Tag: Damon Albarn

Things were not looking good for blur in the early 90s.  Debut album Leisure had been a moderate success but a disastrous US tour, the changing tides of British music and the potential of being dropped by their record label put them in a rough spot. With that in mind, the band went back to work with XTC’s Andy Partridge in the producer’s chair. Things did not go as planned and they soon parted ways with Partridge. In stepped Stephen Street who had worked on their first album, and that’s when things started to change.

Preceded by stand alone single “Popscene” the year before, Modern Life Is Rubbish was released in May of 1993. As a direct reaction to the American grunge sound, blur retreated back into their British roots for an album inspired by The Kinks, Small Faces, The Jam, etc. Record boss David Balfe sent the band back looking for a single which singer Damon Albarn dutifully provided with the snappy “For Tomorrow”. Cruising around London with a chorus of “la la la” and the bright vision of, “And so we hold each other tightly/And hold on for tomorrow”, the band was looking towards the future.

Two further singles followed.  Layers of Graham Coxon guitars powers “Chemical World” and oompah of music hall sounds lifts the mundane retelling of British life of “Sunday Sunday”. With all three singles barely scraping into the top 30, other potential singles were not released. “Advert” is a punk rock take on the drudgery of 9 to 5 working life. “Star Shaped” is a wide eyed cheery pop song and “Blue Jeans” has more in common with the sound of tracks off Leisure but with the hopeful lyric, “I don’t really want to change a thing/I want to stay this way forever”.  The mention of Portobello Road on the track puts the heart of this song straight into the west end of London.

The band then touches on character a profile on “Colin Zeal” that would become a mainstay of future song themes.  Dave Rowntree’s drums are more prominent on “Oily Water” and the elastic bass playing of Alex James provides a deep groove throughout. Modern Life is Rubbish is the start of a trilogy of albums centered on English life that was later perfected on Parklife and had ran it’s course by the end of The Great Escape. While down and out, blur managed to put together an album that helped usher in the Britpop era that they would help rule over for the next several years.

The jump in quality of the extra material on disc two over the Leisure B-Sides is remarkable. Several of the songs appear on the North American version of Modern Life Is Rubbish including the “Popscene” single that while it missed the UK top 30, it is considered a foundational song in the Britpop movement. The disc is filled with quite good British indie rock songs including “Mace”, the 60s influenced “Young and Lovely”,  and “When The Cows Come Home” that continues the sound and themes of the main album. “For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill Extended)” version is a treat.  The second half of the six-minute version adds a brass band section that creates a new groove to the song. “Chemical World (Reworked)” is a jangly guitar take on the single and their version of the classic  “Maggie May” is a knees up good time, the joy is infectious.

Modern Life Is Rubbish – 9/10

Expanded Extras – 7/10

1991 saw the release of the debut album from London’s blur.  The prevailing music trends at the time – baggy Madchester beats, shoegaze and grunge all helped form the songs on Leisure.  Led by 3 singles, the first being the stoner indie rock with a slight Manchester feel of “She’s So High”. The track adds a swirling keyboard and psychedelic guitar from Graham Coxon while bassist Alex James keeps the low end in a constant groove.  The song scraped into the UK top 50 singles chart.

Building on that success, the band released one of their finest early singles in “There’s No Other Way”.  A UK Top 5 hit, the distinctive guitar opener from Coxon is added to with an organ line and dancefloor filling beat from drummer Dave Rowntree. The band’s fortunes sagged with third single “Bang” that didn’t hit the top 20 and has been largely disowned by the band.  While not as strong as the other singles, the bored slacker lyrics from Damon Albarn and inventive drumming from Rowntree does make it a decent track.

The most distinctive song on Leisure was never released as a single.  Later rescued by the Trainspotting OST, “Sing” is a surreal atmospheric track that manages to be both experimental and tuneful. 30+ years on, “Sing” is still a band and fan favourite. Another atmospheric track closes the album with the grungy guitar driven “Wear Me Down”.  Albarn’s vocals sound otherworldly with an excellent layered vocal chorus.

In between these tracks, the foursome assembles a decent set of it’s time indie dance rock with “Bad Day” and “Fool” being particularly upbeat, catchy album tracks.  Like the single “Bang”, the band has doesn’t have much good things to say about this album as they would strive for far greater heights in just a few short years. Like other blur fans, I have a soft spot on this album after discovering it a few years after release.  It was a regular pregaming disc to blast in my bedroom while getting ready for a night out. While lyrically slight and following rather than leading on the music side – Leisure does boast several banging tracks to listen to while downing the first lager of the night.

When blur released their blur 21 boxset in 2012, they included bonus discs with each album featuring b-sides, rarities, and extended tracks. “I Know” appears in extended form and is memorable number while the band’s remix of “There’s No Other Way” adds some spacey atmosphere in a dubby like sound.  “Luminous” has a dreamy guitar and “Explain” might be the best of the bunch.  Unlike contemporaries Suede, there are no early lost gems or should have been singles.  The band picked the best of the bunch that made the actual album.

Leisure – 8/10

Expanded Extras – 5/10

With little build up in 2023, blur released their 10^th studio album The Ballad of Darren. What did have a lot of buildup and massive fanfare was the band’s return to performing live highlighted by two massive shows at Wembley Stadium on July 8^th and 9^th.  It’s the second of these, the Sunday concert that the band released to a wider audience in 2024 including a 2CD version.

The setlist does a stellar job of capturing most of the band’s highlights with roughly half the tracks coming from 1993’s Modern Life is Rubbish and 94’s mega selling Parklife. The energy gets amped up on a blistering take on the band’s fourth single, “Popscene” with Graham Coxon’s guitar acting as a buzzsaw.  One of the finest moments of the concert appears when Damon Albarn sings about heroin that originally flew over most people’s heads on “Beetlebum”, a UK #1 single from their self titled album from the mid 90s.  This leads into the atmospheric “Trimm Trabb” that has as crisp guitar line and one of the best vocals from Albarn on the disc before it segues into early album favourite “Villa Rosie”. An emotional take on “Under the Westway” closes out disc one. Sublime.

Since it’s a Sunday gig, the foursome pull out a spirited take on “Sunday Sunday” before performing the song that caused so much controversy for the band, “Country House”.  It was the one that amped up the Britpop wars with rivals Oasis but appears here as a throwaway track. Better is the Phil Daniels sung “Parklife” that seems to be in double time as the crowd receives it with bounding enthusiasm.  A classy take on “To the End” with bassist Alex James holding down the low end gives the crowd a rest before “Advert” once again amps up the energy.  An extended drum intro from Dave Rowntree on “Song 2” follows that sees Albarn later exclaim, “I don’t usually quote James Brown but I FEEL GOOD!”. The main set closes with a take on album track favourite “This Is a Low” that ends in a swirl of feedback.

In the encore, the keyboard riff of “Girls and Boys” blasts in from seemingly out of nowhere before the band pulls out all the punches including a gospel choir for a stadium singalong to one of their finest singles, “Tender”. New song “The Narcissist” fits in nicely with their already legendary classics before the customary closing track, “The Universal” brings it all to an end.  After the weekend, Albarn noted that the band were nervous for Saturday’s gig but once that was over and performed well, the band were able to let loose for Sunday night.  The live album keeps all it’s flaws in tacked, including Albarn forgetting words and missing cues at times. However, the discs capture the energy on an enthusiastic performance that sounds like an absolute blast for all involved.

8/10