Blur's "Blur" album

[willbo]

Been re-listening to Blur but I've never managed to get into the self titled album. Aside from song 2, beetlebum and MOR the songs just never stood out to me. I actually prefer Great Escape as it seems to have more energy, even if it is a bit OTT and annoying. I love the 13 album and enjoy it more the more I listen to it. But "blur" just never catches my attention. Every few years I re-listen to Blur and I love the best tracks on the first 2 albums and TGE, I love Parklife and 13, but "blur" never grabs me. It just sounds a bit tired and downbeat and not in a cool way like 13 does.

[the science eel]

I think they dropped off a cliff edge after The Great Escape. Albarn's insistence that they go for a more lo-fi US alt-rock aesthetic was their undoing. They lost the tunes! Clueless fucker - artists never know what's best.

I could never be arsed with either of the two albums you mention. 'No Distance Left To Run', stuff like that - just dreary.

[willbo]

I didn't get 13 at first, but I like it more with every listen. I feel like 13 has a more punk/garage feel in it's noisy tracks, buzzcocks, stooges, new wave. And a more, ambient, hip hop, boards of canada/autechre/fsol feel in it's offbeat tracks. But "blur" just sounds tired to me. Like generic blur with added grunge. 13 to me is the real "big experimental" album of the late 90s over Radiohead's Kid A.

And like with "Coffee and TV" it's got that lo fi US sound but they sound happy and excited to be doing it. Whereas the lo fi songs on "blur" just sound unsure and quiet to me.

[rue the polywhirl]

I thought it was Graham Coxon pushing for that lo-fi sound because he was getting into Pavement and other lo-fi bands like Pavement. Hence stuff like You're So Great. Tend to think 'Blur' is as solid as 'Parklife'.

[willbo]

thing is...there's nothing wrong with it. I think it's solid. I just never remember anything about it after I've heard it.

[phantom_power]

You're So Great is one of my top 5 Blur songs

[Johnny Textface]

Kind of agree about Blur. It's pretty unfocused and sounds a bit like a band unsure of themselves. Whereas 13 doubles down on the scuzzy, looser, lo-fi vibes but has that through-line of a completely realised project.  Also the production by William Orbit makes it sound massive by comparison.
I do feel like they went about as far as they could go with that Great Escape/Parklife sound to be honest so a turning point was needed and Blur sounds a little bit transitional to me.
Any fans of Think Tank? It's not consistent but does have a few corkers like Out of Time and Battery in your Leg.

[Brundle-Fly]

It's the 'putting their head above the parapet' album for me. The start of the experimental phase beyond rebooting the Small Faces. Death Of A (Britpop) Party, indeed. One of the best doubleheader openings (Beetlebum*/ Song 2) with a scattering of strong tunes that are: On Your Own (Gorillaz in embryonic form) and Strange News From Another Star, Look Inside America, Chinese Bombs the only nods to their early Bowiesque/ Ray Davies/ West London punk rock charms.
I found it a curate's egg at the time but admired their willingness to move on. They were sometimes compared to Madness among others during their cheeky, chirpy geezer phase, so this is their Rise & Fall album.

*Even Noel Gallagher conceded that Beetlebum was closer to The Beatles than any of his attempts.

[DrGreggles]

Other than Leisure (where they didn't really know what they were doing) I'd say The Great Escape is the only poor Blur album.
All the others have a strong identity and sound completely different to each other, but TGE is just a mess (admittedly with some good moments).
Blur is a strong album, and pretty much in the style they intended.

[DrGreggles]

Any fans of Think Tank? It's not consistent but does have a few corkers like Out of Time and Battery in your Leg.

Yes, but without Graham it's essentially just another Damon side-project. Far closer to Gorillaz than Blur.
Graham is such an important part of why Blur works.

[the science eel]

Kind of agree about Blur. It's pretty unfocused and sounds a bit like a band unsure of themselves. Whereas 13 doubles down on the scuzzy, looser, lo-fi vibes but has that through-line of a completely realised project.  Also the production by William Orbit makes it sound massive by comparison.
I do feel like they went about as far as they could go with that Great Escape/Parklife sound to be honest so a turning point was needed and Blur sounds a little bit transitional to me.
Any fans of Think Tank? It's not consistent but does have a few corkers like Out of Time and Battery in your Leg.

Yeah, I like it.

I actually thought their last one - the 'comeback' album - was their best since TGE. 'Go Out' was fucking A

[Johnny Textface]

Strange News from Another Star is gorgeous, forgot about that one.

