BLUR: Blur (Food 1997)
Let’s get one thing clear from the start, I’ve never particularly liked Blur, in fact I’ve always found them quite annoying apart from the odd single, didn’t like them live when I saw them on the Rollercoaster tour (Albarn was such a dickhead) and have HATED some of their more recent stuff (e.g. ‘Country House’). In this context then ‘Blur’ is an astonishing achievement and one that probably lies unlistened to in the collections of many ‘Country House’ fans.
If you don’t know already this album is Blur go American indie rock - think Dinosaur Jr, Pavement and a bit of Don Fleming. It’s quite easy to play spot the reference here so I won’t bother because the question is really is it any good?
Starting with the singles, ‘Beetlebum’ and ‘Song 2’ definitely are, ‘MOR’ less so and ‘On Your Own’ sounds like the annoying Blur of old. ‘Beetlebum’ absolutely SOARS in its last minute or so in a way in which none of the rest of the album does, which is a pity. The ubiquitous ‘Song 2’ is short, dumb and everywhere, yet still great (and is also my 20 month old son’s absolute favourite song at the moment - he dances by bending his legs up and down at the heavy bits). ‘MOR’ was the first sign that the bulk of the album might not be as acceptable to the Blur fan base as a single it relatively bombed, but probably was the obvious choice for fourth single, if there had to be one.
The rest of the album ploughs much the same furrow. I did think at one time that the first side (containing all the singles) was much better than the second, but on repeated listening that doesn’t seem to be the case. ’Death of A Party’ is suitably eerie (and the sort of thing that lodges itself in my brain for weeks), ‘Theme From Retro’ sounds like a Gumball instrumental (check out their LP ‘Special Kiss’), whilst both ‘You’re So Great’ and ‘Strange News From Another Star’ feature Albarn’s best J Mascis impersonation over acoustic backgrounds, with fucked up levels of course.
There are some weak links, ‘Country Sad Ballad Man’ is pure Pavement, but without the charm or the tunes. In fact it sounds like somebody without any talent writing a song in the style of Pavement, but overall this LP works. But if you don’t like ‘MOR’ don’t risk it! (Whoops too late).
PS I have this theory that a band with a multi-selling LP but release a, let’s say less commercial offering, will still shift units, usually with the help of a couple of decent singles. The real fall comes with the next LP - so U2 follow ‘Achtung Baby’ with ‘Zooropa’ which sells, but the more commercial ‘Pop’ doesn’t. Same with REM - ‘Automatic For The People’ then ‘Monster’ which affects the sales of their best LP in a decade ‘New Adventures In Hi-Fi’. You better watch out Damon, that’s all I’m saying.