ALBUM REVIEW: Blur - The Magic Whip

One of the most hotly anticipated album releases this year was the long awaited new studio album from Blur. Their first new album of original material since 2003's Think Tank and their first as a four-piece since 1999's 13, Blur dropped a bombshell on the music world on Chinese New Year in February when they announced that not only were they going to play another massive summer show in London's Hyde Park (their third time since 2009) but that they were releasing a new record in April! Titled The Magic Whip, it was recorded during sessions in Hong Kong in 2013 when the band had a week to kill during their tour of Southeast Asia after a festival in Tokyo that they  booked for was cancelled. Damon had announced onstage at a later show in Hong Kong that the band had spent time in the studio but later said he was unsure if any of it would ever be released. However, it turns out that in 2014 Graham had listened to the tapes and worked on them with longtime Blur producer Stephen Street, hammering the songs into shape before approaching Damon with the idea of making an album out of it. Damon, along with Alex and Dave, agreed and they finished the record that became The Magic Whip.  It was officially released in the UK on April 27th and in the US on April 28th and was certainly a welcome surprise; I know I didn't think there would ever be a new Blur album after they finished their final tour in early 2014. 

Ever since I received my copy of the CD on the 28th I've been inundated with messages from friends and fans asking if I have listened to it and when my review will be posted online. To answer those two questions: 1) yes, I've listened to it several times all the way through, and 2) I had never planned on writing a review for it. However, since so many people have asked me when it was going to be ready, I figured I should go ahead and actually write it!  I'm going to do a track-by-track review and then wrap it up with some final thoughts, so here goes...

But first of all, a short bit about the packaging. Those of you who regularly read this site know how I feel about the entirety of the album as a work of art: for me, the artwork and packaging are an integral part of the best albums and can really enhance the listening experience. The Magic Whip comes in a jewel case with an OBI strip that has the band name and album title on the front and the track listing on its reverse. The album booklet is full of doodles, drawings, Chinese images, and scribbled and typed lyrics and notes, while the disc itself has a smiling sun-face. Overall, it's a very attractive package that continues Blur's tradition of presenting their albums in a striking and uniquely artistic manner.  Now, on to the music...

1. Lonesome Street

In keeping with Blur's tradition of fabulous album openers, "Lonesome Street" is a worthy addition to a line-up that boasts classics like "Beetlebum," "Ambulance," "Girls and Boys," and "For Tomorrow" in its ranks. From the opening lilting guitar notes to when the band burst forth in classic mid-1990s technicolor Blur mode with a Kinks-worthy guitar riff, you know immediately that the band is back in full force. And like all classic Blur, it's infectiously melodic but also has a dollop of weirdness that keeps it interesting; this is brought to us by Graham during his vocal responses to Damon's verses and, especially, in the discordant bridge that sounds like something from Blur's earlier incarnation as Seymour via Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Throw in Alex's always inventive basslines and solid, driving Ringo-esque drums from Dave (a very good thing!) and you've got the perfect album opening statement and one of the great Blur songs of their career. A more perfect way to start the album you couldn't ask for...

2. New World Towers

...which then brings us to a real clunker.  From the very first listen, "New World Towers" sounded to me like a refugee from Damon's 2014 solo album Everyday Robots. Now, I was very well-known and vocal in my dislike of that album when it first came out, although I completely changed my tune after seeing Damon play it live. I "got" the album afterwards and now I love it (although I still maintain it's let down by Richard Russell's production, but that's another story...). So the fact that "New World Towers" sounds like something from that album isn't a bad thing...but it just doesn't sound like Blur to me. This is the one song on the album (in reality the only song on the album) that to me sounds like solo Damon with Graham, Alex, and Dave as his backing band.  The sparse quasi-reggae rhythm, the production, the vocal tracks...it's all quite beautiful and Graham and Alex in particular really shine, but it's just missing that essential ingredient that would make it sound like Blur.

