blur "modern life is rubbish"

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ok, so i've listened to this a bit the last couple of days, after not playing it for ages. liked it a lot when i was younger, have kind of mixed feelings about it now. the first of their britpop trilogy (which i think got better with each album) this one isn't quite as colorful and fun as "parklife" and "the great escape". but still, it's a big step up after the debut. i don't like the straight punk songs like "coping" and "advert" - but "for tomorrow", "villa rosie" and "turn it up" all sound like classic pop songs to me. there's a handful of oddities scattered throughout - oily water, miss america, pressure on julian - which i think are pretty fun. best of all is closing ballad "resigned".

so maybe not classic, but a major step on the way to classic.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 1 March 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The straight punk songs sound a LOT better live (particularly "Advert"). It's patchier than the follow-ups -- I find "Miss America" to be dull, and "Turn It up" is "Bang"-level dumb (side 2 is weak in general, but "Resigned" shows up at the end and saves it).
I agree, it's on the way to classic, or equivalently, on the way to "Parklife".

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 1 March 2004 17:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Better than anything that came after it, as far as I'm concerned.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

....better than anything by Blur that came after it, I mean.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Modern Pop Is Rubbish

(Oops, Blur aren't modern any more are they)

― mei (mei), Monday, 1 March 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

This album still lacks the veneer that makes all of their output after it so shiny, but it's still got that tongue-in-cheek commentary and cheeky wit that become full blown on Parklife and the Great Escape. I like the rawness of this album--the mix between baggy and Britpop. I think it's great, and also currently on rotation in my stereo.
To me, the album I really don't get is 13.

― devon powers (popmatters devon), Monday, 1 March 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

hate the album, but chemical world is utterly classic.

― Former Supposed So Called Nihilist Teenage Drug Disco Addiction Counselor (mjt), Monday, 1 March 2004 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved it and it made total sense at the time, but I've outgrown it and its worldview now - this doesn't make it a dud, just makes me a fickle young lady who grew up too fast and left too much behind.

Still slightly on the side of classic though.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 1 March 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Straight-up classic. One of my favorite pop albums of the 90's. Probably the album most responsible for infecting me with the dread disease Anglophilia.

― yossarian, Monday, 1 March 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes Yes

― Aaron A., Monday, 1 March 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Fave track: "Coping"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

""Turn It up" is "Bang"-level dumb"

hmmm...i definitely think that blur generally don't do the shouty punk thing too well - it's been responsible for some of their worst moments ('B.L.U.R.E.M.I', 'we've got a file on you', 'coping'). "turn it up" is slightly different - it sounds power-pop-y to me, kind of like a posies song perhaps.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

alex is always spectacularly wrong in matters blur :-P

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

How can a personal preference be "wrong"?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry, I'm with Alex re: "Coping". It's great. "Turn It Up" -- the lyric especially -- sounds half-assed to me. In fact, I remember a two part Select feature in 1995 that chronicled the stories behind every Blur recording up to that time. I think "Turn It Up" was exactly that, a quick n easy time filler song that they knocked out in no time flat. I'll have to double check this.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

only joking alex, hence the little sticking-out-tongue-face at the end of my post. "turn it up" sounds throw-away all right, and it's definitely not albarn's most thoughtful lyric. still think it's a good pop song, could have been a big hit.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

No worries.Second choice: "Advert".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 1 March 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

It's totally awesome is what it is. The jump from Leisure was huge (and it was even bigger to Parklife).

For Tomorrow, Advert, Blue Jeans, Chemical World, Oily Water, Resigned: all classics.

― Samuel Bloch, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

probably their best album.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Some days I think Blur is their best; some days Parklife; and others it's 13.

