Blur: Classic Or Dud

While they have produced some great pop songs, I would argue that they have failed to created one consistently great album (even the Best Of fell short of the mark). You could probably make a good cd-r worth of their music, but considering the number of albums they have put out that's hardly a glowing endorsement. Modern Life is Rubbish *probably* comes closest, but even that's far too problematic to warrant classic status. Parklife, which is the one that normally gets bandied about when talking about classic albums, is killed by too many little england-isms.

And just like the little girl from nursery rhymes: when they are bad...they are *horrid*. So, so bad that they cancel out the good:

Everything Damon has ever said.

The smug and irritating character songs.

The Country House video.

Bang.

The sad "take us seriously indie kids! We were never serious about wanting fame and fortune!" noodling of the last couple albums.

They *do* change from album to album, trying to anticipate what trends will catch on with the kids like any good marketing student would. This is not a crime; Bowie was great at it during the 70's, Madonna in the 80's and they were both classics. But with Blur it always reeked of desperation a bit too much.

And yet despite all this I do own some of their albums. Go figure.

Not living in the UK, I'm not exposed much to Damon Albarn's alleged bad personality, but his easy-target songs do grate - we get it Damon, you're SO superior to Americans, people who like the US, and middle-class normals. Jerk.

It's also the case that he's obviously quite good at doing pop (cf the Greatest Hits), so when he doesn't do pop but does other things worse you get annoyed.

If that's the case, I think I need some explanation... I mean, I don't dislike the song, in the context of the album it's a cute diversion, but it's SO not a single - just some dork babbling about getting an enormous sense of well-being from something or other, with a blah undistinctive chorus. It's not even silly enough to be a real novelty song. What is the appeal of it ?

If Bowie is taken at all seriously it's because of the startling, inventive things he did with pop in the 70's, not because he's rich - after all Rod Stewart is also rich. BTW what *are* Damon Albarn's extra-pop aspirations (other than sub-Sting do-gooding)?

re 'Parklife':

I can't stand the song, but its mass appeal does boil down to it having a very strong chorus (admittedly a very retro-British one), plus the novelty of Phil Daniels' voiceover.

re Blur in general:

The thing I've always disliked most about them is the air of smugness that seems to pervade everything they do. That and the fact that the chord sequences they use generally don't move me.

"Dear Damon, Please stop with the "la la la" thing. It gets on my last damn nerve. Thanks a bunch.

Sincerely, K"

The Great Escape includes some of their most execrable songs ever along with, frustratingly, two of their best: "The Universal" and "Yuko and Hiro" move me no end. But in retrospect it quite amazes me that that album was hailed at the time as a great leap forward from the parochialism of Parklife; what were all those cheesy little character sketches about, then?

They're essentially a singles band and therefore the Greatest Hits is their best album. At best, they've given us "For Tomorrow", "To The End", "End Of A Century", "The Universal" and, at a pinch, "Beetlebum". I love all the above, though "Tender" always did make me sick. I adore "This Is A Low", and I think "Trouble In The Message Centre" is OK as far as tongue-in-cheek cod-Numan goes, as well. But, in the final analysis, DUD.

Parklife may sound a bit twee now after Britpop exploded everywhere, but the fact that it was SO different in 1994 made it a hit (only #10 though - the biggest hit off the album was Girls & Boys at #5).

I was 14 when Parklife came out. I remember so clearly what the common room stereo was playing beforehand - Nirvana, Lemonheads, Smashing Pumpkins, even Guns 'n' Roses, NOTHING that had any relevance to what was going on with me or anyone I knew.

Parklife is the first new album I really remember having an impact on me; at last, you didn't have to sit in your room and slash your wrists to be cool, you could just go to the park with your mates and feed the pigeons (and sometimes feed the sparrows too). I also believe Girls and Boys is responsible for kickstarting Britpop, as without that disco beat no song had a chance of hitting in 1994, although I suspect something else would have come along anyway (Common People maybe?)

Blur are also really the only band who managed to be political and say it in a popular way (you could perhaps say Pulp and Manics, but I would say Blur are better known outside of the indie scene than those two). It's no surprise that Damon hid himself away during the height of Britpop, seeing as everything he was saying ironically on Parklife had been embraced and celebrated.