3. Go Out

"Go Out" was the first track released from the album, on the same day as the album announcement in February. While I and most Blur fans went nuts over it, repeated listens and a bit of perspective showed that it was a solid but unspectacular song that was very catchy but continued Damon's tradition (at the time) of not writing a Blur song with chorus. As the album release drew near I was prepared to dismiss this song even more, but you know what? In the context of the album, it works perfectly. I like it even better now; it completely fits in with the vibe and feel of the album and the sequencing of placing it right after "New World Towers" is absolutely brilliant.  It's got a pounding, bouncy rhythm driven by Alex and Dave, really fuzzy, noisy guitars from Graham, and Damon has perfected his lazy I'm-so-much-cooler-than-you-it's-not-even-real vocal delivery. This is strutting, cocky Blur at their very best. And no matter how silly it may seem, you can't help but sing along about "going to the lo-o-o-o-o-cal" and love every second of it.

4. Ice Cream Man

This is a weird one for me. When I first heard the opening synthesizer burbles and hip-hop beat, I assumed it was going to be a Gorillaz song masquerading as a Blur song. Now, I'm a huge fan of Gorillaz but I like my Blur to be kept separate, thank you very much. However, once the strummed acoustic guitar comes in and the drums and bass join in. it starts to sound more like Blur (albeit still with a strong Gorillaz vibe).  All in all, while it's not my favorite song on the album, I really like it.

5. Thought I Was a Spaceman

The lone epic on the album, clocking in at over six minutes, and the centerpiece of The Magic Whip. It starts off with a quiet drum machine/bass rhythm pattern and eerie guitar and piano chords as Damon's disembodied voice starts singing. It sounds like the sort of stuff they were doing in 1997 and 1999, but updated for 2015. It's hard not to feel pangs of regret when Damon sings "I thought we succeeded...but in fact we failed." When Dave's drum fill heralds his and Alex's entry just before the three-minute mark, the song takes off to another level. It becomes even grander when the synthesized swaths of noise come in during the instrumental bit in the middle, driven along by some fuzzed-out bass guitar and the melody tapped out on vibraphone. The song is surprisingly light on Graham until the last minute or so when he unleashes some ferocious guitar before it all quiets down and ebbs away. "Thought I Was a Spaceman" has echoes of old Blur, Gorillaz, Radiohead, and Beck, and is already one of my favorite Blur songs ever. A stunning achievement and while it's perfect as the centerpiece of the album, I think it would also have been a great choice elsewhere on the album (keep reading to see what I'm talking about).  

6. I Broadcast

Similar to "Lonesome Street," this song has a mid-1990s Blur vibe to it, but gussied up to sound more modern. It starts off with another almost Kink-ish riff on synthesizer and bass guitar before Graham comes slashing in around the 30-second mark.  It's got a bouncy verse that almost recalls "Song 2" and a chorus that would feel at home on Parklife. This is one of those songs that is great on record but will be even better live where the crowd can shout out "I Broadcast!" during the choruses.

7. My Terracotta Heart

From the very first time I heard this song, it sounded like a rewrite of "Hollow Ponds" from Everyday Robots. Musically, it sounds exactly like it should be from that album, especially with Damon's vocal melody and delivery. However, the chorus saves the song and is quite beautiful. Lyrically, it's in the same vein as "Battery In Your Leg" in that it seems to be a song from Damon to Graham about the past tribulations of their lifelong friendship. Graham's gentle and intricate guitar work is a highlight of this track and repeated listens make me like it more and more.

8. There Are Too Many Of Us

Starting off with a martial beat and a haunting synthesizer melody atop a backdrop of strummed acoustic guitar, Damon's faraway, echoey voice sings out the verses before the full band explode into life 1:45 into the song. While the song doesn't have a chorus and feels a little bit incomplete, it's interesting and catchy enough that it's memorable and one of the highlights of the latter half of the album.