[sevendaughters]

this record never sounded particularly American to me. I mean, take MOR, the dynamics are a bit like Sugar/Dino Jr., but the execution is Kinks/Television Personalities/Swell Maps.

I think it's fine. Not as good as Modern Wife is Rubbish or Parkwife, but not as mediocre as The Great Escape. A solid Magic Whip of a record.

[Catalogue of ills]

Kind of agree about Blur. It's pretty unfocused and sounds a bit like a band unsure of themselves. Whereas 13 doubles down on the scuzzy, looser, lo-fi vibes but has that through-line of a completely realised project.  Also the production by William Orbit makes it sound massive by comparison.
I do feel like they went about as far as they could go with that Great Escape/Parklife sound to be honest so a turning point was needed and Blur sounds a little bit transitional to me.
Any fans of Think Tank? It's not consistent but does have a few corkers like Out of Time and Battery in your Leg.

Absolutely, I love it. Songs like Out of Time, Sweet Song and Battery in your Leg (which does have Coxon on guitar) are easy ways in, but over time I have come to love it as a really accomplished, coherent album. I don't think there's anything on there that isn't really good, or better. Out of Time is a miracle. I generally prefer Blur/Albarn's more melancholy moods - Caramel on 13 is fantastic.

[imitationleather]

A lot of Blur (the album) went right over my head when I first heard it as a ten year old expecting another Great Escape. Couldn't make head nor tail of it.

Absolutely love the thing now, though. I daresay I hold even more affection for it than 13.

It's unthinkable that there'd be a discussion about the merits of latter-day Oasis albums like this.

[Brundle-Fly]

Other than Leisure (where they didn't really know what they were doing) I'd say The Great Escape is the only poor Blur album.
All the others have a strong identity and sound completely different to each other, but TGE is just a mess (admittedly with some good moments).

I never understand the negativity towards The Great Escape. It has so many corkers on it, for me anyway. I think maybe it's tarnished by the Blur/ Oasis battle, the Country House video and Ken Livingstone droning away in the patronising sixties throwback track. Blur were considered smartarses and were too successful by this point and historically, nobody likes that in Britain.

[willbo]

As I said on another thread a few days ago, as a kid I found Be Here Now a return to rock form after the disappointment of Morning Glory, so what do I know...

[the science eel]

I never understand the negativity towards The Great Escape. It has so many corkers on it, for me anyway. I think maybe it's tarnished by the Blur/ Oasis battle, the Country House video and Ken Livingstone droning away in the patronising sixties throwback track. Blur were considered smartarses and were too successful by this point and historically, nobody likes that in Britain.

Yes, definitely.

I love 'Country House'. All that counterpart (?) stuff in the melody towards the end - magic.

[Johnny Textface]

The b-side to Country House is mint "One Born Every Minute". Sounds like a Carry On film.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Absolutely, I love it. Songs like Out of Time, Sweet Song and Battery in your Leg (which does have Coxon on guitar) are easy ways in, but over time I have come to love it as a really accomplished, coherent album. I don't think there's anything on there that isn't really good, or better. Out of Time is a miracle. I generally prefer Blur/Albarn's more melancholy moods - Caramel on 13 is fantastic.

I listened to Think Tank recently and it sounded a lot better than I remember, with the exception of Crazy Beat and We've Got A File On You which are absolute piss. The latter sounds like a laughably poor at creating another Song 2.

But on the whole I find I'm much more kindly disposed to this album than I was when it came out, accepting that it's not so much a Blur album as a Damon solo album that happens to have Alex and Dave playing on it.

[PaulTMA]

Think Tank is one of their best albums overall, IMO, would maybe rank it 3rd or 4th, even if Crazy Beat and the sax solo in Jets are annoying. Perhaps oddly, to me it sounded more traditionally like a Blur album for the first time in ages.  I think there was a comment, perhaps from Dave, where he said in a strange way it kind of reminded him of Parklife, which sort of rang true to me but might sound a bit barmy to everyone else.

[willbo]

Think Tank is one of their best albums overall, IMO, would maybe rank it 3rd or 4th, even if Crazy Beat and the sax solo in Jets are annoying. Perhaps oddly, to me it sounded more traditionally like a Blur album for the first time in ages.  I think there was a comment, perhaps from Dave, where he said in a strange way it kind of reminded him of Parklife, which sort of rang true to me but might sound a bit barmy to everyone else.

I think paradoxically an album where a band tries something new can feel more like the golden era than a retro album. Cause it has the same fresh spirit.