But then it's MLIR > The Great Escape > Think Tank > Leisure

― Sam Bloch, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 05:28 (twenty-one years ago)

you have to put 'modern life..' in context. no less than paul weller gave it props at the time. and listen to XTC "respectable street" and tell me they didn't channel that exact irridescent UK smarminess. in the age of candlebox/whoever etc. "for tomorrow"-"chemical world"!!?? all that then led eventually to stuff like SFA's recent best (though this might start a regional discussion but i don't care i'm a yank). it's a lineage people and you got to give it up for all the antecedent points. blur have always had the cash-in quotient which tampers with their albums' listenability later but you'll find virtually no better brit singles band in recent history and albarn is actually seeming unstoppably savvy even to this day and after all,
n'est-ce pas?

― duke jupiter, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 07:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Dismal collection of dreary songs from a charmless bunch of mock-cockneys. An album worthy of props from Paul Weller.

― stevo (stevo), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

My personal Blur favourite - though I can see why others would choose Parklife [I can also see why yet others would choose 13, but I lump the latter group in with Creed and White Stripes fans as "not my people"]
"Side 1" (though I only know it as a CD album) is terrific, "For Tomorrow" through "Star-Shaped" and "Blue Jeans" to "Chemical World". The highs and lows on the latter half are a bit more obvious, but at a time when I was mostly listening to Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains and what not [and growing rapidly weary of flannel and goatees and negativism], the album was a breath of fresh air.

And I still don't know what "Chemical World" is about. What holes?

― Vasquesz, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

They should have just called it 'Blur is the Village Green Preservation Society' & been done with it.

― bham, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 10:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Great album, definitely their best.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 10:54 (twenty-one years ago)

2nd worst, just behind Leisure. Still very much a transitional album.

― The Good Dr. Bill (Andrew Unterberger), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

The US version of it is soooo much better than the UK version. Not only do you get the fantabulous first-Britpop-song-ever single "Popscene" and a couple lovely B-Side bonus tracks ("When the Cows Come Home" and "Peach"), but they also substituted a different mix of "Chemical World" that BEATS THE LIVING SHIT out of the one on the UK version. It might be my favorite Blur song of all time.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

but they also substituted a different mix of "Chemical World" that BEATS THE LIVING SHIT out of the one on the UK version
http://www.kinkalternatief.com/phorum/smileys/no.gif

― Vasquesz, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

A crucial moment was the NME (or MM) interview they gave in early 93 where they were dressed in 3 button mod blazers & red doc martins and spraying British Image No.1 on walls. That to me was the real start of lad culture and slowly but surely the emphasis started being put back on Britain again in the weekly press. I agree with the above comment n the punky numbers souding great live. Their shows on the tour had a kitchen stage set.I think they later regretted not putting Popscene on Modern Life instead of Turn It Up. "Resigned" is great though.

― David Gunnip (David Gunnip), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Best Blur album EVAH!
Oily Water, Coping, Advert, Pressure on Julian - all classix
Check out the B-sides of this era as well...

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

That to me was the real start of lad culture and slowly but surely the emphasis started being put back on Britain again in the weekly press.

The very reason why there's such resentment against the album --and the band, as expressed by stevo. Pity of course, if one's contempt for Chris Evans and Loaded eclipses the joys to be had from this album --an album that, unknowingly and unfortunately, helped spawn a monster.

― Vasquesz, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 15:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Be that as it may, I never found any of their albums to be as consistent as this one (though, truthfully, it is a bit downbeat and arguably dreary). Still, some great tracks, though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

The copy I have slings in "Young and Lovely" at the end...

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

It probably the Blur album I like best -- Albarn is probably least annoying on this and there are a couple of songs like "Star-shaped" that I have a real affection for.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Still my favourite Blur album after all these years - and chimes in perfectly with the bestbandrelatedvideoever, Starshaped, to boot.

When/if I ever buy a house, I'm going to rename it "Villa Rosie". Does that make me a bad person? Or just a bit of a twonk?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha...."twonk". Don't know what it means, but I like it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

NME placed it highly in their end of 93 critics poll but MM left it out completely. One of the best music press front covers of the 90s was an early 94 edition of NME with Blur dressed in winter coats and their name up in Picadilly neon. The feature contained a quote from Stephen Street saying he thought their upcoming LP was better than The Queen Is Dead. You just knew reading the interview that they were going to go mega mega.

