"Another night and I thought Well, well go to another party and hang myself
gently on the shelf"

Blur- Blur

Blur have always been one of my favorite bands their well balance of rich pop with good musicianship never sacrificing one for the other has always lead me to admire them and their ability to constantly change and adapt their sound never leaves a dull moment with them. In 1997 the band were riding on a wave of success and were the leaders of a movement they helped create. Parklife (1994) had cemented them as Britpop heroes and it’s successor The Great Escape (1995) was much in the same vain. Guitarist Graham Coxon was becoming frustrated with their pop sound and wanted something else. At the time Coxon was listening to a lot of American lofi bands particularly Pavement which he cites as an influence for the band’s change in sound. Singer Damon Albarn had become fed up with the press attention of becoming a popstar had brought him and a rivalry with Oasis wasn’t making things easier. “The same people who were chanting along with park life earlier were now calling me a wanker in the street”- Damon Albarn. The band pushed for a new sound and major departure from their previous albums. Where Parklife and the Great Escape were pop albums that celebrated British life their self titled Blur (1997) was much more experimental and loud the way Graham and Damon had wanted. The album in my own personal opinion is arguably their best. The opening track Beetlebum has a very dreamy daze feel to it, which goes along with what it’s supposedly written about, Damon and his girlfriend on heroin. The title itself is a reference to the drug, but before I discovered that I though it had to with Graham’s guitar which making a distinct buzzing sound reminiscent of beetle flying around. The first sounds on the album are Graham hitting dead notes on his Fender Jaguar then whooshing in with buzzing notes while Damon enters singing “Beetlebum, what’ve you done, she’s a gun for what you’ve done, Beetlebum’, with fuzzy detached vocals (which resonant throughout the album) and soon after eventually the rest of the band soon follows before the chorus erupts ‘And when she lets me slip away’. The ending is a simple driven guitar solo with lots of what appears to be radio chatter. Noel Gallagher has cited this as his personal favorite Blur song . The second song aptly named Song 2 and coming in at 2:02 is Blur’s biggest hit in America. ‘People like it because it’s unsophisticated and thuggish, which is what people like basically’- Graham Coxon Not one of my favorite songs at first listen but it has since grown on me with it’s simplicity. I’m sure the Pixies would be proud of this one with it’s quiet loud dynamic and the utterly simple catchy chorus which explodes into overdrive ‘WHOOHOO’. A track I have to bring up which is one of my personal favorite Blur songs is You’re So great. Recorded and written completely by Coxon it’s musically the albums simplest but also it’s most warmly heart felt. It’s also the first track in which Graham sings lead vocals and the only to be written by and only featuring one band member. Just Graham and two guitars (one acoustic and one electric), the song was recorded under a table in the studio because Graham at the time was very shy of his vocal abilities which bring an honesty and earnestness to the song. The song is also very lofi, which means bad audio quality but I think it adds to the song rather than take away. Death of the Party is another fantastic number. A pseudo trip hop beat with heavy bass and scratchy guitar with a spacey vibe the song feels like the song would suggest the Death of the Party. The track is melancholic with Damon singing the chorus “Another night and I thought well well, go to another party and hang myself”. On Your Own brings a drum machine in the mix which adds a hip hop feel to the song along with Graham’s looping guitar effects. Unlike previous Blur albums their isn’t an overall theme the lyrics seemed to be very secondary to the music on this one which is just fine because the music alone is damn fine. I always admire a band that can change their sound and step into unfamiliar ground which is what Blur did with this one. They could of easily released another pop album and had it go to number 1 but instead they chose the other route. Blur overall is a great album of experimentation and worth a listen.






*EDIT
Youtube has made it damn impossible for me to post the music videos to these tracks, sorry.

Originally Posted by swim America does folk, hardcore and mathrock better and that's 90% of what I give 2 shits on.

Originally Posted by chartsengrafs sweet nothing openly flaunts the fact that he is merely the empty shell of an even more unadmirable member. his loneliness and need for attention bleeds through every letter he types. edit: i would just like to add that i'm ashamed that he's from texas. surely you didn't grow up in texas, did you sweet nothing?