9. Ghost Ship

A real standout track for me, "Ghost Ship" is Damon effortlessly writing a breezy, windows-down-on-a-sunny-day driving song that is absolutely gorgeous and catchy as all hell. Rhythmically it sounds like a song an American jam-band might play, but Alex's punchy bassline and the sun-drenched vocal harmonies take it to another level. The chorus is not traditional in the sense that it's over the same chords as the verse, but Damon's delivery is enough to differentiate it. Graham plays some exquisite, almost jazzy guitar licks throughout before a wonderful mini guitar solo. There's even some delicate saxophone toward the end that further enhances the song. One of the definite highlights of the record.

10. Pyongyang

Lyrically inspired by Damon's recent visit to North Korea, it starts out with what almost sounds like the rhythm to the cry of "bring out your dead" tapped out on a triangle.  Eastern-sounding guitar and synthesizer echo eerily before the drums and bass come in, while Graham plays some Asian-sounding twangs on guitar after each of Damon's verses. The overall effect is very moody and intense, a smoldering ember that ignites into one of the most beautiful choruses Damon has ever written for Blur.  The song ends in a wash of noise and effects that fade out. Beautiful song. 

11. Ong Ong

And then we get to the only other song on the album, besides "New World Towers," that I don't particularly care for. But while "New World Towers" is at least a little interesting,"Ong Ong" just grates on me. Yes, it's bouncy and happy-sounding, with a catchy refrain of "I wanna be with you" during the chorus that's sure to make it a live favorite, but for me it all seems too trite and twee. Damon can write these kind of la-la-la strummy singalong tunes in his sleep, and he's done it better before (see: "Mr. Tembo"). This song would have been perfect as a b-side and in fact sounds like the bastard cousin of "Money Makes Me Crazy" from the Think Tank era, but on The Magic Whip it's by far the weakest song. I don't hate this song and I certainly don't skip over it, but I tolerate it more than I enjoy it. Maybe my opinion will change if/when I see them play it live, but for now it's firmly in the "Blur songs I would be embarrassed to play to my friends who have never heard the band before" category.

12. Mirrorball

Ah, the album closer. Blur typically have some pretty grand statements when it comes to closing out their albums: "Essex Dogs," "Yuko & Hiro," and "Battery In Your Leg" come to mind, as does, of course, the majestic "This Is a Low" (which was so heavy that the aural palate cleanser of "Lot 105" was tacked onto the end of Parklife to lighten the mood a bit). "Mirrorball" starts off with some Old West-sounding guitar strums drenched in reverb and indeed the entire song is a mixture of brooding Old West meets East, with eastern-tinged string parts between the verses making an effective counterpoint with the guitar and piano. It's certainly one of Blur's best songs on the album and in line with some of Damon's best, most emotional music, but is it good as an album closer? My initial reaction after my first run through the album was to be a bit underwhelmed by the song. Then I realized the song itself is fine, it's just that as a closing track it felt unsatisfying and unresolved...I kept feeling as though there needed to be one more song to wrap the album and its statement up in a bold way, but this was it. So remember what I said before when I was writing about "Thought I Was a Spaceman?" I think that song would have been a better closing track, although it works so well as a centerpiece that its impact would have probably been blunted. Instead, I believe that swapping "Mirroball's" place in the running order with "Pyongyang" would have been a good move and would have made the sequencing of the album that much stronger. But then again, I'm not in the band, so...

