULD hate it though. I don't like the Gorillaz-y ones, or that sax solo on Jets, or some of the vocals (but the ones on Out of Time and On My Way To The Club are great), but other than that I think I enjoy pretty much the whole thing. I'm just wondering if at some point I'm suddenly going to shudder and go 'hang on, what was I THINKING?'

The beginning and end of the album are much much better than the middle -- a sure sign of not having ehough viable material, but being DETERMINED to make a cohesive album anyway. No luck, but nice try.

http://www.ratatatat.blogspot.com

against all odds. they've made a great rekid.

Annoying trash is still annoying trash. Nobody gets points for trying new things if those new things sound horrible.

Hieroglyphs.