I’ve been holding off on this post for some time but today is the day!
Blur is back!
If you live in America, there’s a 99-percent chance you have no idea who I’m talking about.
If you live in the U.K., you could be justifiably be stoned to death for not knowing Blur, including – but not limited to — the madcap lyrics to the decade-defining “Parklife”; Damon Albarn’s blood type and musical vast musical oeuvre outside the band (Gorillaz; The Good, The Bad & The Queen; operas; soundtracks, etc. …); Graham Coxon’s current whereabouts; which band member is “prettiest” (likely Alex James) and which is “the most authentically British-looking (ermm, Dave Rowntree).
Most known on these shores for “Song 2″ (the ‘woo-hoo!’ song) and the much-parodied rivalry with Oasis, it could be argued that Blur was the best band of the 1990s.
Though the band began life as Seymour, a hanger-on of the UK Shoegazer movement, the renamed London-based four-piece heralded the mid-’90s Britpop movement with a series of phenomenally successful albums and tours that hinged largely on portraits and themes based on British life, class structure and culture.
Out of the pack of bands that emerged in the Britpop scene — Oasis, Pulp, Elastica, The Charlatans, etc. — none of them had a songwriter as adept or as stylistically agile as Blur’s Damon Albarn. In the 15 years and seven albums Blur was together, Albarn steered the band through four distinct phases: baggy, Britpop, lo-fi/noise-pop and African. During recording of the band’s final album — 2003’s slight-but-intriguing Think Tank — guitarist Graham Coxon left, citing drinking issues and interpersonal issues with childhood friend Albarn.
Albarn went on to front and produce the hugely successful Gorillaz — the animated electro-funk band — and a super-group outing with Paul Simenon of The Clash called The Good, The Bad & The Queen. Coxon went rudderless for awhile, basking in freedom and aimless, messy guitar concoctions on a series of records before settling into a power-pop groove on 2004’s Happiness in Magazines.
While all of their solo projects had merit, they were vaguely unsatisfying on some level — either too fussy, or too cerebral or half-baked and unfinished-sounding. Albarn seemed to be obscuring his sizable gift for melody and arrangement in world beats and cartoons; Coxon in guitar squall.
By 2005, Albarn had said there wouldn’t be another Blur record unless Coxon returned. Coxon called Albarn some names and said it’d never happen.
And yet it has.
The band played its first reunion gig this weekend, with a handful of U.K. festival appearances slated for this summer, including Glastonbury. There aren’t U.S. dates scheduled yet, but the band has plans to record an eighth album this fall/winter.
Here’s a clip from that gig, an effervescent and enthusiastic version of “Parklife”:
Here’s 10 reasons to get to know Blur better, if you need ‘em
1. “The Universal,” a swoon-worthy ballad from 1995’s under-rated The Great Escape, complete with “A Clockwork Orange”-styled video.
2. “On Your Own,” a shout-along single from the Pavement-loving 1997 self-titled work:
3. “Parklife,” great song with an even better video that I’ve posted before”
4. “Coffee & TV,” Blur’s last American hit and only single featuring Coxon on lead vocals produced a quirky video that everybody loved back in the day:
5. “For Tomorrow,” also known as “where Blur found direction.” This 1993 lead-single to Modern Life is Rubbish pilfered from Bowie and The Kinks and left plenty of room for Albarn to stretch out later.
6. “Girls & Boys” was my introduction to Blur, way back in the summer of 1994. It was such a strange song to hear on MTV during the height of grunge-pop that it was hard not to pay attention to.
7. “Charmless Man,” another effortless Brit-pop anthem from Albarn; sounds like music hall on speed.
8. “End of a Century” is probably my favorite song on Parklife. The older I get, the more I relate (the mind really does get dirty as you get closer to 30!) and the more I sympathize.
9. “Beetlebum,” another awesome track from that 1997 record.
10. ”Tender” gave the band a surprising gospel-tinged lead single for 1999’s 13. It also gave us this surprising live-performance video.