Yep, the Starshaped video is a good snapshot alright.

― David Gunnip (David Gunnip), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck that NME feature is probably 10 years ago this week!

― David Gunnip (David Gunnip), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Time flies, doesn't it? My favourite album (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) will complete 10 whole years since its date of release...

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

...next year. (I forgot that part)

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

A crucial moment was the NME (or MM) interview they gave in early 93 where they were dressed in 3 button mod blazers & red doc martins and spraying British Image No.1 on walls.
I think that's the one where Damon said something like "if punk was about getting rid of hippies, then what we're doing is getting rid of grunge". WHATEVER, I thought, that's big talk coming from baggy wannabes who released the embarrassing "Bang!" as a single. And I was damn surprised to realize, in time, that they had the mettle to back up those boasts.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

And then they went grunge.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha!! Don't remind me ...

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

These pictures here? http://www.thewoottozone.f9.co.uk/britishimage1.jpg http://www.thewoottozone.f9.co.uk/britishimage2.jpg

What are they trying to say with those images? Or perhaps the question is -- what was the magazine, journalist, photographer, etc. trying to make of them? I always thought it had something to do with the dichotomy of pervasive and opposite stereotypes of British culture. But I'm just an American.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 23:27 (twenty-one years ago)

classic

― shhh, Wednesday, 3 March 2004 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

five months pass...

There's an XTC interview in an old issue of The Big Takeover that talks about MLIR originally being produced by XTC, and Blur throwing out all the tracks because they sounded "too much like XTC" and hiring Stephen Street. How have I never heard about this? And I wonder what happened to the tapes?

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 8 August 2004 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

revealing/interesting interview bits with andy partridge here:

---------------------------------

So I got together with them, and the drummer--I can't remember his name--ginger-haired fellow, anyway, begged me not to use computers or drum machines or anything like their regular producer Stephen Street did. He said, "Please, you must let me play. I hate it when they program it all and I don't get to play on our records." I said, "OK, I'll let you play." And you know, we cut--I can't remember how many songs, three songs.

It was tricky because Graham would not turn up half the time. He'd just call in very drunk or they'd, you know, like Damon Albarn would say, "Well, let's put some lovely classical piano on there." So then I'm saying, "Are you sure?" "Oh, yeah, I really want it." So we put some tinkly piano all over it, and then the next day he wouldn't come in and Graham would come in that day and say, "Oh, get rid of that piano. Wipe it out. I want to put big loud raucous guitar on it." And then he'd put big loud raucous guitar on it, and then he wouldn't come in the next day. Then Damon would come back in and say, "Oh, get rid of that guitar. I hate it. Where's my piano gone?" It was tricky because they were kind of--you could see that if they weren't careful they were going to fall to pieces, you know.

And of course, I let the drummer play and then the fellow from the record company came down for playback and they got him very stoned indeed, and he was loving it, and he was calling me the new George Martin and then how it was--they were the Beatles and I was George Martin. This was the best thing that could happen to them. Then the next day when he'd sobered up he called in and said, "Oh, this is all s***. And why did you let the drummer drum? He can't drum. You should have programmed it into a machine." And I said, "Well, look, he begged me not to, and I thought he should play, and I thought it just sounded like a band." And eventually, they dropped me because it sounded too much like XTC. Which is the sound that they wanted. Which is why they hired me, yeah. I'm sorry to hear that, although it is a funny tale. It's, you know, and I never got my expenses out of Food Records either. Well, 300 pounds and a penny, a bizarre amount. That's why I remember it. Never even got my expenses.

------------------------------------------------

listening to this album a lot again.
makes me want to buy and wear Doc Martens again.