There you have it. I've now listened to the album all the way through SIX times in the last day and a half and I feel as though I've got a good handle on it as it starts to get more and more familiar. Final thoughts: it's a very, very good, even great album. I don't rank it at the top when it comes to their albums...for me it's in the middle of the pack. However, given its competition (for me, "Blur," "13," "Modern Life is Rubbish," and "Parklife" are all ahead of it) that's no slight. The truth is that Blur have never made a bad album and while the potential was there for The Magic Whip to be a crushing disappointment after the twelve year gap between releases, the fact of the matter is that like their 1990s contemporaries Suede who came back after eleven years with the excellent Bloodsports in 2013, Blur not only didn't disappoint, but they impressed and delivered the goods in spades. In terms of the production, most of Blur's best albums were done with Stephen Street at the helm and he again shows his importance with this one.  The potential was there for The Magic Whip to sound disjointed and patched together given the jamming nature of the Hong Kong sessions and the fact that Graham and Street pieced the songs together from the tapes, but it's surprisingly cohesive, not only on an individual song level but as a whole. If Blur hadn't told us about the creative process that went into this record, you'd never know it was made in conditions under which they'd never previously worked.

My gut feeling is that this is probably the last album we'll get from Blur; it seems as though they wanted the final word in their discography to involve all four of them and that they didn't want Think Tank to be their last studio album. If this does indeed turn out to be the case, they've certainly gone out on top. The Magic Whip is a worthy addition to their excellent catalog of music and an inviting listen for we Blur fans who have "a love of all sweet music."

MY RATING: 9/10

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Blur and The Magic Whip

Blur on Chinese New Year 2015, with a big announcement...

February 19th, which also happened to be the Chinese New Year, was a big day for music fans. Blur, second only to the Beatles as my favorite band of all time and one of the bands that has meant so much to me in my life, announced the upcoming release of their new album The Magic Whip on April 27th. To say this was unexpected would be an understatement as it was widely assumed by most of the band's diehard fans, as well as yours truly, that they had called it a day. Despite reuniting in 2009, they had only released three new songs since then and had consistently toured their greatest hits through the beginning of 2014. Some recording sessions they had announced in Hong Kong in 2013 came to naught (we'll get back to this) and with Damon's never-ending list of projects, including his excellent solo album Everyday Robots in 2014, it seemed that Blur were in the rearview mirror and getting smaller by the day. So when they dropped this bombshell on us fans, my initial response was shock followed by excitement followed by euphoria. They even gave us one of the album tracks to tide us over until April...

Now, I'm not going to get into a long and detailed post here as I've written about Blur in quite a lot of detail before, not to mention the two books on them that I've published in 2009 and 2012.  In addition to the band profile and the article lamenting the end of the band in 2014 (hah!), I also posted a screed in which I was highly critical of their refusal to record new music and their seeming contentment to flog the hits around the world year after year since their reunion.  This article blew up in the online Blur fan community, especially on the Blur message boards on which I am a moderator.  Even the excellent RW/FF Music blog mentioned this rant of mine in their recent article on The Magic Whip.  Well, I'm man enough to stand by what I wrote; I meant it at the time and I still do. That being said, I am beyond glad that they proved me wrong and that they came back with this new album.  What happened is that Graham and longtime Blur producer Stephen Street went through the demos from Hong Kong and started to a put an album together. When they played the tracks to the other three guys, they all decided to make an album of it. The rest is, as they say, history.  Blur will be headlining a(nother) massive show in London's Hyde Park in June and will play warm-up dates beforehand. I'm holding my breath that some American club shows will also be in the offing; it's been twelve years since I last saw Blur live and I refuse to go see them at a huge festival so if they are playing anywhere near me for what looks to be their final tour, I will be there.

