Multi-platinum Brit-pop evergreens receive complete catalogue overhaul
Perhaps one of Britain's most-revered pop exports, messrs Albarn, James, Coxon and Rowntree's most sensible collective decision came soon after calling themselves Seymour - let's face it, it's hard to imagine the BRIT Awards rewarding any band, artist or producer with that moniker at any point, so Blur it was. They have, in the past 21 years, knocked out seven albums of jaunty, swaggery, baggy, eccentric, Mockney, plaintive and uniquely English guitar- pop that saw the quartet seriously challenge Oasis as the UK's biggest band. To some degree they won, if only because they have recently reformed for a limited string of promotional shows that tie-in with huge reissue, remaster and box-set activity by EMI.
The individual reissues of their seven key studio albums come as double CD sets, jammed with rare b-sides and the usual essays, photos and interviews you'd expect for such an important act. All have been released separately or as part of a lavish (and expensive) box-set that might just test a few people's overdrafts. If you're undecided which Blur album(s) you really want, read on.
Leisure - 6/10
The first album came some 8 months after the debut-single "She's So High" had grazed the Top 50 and four months after the first Top 10 hit, "There's No Other Way". To this end, Leisure felt something like an overdue afterthought as the flimsy third single "Bang" stalled at #24 and the band were already prepping for the follow-up album, Modern Life is Rubbish. Albarn and co had clearly OD'ed on Madchester and the tripped-out psychedelia already being peddled by Charlatans, Soup Dragons and Stone Roses, but there are a few pivotal highlights across the two discs, namely the tremendous "Sing" (which will be familiar to lovers of the film Trainspotting), bassy dance-anthem "I Know" (here in its full extended glory) and that debut-single, as well as rare versions of "There's No Other Way" and a stream of largely forgettable b-sides, "Inertia" and "Down" are perhaps the best of these. As debuts go, it was a steady-Eddie in its day but, in places today, it sounds derivative.
Modern Life is Rubbish - 8/10
For album number two, Blur suddenly ignited and became a force to be reckoned with, both on record and live. For this album, the psychedelia was replace with a robust nod to British '60s or new-wave artists such as The Jam, XTC and The Kinks. Firing on all cylinders, Modern Life is Rubbish is a vast improvement on their debut and contains a trio of cracking singles, "Chemical World, Sunday Sunday" and "For Tomorrow", as well as plenty of strong tracks such as "Advert", "Colin Zeal" and "Starshaped". At 16 tracks long, the album might have over-stayed its welcome in less creative hands, but many tracks are under three minutes, plus you get a welter of decent b-sides on the second disc. Non-album single "Popscene", their cover version of Rod Stewart's normally-whimsical "Maggie May" and the trio of Cockney knees-ups that featured on the "Sunday Sunday" limited CD single aren't as bad as you might think.
Parklife - 9/10
Back in 1994, you'd have had to have been on Jupiter to have not heard at least one of the hugely-influential singles plucked from Parklife, be it the 'oi oi' knees-up title-track (with Phil Daniels giving it all that), faux-Ibiza anthem "Girls and Boys", the Bacharach-esque "To The End" or the more generic "End of the Century". This was the year that the confident upstarts were literally everywhere, be it in NME, on TV or on teenager's bedroom walls, the alternative to Manchester's swaggering Oasis or the underground clubs filled with drum and bass. Blur had an entire album of pin-sharp pop and they weren't afraid or embarrassed to count their influences as XTC - you can really hear it on "Tracy Jacks" and "London Loves" - and borrow ideas from Weller and the like, but also in turn influencing the likes of Menswear, Gene and Supergrass. Extras include the Pet Shop Boys' stellar reworking of "Girls and Boys", three acoustic renditions of album tracks recorded for the BBC and a plethora of curious flipsides such as "Threadneedle Street" and quirky theme to an imaginary '60s sit-com, "Supa Shoppa".
The Great Escape - 7/10
Billed as the Battle of Britpop, the feud and duel between Blur and Oasis culminated with the former's "Country House" single beating the latter's "Roll With It" to the #1 slot on the Singles Chart. The attendant album became the most-anticipated of its era, yet the finished article was something of a disappointment - Blur just hadn't moved on from Parklife, despite a few worthy singles in "Stereotypes", "Charmless Man" and "The Universal", the latter sadly demoted to soundtracking a bank advert a few years later. The supporting cast of songs just didn't have the warmth and the charm of the preceding Parklife, with the exception of "Entertain Me" and "Top Man". In fact, I preferred most of the b-sides - "Ultranol", "No Monsters In Me" and "One Born Every Minute" are worthy enough to consider buying the whole package for. Remixes and live tracks fill out the rest and liven up proceedings.