― pisces (piscesx), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 18:12 (eighteen years ago)

heh, where's that interview from?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 18:28 (eighteen years ago)

www.mp3.com/news/stories/7768.html

― pisces (piscesx), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 18:35 (eighteen years ago)

that's awesome. i didn't know andy partridge had anything to do with it. Just getting into XTC at the moment as it happens.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 18:51 (eighteen years ago)

it's new too - December 20, 2006, 09:42 am it says on there.

mr partridge has been known to act like a bit of a nutter at times so you have to bear all that in mind i guess. i'm sure it has it's basis in fact but it's certainly a very different spin on the tale. i can't believe graham and damon were disagreeing that badly but well, who knows?

― pisces (piscesx), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 19:10 (eighteen years ago)

said it before. will say it again. turn it up is the best song the blurs ever done.

― acrobat (elwisty), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 20:36 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, that's really cool, Pisces, thanks for posting it. I've been on a bit of an XTC kick again myself. I figure hell, it's been 5 years since I was on an XTC kick, I guess it's about time.

― Good Warlock of the West (Bimble...), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:00 (eighteen years ago)

one month passes...

what do you have to do to get a MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH poster for your living room wall these days?

― pisces, Saturday, 3 March 2007 12:10 (eighteen years ago)

"Modern Life Is Rubbish" sees them laying the foundations of what would later be refined and perfectionized on "Parklife" and "The Great Escape". It's a great album, but a tad more "unrefined" than the next two.

"Modern Life Is Rubbish"-era Blur is clearly what Kaiser Chiefs are building their style on though.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 3 March 2007 22:36 (eighteen years ago)

Still my favourite Blur album after all these years - and chimes in perfectly with the bestbandrelatedvideoever, Starshaped, to boot.

haha i was about to post the above quote so i could say "OTM!" but then i noticed, um, it was me that said it three years ago...and then i posted it anyway. post-modern life is ace!

― CharlieNo4, Monday, 5 March 2007 01:06 (eighteen years ago)

Geir is correct.

Also, Andy Partridge's tale seems totally believeable.

― Mark G, Monday, 5 March 2007 10:45 (eighteen years ago)

I thought Starshaped was crap. Fine if you want to see 60 minutes worth of pissed up Ned's Atomic Dustbin fans rolling around in Glasto grass over a crackly soundtrack of the Wassailing Song, but useless to any Blur fan.

― the next grozart, Monday, 5 March 2007 11:32 (eighteen years ago)

I got the video at a carboot, a while ago. Still not played it.

― Mark G, Monday, 5 March 2007 11:32 (eighteen years ago)

keep the video. all copies of the dvd is famously unlistenable due to a mastering-error. actually unlistenable.

― pisces, Monday, 5 March 2007 12:47 (eighteen years ago)

Oh right! Thanks for that!

― Mark G, Monday, 5 March 2007 12:49 (eighteen years ago)

I really like the atmosphere of this record. I remember reading an interview once about how Graham would spend hours in the studio on his own working on the sounds, while the band were in the pub, and they'd come back to the sight of him banging a chair leg with a spoon or something.

― braveclub, Monday, 5 March 2007 12:57 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

Still love this album, still consider it both their overall best and the best English rock album of the early nineties, still want the blur/XTC recordings.

― roxymuzak, Monday, 28 April 2008 17:10 (seventeen years ago)

keep the video. all copies of the dvd is famously unlistenable due to a mastering-error. actually unlistenable.
-- pisces, Monday, March 5, 2007 12:47 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

I have this and have watched bits and pieces, though not all of it - how is it unlistenable? Admittedly it has been a few years..

MLIR is my favourite Blur album, and I was one of those obsessive fangirls in the 90s. I really like the Coping/Turn It Up/Resigned ending.. Pressure on Julian, Oily Water, Miss America...funnily enough it's got my least favourite singles though. Chemical World bores me to tears.

― Finefinemusic, Monday, 28 April 2008 19:37 (seventeen years ago)

Chemical World bores me to tears.