I've mentioned it in other posts related to the band (which are linked above), but Blur are the Beatles of my generation that I was lucky enough to live through firsthand. While the Beatles will always be #1 to me, I grew up with Blur soundtracking my life (something which they still do). From 1994 when I was 14 and first heard a couple of songs of theirs to 1997 when I was 17 and became a full-blown fan, and now all the way to the present, I've hung on every note, every song, every everything this band has done. I was a wide-eyed college freshman when I became a true fan and now I'm a mid-30s working stiff, husband, and father of four. Through it all, the band has grown and matured along with me and has been there every step of the way. Because of this, the new album means much more to me than just new music.  It's the reminder of who I was then and who I am now and everything in between. It's an old friend coming to brighten my life once again when I thought they were gone for good.  Speaking of friends, I've made so many good friends through my love of this band, both in real life and online, and to be able to share in the experience of new Blur yet again with so many of these people around the world is such a joy. Even if this is the last time (and I really do think it is...it seems too perfect, and Graham has hinted as much in recent interviews), I can't think of a better way for them to go out on top.  With that being said, this is going to be the longest two month wait I've had in a while, but I know it will be worth it. Despite all of their ups and downs, Blur have never let me down. They're the familiar voice that has grown up with me over the last twenty years and I know their music, which has always been there for me, will continue to thrill me for the rest of my life.

Is it April yet? 

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Blur

Blur: L to R Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree, Damon Albarn, Alex James

The most surprising thing about this band profile you're about to read about Blur is that it's taken me as long as it has to finally write it. They are one of my most favorite bands in the world and probably the only band of the past twenty years that I hold in as high esteem as many of the legends from the 1960s. Let me rephrase that, actually: while many bands of the past twenty to thirty years can stand up to the legends of the 1960s and 1970s, in my opinion Blur are at the top of that heap. Better? My obsessive fandom of Blur is rivaled only by the way I feel about the Beatles, Who, and Kinks although I've spent more time and energy on channeling that love of Blur's music into something constructive than I have for any other band. I certainly didn't spend months and years of research on (insert shameless plug here) writing on two books for a band I don't care much about.

For those uninitiated in all things Blur, they are a band from London whose career spans 1988 to the present, although they've been in an on-again-off-again hiatus since 2003 (we'll get into this later on). Three of the band, Damon Albarn (vocals, songwriting, piano/keyboards/synthesizers, guitars, melodica), Graham Coxon (lead guitar, vocals), and Dave Rowntree (drums) grew up in Colchester while Alex James (bass guitar) is from Bournemouth. However, it wasn't until Alex and Graham met as classmates at Goldsmiths college that they decided to forma  band, bringing Graham's childhood friend Damon and another fellow he'd played in bands with as a teenager (Dave) into the fold. They initially called themselves Seymour and rehearsed in a studio Damon was managing as they built up a repertoire of original material and got to know one another as musicians. Even at this early stage, musically they were a very tight and powerful outfit: Graham would soon emerge as one of the premier guitarists of the 1990s, Alex would emerge as one of the great British bass players of the 1990s with his endlessly inventive and melodically basslines, and Dave as a powerhouse drummer with plenty of chops who always played for the song. The wild card at this early stage was Damon, who was ambitious to the point of overconfidence but struggled to find his voice as a singer and songwriter. 

Their early material was loud, discordant, dissonant, and played at breakneck speed: a cross between punk, ska, new wave, and noisy Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Graham brought influences like the Who, Beatles, and King Crimson to the table, while Damon was into British Two-Tone ska and new wave.  However, while Damon's lyrics at this stage were mostly rubbish, there was (usually) a strong melody lurking beneath the sonic assault. Eventually, via word of mouth from gigging in and around London, they caught the eyes and ears of Dave Balfe and Andy Ross, who owned and operated an indie label called Food Records that had the backing and distribution muscle of EMI Records behind it. Signed to the label in 1990 as Balfe's quest to find "the next Jesus Jones" (anyone my age or older will remember them), the first order of business was for the band, at Food's insistence, to change their name. They eventually settled on Blur and began recording their first single, which would be released later in the year. "She's So High" was a simple song with vague lyrics and a repetitive chord sequence, but it was saved by the band's high energy playing, sinewy guitar work from Graham, and the psychedelic and trippy atmosphere of both the song and the accompanying video. The song did respectably in the charts, but it wasn't until their second single, "There's No Other Way," released in 1991, that they had their first breakthrough into the mainstream. The song went top 10 and the band exploded onto the national scene. A debut album, Leisure, was recorded and released in 1991 as well. As far as debuts go it's not bad, but it's very uneven and not a true representation of what Blur would go on to sound like. It suffered on the one hand from too much record company interference (too many producers, Balfe's overbearing presence and personality clashes with Damon which I'll touch on in a bit) while on the other hand, the songs just weren't that good. For each gem like the aforementioned singles, the haunting "Sing," the bouncy and catchy "Bad Day," and the power pop of "Come Together" there was weaker fare like "Fool," the slight (but unfairly maligned) "Bang," and the vapidness of "I Know" and "High Cool." That's not to say I don't like the album...I do, and even the weaker songs have things to redeem them, usually a great bassline or a killer guitar lick. But the overall impact was a far cry from such powerful and fully realized debuts such as those by Blur's two biggest rivals and contemporaries in the 1990s British scene, Suede's self-titled debut from 1993 and Oasis' "Definitely Maybe" in 1994. However, one good thing to come out of this entire experience was the chance to work with former Smiths producer Stephen Street, who would go on to be the George Martin to Blur's Beatles for most of the decade.