[Kankurette]

It was them trying too hard to emulate American rock and get Country House and the associated bollocks out of their systems. I actually prefer 13, though Song 2 is fun. And Beetlebum and MOR were decent singles. I'm not so sold on On Your Own.

Also,

Spoiler alert

I like Crazy Beat. Don't shoot me.

[close]

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

Up until Blur I was really only into their singles and felt ambivalent about most of their album tracks. I liked Beetlebum when it came out but was a bit put off by their pivot to an American 'alternative' sound as I assumed they were only doing it because, while they'd won the chart battle with Oasis's Roll With It single, (What's The Story?) Morning Glory ended up massively outselling The Great Escape.

Anyway I came around to it a couple of years later and it's pretty solid. I think Essex Dogs is the best thing on the record and paved the way for things like Caramel and Battle on 13, which I reckon is their best album by quite a ways.

Shout out for 2000's Music Is My Radar single, too. I can't listen to that without tapping my feet and doing air drums. The blistering fuzz guitar solo is fantastic, too. It's probably my favourite Blur track, and surely one of the weirdest songs by a major pop act of the era to make the UK Top 10.

[Spiteface]

Think Tank is one of their best albums overall, IMO, would maybe rank it 3rd or 4th, even if Crazy Beat and the sax solo in Jets are annoying. Perhaps oddly, to me it sounded more traditionally like a Blur album for the first time in ages.  I think there was a comment, perhaps from Dave, where he said in a strange way it kind of reminded him of Parklife, which sort of rang true to me but might sound a bit barmy to everyone else.

Well they did bring back Phil Daniels as well. Admittedly it was the hidden track, though.

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

Well they did bring back Phil Daniels as well. Admittedly it was the hidden track, though.

Wait, what?!? Well belt my hat's arse. I bought the limited edition CD when it came out back in 2003 and had no idea there was a hidden track on it. Indeed it's listed here: https://www.discogs.com/Blur-Think-Tank/release/380104

Since I don't have a proper CD player anymore, can anyone enlighten me if there a way to play it via my laptop's CD drive and VLC Player or similar? Not sure if you can rewind from the beginning of track 1 to access track 0 like you could on regular old CD players.

EDIT: Never mind. It's on Spotify, tacked onto the end of Battery In Your Leg. Wow, it's well odd. Hat fucked.

[DrGreggles]

I never understand the negativity towards The Great Escape. It has so many corkers on it, for me anyway. I think maybe it's tarnished by the Blur/ Oasis battle, the Country House video and Ken Livingstone droning away in the patronising sixties throwback track. Blur were considered smartarses and were too successful by this point and historically, nobody likes that in Britain.

I can't put my finger on why I didn't/don't like it, but it just didn't work for me.
Apart from The Universal, I thought the singles were substandard and most of the album felt like filler.
He Thought Of Cars and Yuko & Hiro would be the only other ones that'd get a pass.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Wait, what?!? Well belt my hat's arse. I bought the limited edition CD when it came out back in 2003 and had no idea there was a hidden track on it. Indeed it's listed here: https://www.discogs.com/Blur-Think-Tank/release/380104

Since I don't have a proper CD player anymore, can anyone enlighten me if there a way to play it via my laptop's CD drive and VLC Player or similar? Not sure if you can rewind from the beginning of track 1 to access track 0 like you could on regular old CD players.

EDIT: Never mind. It's on Spotify, tacked onto the end of Battery In Your Leg. Wow, it's well odd. Hat fucked.

You used to be able to use Exact Audio Copy(freeware CD ripping tool) to rip the pre-gap tracks from CDs that have them, dunno if that still works as I don't think I've tried it since upgrading to Windows 10.

[Glyn]

Love this album. The Great Escape was too polished and soulless for me where as Blur has Coxon's stamp all over it with lots of Bowie flourishes and a return to the songwriting  of  'Modern Life is Rubbish'. Death of a Party is a great hidden gem.

Also really liked the first few noisy Coxon albums (especially The Sky is Too High and The Golden D).  As opening tracks on debut albums go 'Thats all I wanna do' is a classic.

[PaulTMA]

I think paradoxically an album where a band tries something new can feel more like the golden era than a retro album. Cause it has the same fresh spirit.

There is that too - there is something about the structure / arc of the album which felt more traditionally than what I understood as how one of their albums 'should' go.  I liked 13 but it sounded more like it had been composed out of jamming than the others.   Think Tank (and The Magic Whip) may have been similar in how the writing took place, but the end result(s) did feel a bit more structured like the old days.  Not saying any route is necessarily better, of course, but to me, 13 was more of an outlier than the others.