!!!!!!

― the next grozart, Monday, 28 April 2008 22:02 (seventeen years ago)

"Turn It Up" was the only track here I didn't like, otherwise a great, great album.

― zeus, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 08:51 (seventeen years ago)

PArklife is a more solid album, and the first album by a guitar band I ever bought, so I do prefer it over MLIR, but in retrospect I can see how it's also a more annoying album.

― the next grozart, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 08:56 (seventeen years ago)

As I said on the b-side poll thread...

I have the Jap CD version as that was the only way you could get "Young and Lovely" without spending a fortune on a 'rare' single.

Also, the US version with a different version of "Chemical World"

― Mark G, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 09:05 (seventeen years ago)

the us version of chemical world sucks.

― the next grozart, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 11:38 (seventeen years ago)

U want to see them doing an enitre gig from the Modern Life.. tour?

With a version of PARKLIFE a year before it was released?

U wanna click this then! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXN_9Uhiu80

Yeah the mastering's bollixd on the STAR SHAPED DVD. Total cock up.

― pisces, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 11:45 (seventeen years ago)

seven months pass...

Search:
siren sound on "Advert"
lack of blood on floor
graham's manic frying-pan work in "sunday, sunday" video
arrangements
cover art
saying fuck off but not being annoying yet
the existence of a palpable, overall "feel"
piecemeal suits

― rox qua rox (roxymuzak), Friday, 19 December 2008 11:28 (sixteen years ago)

(con't)
3 damons in agreeance on "blue jeans" chorus
bgvs on "starshaped"
hyperphasing at beggining of and throughout "oily water"
unexpected, expertly constructed bassline of same
"chorus" of same, and what a "chorus" it is, A+
"michael!!!!"
when "coping" goes out of whack near the end
"for tomorrow" being the perfect leadoff single, perfect video for and perfect encapsulation of album

― rox qua rox (roxymuzak), Friday, 19 December 2008 11:49 (sixteen years ago)

wouldn't change a millisecond or word of "colin zeal"

― rox qua rox (roxymuzak), Friday, 19 December 2008 11:50 (sixteen years ago)

damn you rox, you've got mne wanting to listen to this now and i'm at work!

I love "Intermission" best I think!

― the next grozart, Friday, 19 December 2008 12:37 (sixteen years ago)

It's perfect and crazy, too!

― rox qua rox (roxymuzak), Friday, 19 December 2008 12:44 (sixteen years ago)

Blue Jeans is their best song. Lovely harmonies.

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Friday, 19 December 2008 13:18 (sixteen years ago)

two years pass...

1. their best album.
2. miss america is probably my fave song by them. i had forgotten how phantastic it is. building up in slow-motion, great guitar sound, melding rhythm and atmosphere perfectly. recently i heard it on earplugs by accident and i could not refrain from smiling and moving slowly with my feet. there is something very powerful and uplifting about it. magic music.

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 17:38 (fourteen years ago)

Easily the Blur album I'm most likely to want to listen to these days.

― Le mépris vient de la tête, la haine vient du cœur (Michael White), Tuesday, 22 February 2011 17:45 (fourteen years ago)

am i the only one at ilm who loves miss america? someone tell me that it is not true.

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 22:48 (fourteen years ago)

No, not you are the only one. Not my favourite track, but lovely enough.

― zeus, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 22:50 (fourteen years ago)

yeah it's one of my faves, always recalls that hazy 1994 spring just before Parklife came out and it went a bit mental for them. and also it's Alex James's 'desert island' blur song:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8215217.stm

i also like how Dave's credit on the track reads simply 'The Plough, Bloomsbury'. he was obviously in the pub cause there's no drums on it.

"Micheal!"

― piscesx, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 22:56 (fourteen years ago)

man... i have less and less time for blur these days. have a bunch of their records from years ago that i never listen to, including one of those 10 year anniversary singles boxes. someone just sold one for $110 on ebay a couple days ago. tempting not to throw mine up... someone tell me why blur is good again plz?

