Only two Blur albums are not represented here, and for different reasons: “Modern Life Is Rubbish,” the sophomore effort from 1993, because I find most songs from its follow-up, “Parklife,” to be better examples of what Blur was trying to do in that era and “Think Tank” from 2003, for the semi-controversial reason that I don’t consider it a Blur album at all, given that almost all of it was recorded without Coxon and I believe the definition of Blur to be a specific alchemical happening between four particular people. It’s not quite chronological, but it’s meant to show the breadth of the band’s sprawling career. But you can’t do that in a band with Damon.” (If you want to read an extended cut of me geeking out on Blur, I wrote a zoomed-out summary of the band’s first two decades in a review of “21.”)Ī few notes on this playlist, compiled to celebrate Blur’s return. In the liner notes to “21,” a 2012 boxed set compiling material from the group’s first seven albums, Rowntree gave what is still perhaps the most succinct summary of the band’s driving tension: “Graham used to say that he wanted to make an album that nobody would want to listen to. The bassist Alex James and the drummer Dave Rowntree are stabilizers, grounding the band’s adventurous sound. Luckily, you do not have this problem, because Blur is one of my favorite bands.īlur’s career is all about the friction of opposing forces - and those are, for the most part, the band’s charismatic frontman Damon Albarn and its more introverted but equally brilliant guitarist Graham Coxon. The group’s discography can seem imposing if you’re not familiar with all of its twists and turns, and don’t have anyone to guide you through it. “The Ballad of Darren” - recorded in secret and wrapped earlier this year - will be the band’s ninth album, arriving nearly 35 years after Blur was formed. Last week, out of nowhere, the beloved Britpop band Blur announced a new album due July 21 - its first in eight years.
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