It's a shame that they went inside themselves for Blur and 13 and stopped writing about what was going on in the world. We need more bands like early Blur, who write about not only what's happening, but also how to deal with it. My biggest disappointment about Kid A was that Thom doesn't seem to have progressed at all from OK Computer; in fact, he's just withdrawn even more. It feels like we're right back in 1993 again.

I nave nothing good to say about their career up to Parklife, which I half like, but can rarely sit through. 'The Great Escape' sounds oddly clean and dated, yet apart from the whiff of self parody mixed with ripping off the Kinks TOO much ('Charmless Man', for example), it's an album that I still enjoy.

For me it got interesting round about 'Blur' and '13' is, apart from 'Tender is the Night', magnificent. Sure, there's nothing here that hasn't been done before, but the run of tracks 7-13 from 'Battle' to 'Optigan 1' is just plain classic.

So classic it is.

Anyway...reasons for being classic: "For Tomorrow". "Boys & Girls". "This is a Low". "Parklife". "Country House". "To The End". "Tender". Alex James's looks. "Pop Scene". The video for "Song 2", which features Damon being satisfyingly hurled against a wall repeated.

Reasons for being a dud: Damon Albarn.

Hrm.

I stick to my belief that _The Great Escape_ is actually their best album, because they looked like Japan circa 81 or so on the back cover. That's reason enough, really. Then they had to go and record a bad Pixies/Bush rip-off. Dear god in heaven!

As for all the purported greatness of _Modern_/_Parklife_ and its 'trenchant' observations, etc. -- hm. It's just a bunch of XTC songs with "Girls and Boys" standing out as the exception to the rule. And I *love* XTC and all that, I'm just noting that I can't feel too attached to what Blur did with it per se. _English Settlement_ feels younger than _Parklife_ ever will.

Blur's May 1992 show at the Palace in LA was fantastic and the best of the three times I ever saw them; they seem to have gotten steadily worse on that front over the moons. The funniest thing, though, was that when Damon ambled out on stage, his gait, open shirt and haircut made me think of Morrissey. And right after I thought that, about half the people around me started calling out, "Morrissey!" He looked annoyed.

No doubt everyone else spotted this ages ago.

But don't you think that had more to do with Oasis overtaking them in terms of sales and as a cultural phenomena? I sincerely doubt that that Damon would have hid himself away had the Great Escape sold more records than What's the Story (Morning Glory). That's part of what makes Damon so annoying, he tries to cover up Blur's failings with talk of high-minded ideals that don't really exist.*

*I don't really believe that Blur selling less records than Oasis is a failing, but I will bet a dollar to a donut that Damon did at that time.

in 1990 i was nine years old. i haven't ever been to reading, and i don't know who nick grant is. do i look like him, or something?

You're right; I didn't make my point very well. It just seems to me that Parklife has been misinterpreted over the years. Damon's ambiguous criticisms were taken as celebrations, which perhaps explains The Great Escape's more direct approach on songs like He Thought Of Cars, Best Days and The Universal. But who wanted to hear any miserable shit like that in the autumn of '95?

This doesn't make The Great Escape a good album or What's The Story a bad one. I just appreciate Blur's attempt to say a little with their 60s/70s influences, rather than just celebrate them as Oasis do. If they fail to achieve their ambitions, so be it, but I think there's enough worthwhile and enjoyable songs here and there over their albums to justify their existence. The fact that Damon's an idiot doesn't really bother me.

Most of the discussion has centred on 'Parklife'/'Great Escape'. What does anybody else think of 'Blur' and especially '13'?

As for me, a benighted American youth with almost no knowledge of British pop culture beyond a typical obsession with Black Adder, Red Dwarf and Monty Python -- I really like Blur. Their songs sound good to me. I like their (metaphorical) love affair with Syd Barrett, with Pink Floyd or solo. I think all their albums, except for the first (which I've not heard) are quite good, verging on great. "Tender," "It Could Be You," and "Coffee & TV" are particularly sublime, in my estimation.