Blur - 6/10
Their self-titled fifth album marks something of a transitional period with Albarn and co starting to engage with experimental tendencies, particularly on the hit "On Your Own" and the slackertastic "Beetlebum". But the most familiar song on here is the two-minute snotty wretch called "Song 2", the theme-song to a thousand idents of macho TV programmes, goal-of-the-month competitions and the soundtrack to a million pissed-up students and townies venting their spleens and stomachs at provincial Friday-night discos throughout the UK. Or so you would hope. The extras include one of the band's best flips, "Cowboy Song", oodles of acoustic variations of "Blur" tracks and remixes. Blur itself isn't a bad album to dip into and retains its appeal by having at least more than one variation on a theme.
13 - 7/10
If anything, 13 draws together all of the band's ideas and sounds from the previous five albums and reassembles them into a gutsy if not entirely convincing tapestry of the loud and the quiet, the soft and the bludgeoning and a lack of stone-cold classics. "Tender" was an encouraging first single with its gospel chorus and cumbersome plodding but infectious beat, while "Coffee and TV" proves that Blur can still do catchy straightforward pop-songs without resorting to bluster. The remainder of 13 is an odd beast without much in the way of coherency, although "Battle" and "1992" are admittedly damn special and "Caramel" sinks in after a few listens. Once again the second disc adds an extra point to the mark out of 10 by revealing their playful and child-like nature and a few gems. The band were becoming more interested in remixes by the end of the century (pun intended), with all four having a crack at a few songs as well as Cornelius redoing "Tender" as a boggle-eyed witch-folk ballad. Regrettably, the lamentable "Music Is My Radar" has been slung in as a filler but this is merely an irritant - most of 13 is far better.
Think Tank - 8/10
2003 saw Blur release what many thought was likely to be a swansong of an album. To some extent, this might still be true - as of 2012, Blur have reformed but haven't yet got round to assembling anything more than an Olympic theme, "Under the Westway". As it stands, Think Tank is an admirable way to bow out, if only for being their best album since "Parklife". By this time, Albarn had begun his exploratory journey through African and hip-hop music via Mali Music and Gorillaz, both successful in their own right and quite clearly a contributory factor in the creation of some of the songs here. As well as the decent singles such as "Out of Time", "Crazy Beat" and "Good Song", you got one of the band's most endearing and enduring tracks in "Sweet Song", as well as a Moroccan ensemble, a Banksy sleeve and lots of songs without Graham Coxon (he walked out of the sessions). The extras include five unreleased XFM session tracks and the rare fan-club single "Some Glad Morning".
In summary, if you're a Blur fan you'll be wanting all of these sets - I don't blame you. If you're a keen aficionado (like me) you'll pick and choose - Parklife, Modern Life is Rubbish and Think Tank the obvious choices - while the casual dipper should pick Parklife, no question.
For further information about live Blur (and associated) shows, head to Allgigs here
Perhaps one of Britain's most-revered pop exports, messrs Albarn, James, Coxon and Rowntree's most sensible collective decision came soon after calling themselves Seymour - let's face it, it's hard to imagine the BRIT Awards rewarding any band, artist or producer with that moniker at any point, so Blur it was. They have, in the past 21 years, knocked out seven albums of jaunty, swaggery, baggy, eccentric, Mockney, plaintive and uniquely English guitar- pop that saw the quartet seriously challenge Oasis as the UK's biggest band. To some degree they won, if only because they have recently reformed for a limited string of promotional shows that tie-in with huge reissue, remaster and box-set activity by EMI.
The individual reissues of their seven key studio albums come as double CD sets, jammed with rare b-sides and the usual essays, photos and interviews you'd expect for such an important act. All have been released separately or as part of a lavish (and expensive) box-set that might just test a few people's overdrafts. If you're undecided which Blur album(s) you really want, read on.
Leisure - 6/10
Modern Life is Rubbish - 8/10
Parklife - 9/10
The Great Escape - 7/10
Blur - 6/10
13 - 7/10
Think Tank - 8/10
In summary, if you're a Blur fan you'll be wanting all of these sets - I don't blame you. If you're a keen aficionado (like me) you'll pick and choose - Parklife, Modern Life is Rubbish and Think Tank the obvious choices - while the casual dipper should pick Parklife, no question.
For further information about live Blur (and associated) shows, head to Allgigs here