― Damn this thread seems so....different without ilxor (ilxor), Tuesday, 22 February 2011 23:03 (fourteen years ago)

by the way any fans of the Modern Life.. era and just after and just before (or indeed all OTHER blur eras in fact) should check BlurCast:http://www.blurcast.tv/login
easily the best fan film/ video clip site i've ever seen for any band on the net. hours of weird unseen rare footage all cleaned up and digitised.

― piscesx, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 23:04 (fourteen years ago)

xp addendum to self post: I think all the rubbish from gorillaz + the good the bad & the queen has put me off blur as well. has this happened to anyone else? trying to figure out why i've kinda lost interest w/r/t these guys

― Damn this thread seems so....different without ilxor (ilxor), Tuesday, 22 February 2011 23:08 (fourteen years ago)

Gorillaz has put me off but GBQ was great.

― Head goes goes goes (Schlafsack), Tuesday, 22 February 2011 23:09 (fourteen years ago)

i lost interest with parklife and then i got interested again with 13. after that nothing.

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 23:12 (fourteen years ago)

the 3 peaks are MLIR, TGE and 13 imo, all for different reasons. bookend trax of 'blur' are incredible too

anyway, my gf got me a blur dvd as a nz arrival present and the MLIR-era stuff is just so, so very good - kinda gets to the heart of what made blur such an important band - those songs are indelible

― acoleuthic, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 23:18 (fourteen years ago)

I think all the rubbish from gorillaz + the good the bad & the queen has put me off blur as well

Ditto, then the kids got into Parklife the album, and it's here we go around again.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 10:10 (fourteen years ago)

Apparently the "MICHAEL!" from the beginning of Miss America is Graham, who the lads and their management discovered drunk out of his mind in the studio kicking a chairleg arhythmically along to the track. Chair leg still audible throughout.

― chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 10:25 (fourteen years ago)

I have absolutely no time for any of Damon or Graham's side projects.

― chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 10:26 (fourteen years ago)

But I really liked Fool's Day. Guess they only appeal to me when they're collaborating.

― chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 10:27 (fourteen years ago)

I have absolutely no time for pissed and unreliable (fellow) band members, but then that's just me.

― Mark G, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 10:27 (fourteen years ago)

MLIR, Parklife and Blur are my favourite albums by these.

― chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 10:28 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

Food processors are GRATE!

― Fingerbang! goes another year, in and out of one ear (Branwell Bell), Saturday, 22 March 2014 16:36 (eleven years ago)

six years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9EPzwGRxoo

― Maresn3st, Friday, 12 March 2021 22:31 (four years ago)

I've seen two of these videos where he shows what he does on the Villa Rosie intro and I'm still none the wiser

― hiroyoshi tins in (Sgt. Biscuits), Saturday, 13 March 2021 00:14 (four years ago)

I think I remmeber watching this before but its so great. He's such a creative guitarist.

― cajunsunday, Saturday, 13 March 2021 12:07 (four years ago)

the only member of blur

― imago, Saturday, 13 March 2021 12:15 (four years ago)

Damon Albarn wrote practically all the songs

― PaulTMA, Saturday, 13 March 2021 15:07 (four years ago)

three years pass...

Looks at his watch
He's on time, yet again

Glad someone took this dude down a peg.

― enochroot, Monday, 23 September 2024 14:18 (eleven months ago)

That line always makes me smile. Mentioned it on this thread Songs where the rich rockstar laments the lives of the humdrum little people who have to go to work for a living

Love it when singers/songwriters who clearly have never really worked a real job try to depict how they see every day life. "Poor old Ernold Same" etc

― Sade of the Del Amitri (dog latin), Monday, 23 September 2024 15:08 (eleven months ago)

a british tradition

― encino morricone (majorairbro), Tuesday, 24 September 2024 01:21 (eleven months ago)

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blur "modern life is rubbish" - c/d