BTW, what's "pomo" or "po-mo" ?

apart from that: the debut is dog-food, the self-titled fifth is patchy, but with some good tunes. 13 was spoiled by orbit's over-elaborate production. the new one is a step back in the right direction, but not back to their best.

no i haven't just been listening to crap, thanks snarkers.

("13" >>>>>>>>>>>>> "Kid A", obv.)

i wish mr coxon would get back to some of the guitar work he was up to at that point...

Blur are probably the most consistent guitar band of the last decade (or fifteen years, whatever).

that this thread hardly deserves

agreed

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.

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

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

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.

(the great escape)

Deflatormouse OTM about TOPMAN. It is absolutely that album's "eye of the duck"

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.

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.

https://tapenotes.co.uk/project/tn119-blur-james-ford

^ Podcast about the making of the new rekkid.

i love the great escape :)

but i am a miserable person

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

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.

Thanks for the podcast link - really enjoyed it. The amount of media work that the band has done to promote this record is phenomenal.

“ 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

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?

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

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/blur-add-ca-headlining-show-with-jockstrap-ahead-of-coachella/

I might have to go to this.

My wife was looking at it…

I saw Blur with Pulp and they both were so good live, the 90s ruled.

Ugh, so jealous. One of my biggest regrets was missing out on a ticket to perhaps my best chance to see Blur. They did a one-off show at the relatively intimate Brooklyn Bowl, which was a 15 minute walk from my apartment. ARRRRGH.

I forgot tickets went on sale today, I checked in two hours later and it was sold out.

My wife got two pit tix. She plans to take our son, for his first concert experience…

The show more or less sold out in minutes. Pit tickets were priced at $125 plus fees but quickly shot up to $400, $550, and then $600 per ticket (plus fees) via "AXS Premium" (the equivalent of Ticketmaster's Platinum). Later some single loge seats popped up for around $550 each, plus fees.

Unreal.

Wow… sounds like she lucked out

That's awesome morrisp, they should have a blast.

Watched the entire Brit awards thinking they were perfoming ;/

"So, in the spirit of clarity and truth. This is probably our last gig. And obviously the last time we play this song."

Damon Albarn at Coachella. April 20, 2024

Tender

I stand by what I posted upthread 12 years ago - that Blur will still be chugging along like Status Quo. Except Quo actually had a sense of humour about themselves.

Don't know if they did really, remember when they sued radio 1 for not putting them on the playlist?

Didn't one of their singles get put on the Radio 2 playlist instead of the Radio 1 playlist, and Damon had a shitfit about it?

I suspect he got his former bandmates together last year to 'Blur-ify' what was essentially a solo album, and now they've made enough money from the tours to sustain their lifestyles, Blur will go on indefinite hiatus again.

Speaking as the biggest Blur fan I know, I thought the last two albums completely sucked.

I have it on good authority that the first reunion in 2009 and the shows in Hyde Park etc were mostly organised to help Dave Rowntree out as he was financially in a bit of a state.

Dave has been selected as a Labour candidate at the next election, not an easily winnable seat but a chance he'll be busy with that quite soon.

I wish him nothing but all the worst luck he can possibly encounter on the campaign trail, hope he gets eaten by a dog!

Looks v unlikely he'll win even in a landslide - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_Sussex_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s

yep, he's wasting his time. 3rd place behind the LibDems even in '97.

he's just so excited by the possibilities of Starmer Labour that it means a lot to him to at least give it go

my spouse said Alex James used to be cute but that now he looks like a guy who poops on the street in the Tenderloin

Electoral Calculus currently has Mid-Sussex as Tories 29.6%, Labour 28.2% and Lib Dems 27.8%. He could win.

Speaking as the biggest Blur fan I know, I thought the last two albums completely sucked.

I've never listened to either of them in their entirety, but I wasn't interested in any of the bits I heard

Another comeback documentary.

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

Dave Rowntree finished third in Mid Sussex, all the Tory voters went to Reform or Lib Dems who won. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/uk/results

Sussex Life Is Mid

End of a campaign, ohh..

Solo Coxon threads on here seem slight (at least the ones I found) so here we go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQnEn5ELKQ

Was really surprised by how much I liked the first Waeve record, glad to see they've got another one coming!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMwEw1MCcdc