Their initial success in 1991 began to erode as subsequent singles sold poorer than the last and the band's sound was seen as riding on the coattails of dying trends, in particular Madchester/baggy and shoegaze. Their 1992 one-off single "Popscene" was a abrupt musical about-face and is one of the great lost singles by any band...it sank without a trace and baffled the public, being too far ahead of its time to gain mass appeal although in the years since, it's been rightly hailed as a call to arms that British rock music, too often brushed aside in favor of the hair metal and grunge music being imported from America in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was finally worth noticing again. Their subsequently miserable American tour of 1992 and a legendarily drunken and embarrassing London charity gig in 1992 led to Food threatening to drop them if they didn't get their act together and their prodigious drinking under control. This seemed to be the wake-up call that was needed, the proverbial hitting of rock-bottom before beginning the climb to the top. Blur would spend the rest of the decade as the premier British band, comparisons to the Beatles being not mere hyperbole but apposite and warranted. Beginning with their second album, 1993's Modern Life is Rubbish and continuing through with 1999's 13, Blur released a series of albums and singles that helped to define their decade and that stand alongside any great British rock albums of the 1960s, 70s, or 80s. Initially rejected by Balfe for "not having enough singles," Albarn wrote two of the best songs of his career that eventually ended up on Modern Life. Opening track "For Tomorrow" is a despairing and beautiful portrait of a London on the decline complete with singalong "la la la la la" chorus, while "Chemical World" looks at the superficiality of modern life with a shimmering and spidery guitar riff that would make George Harrison proud. The rest of the album, a look at the crass consumerism of 1990s Britain in contrast with its decaying traditions, is no less powerful, from the bludgeoning Ray Davies-esque character studies of "Colin Zeal" and "Pressure on Julian" to the psychedelic 1960s English music hall revival of "Sunday Sunday," the proto-metal of "Oily Water," the gorgeous Lennon and McCartney-flavored "Starshaped" and "Blue Jeans," and contempt that is both sneering ("Advert") and wearily accepted ("Resigned"). In between, there are German-inspired punk interludes, boozy ballads, and the kitchen sink. In short, it is the greatest 1960s British rock album of the 1990s. While it wasn't a smash hit, it sold respectably, hung around the middle-reaches of the charts, and built momentum for the band's new musical manifesto that was enhanced by their relentless schedule of live performances. All of this set the stage for their breakthrough...

1994's Parklife has rightfully been called one of the defining albums of the 1990s and it's easy to hear why even 20 years later. It's a collection of songs that just bristles with energy and defines its era in a way that very few albums manage to do. From the opening sleazy synth-pop blast of "Girls and Boys" to the dark, shadowy, and majestic closer "This is a Low," the album runs the gamut of styles from Kinks-style character sketches to Euro-thrash punk, Beatle-esque melodies, noisy Husker Du power pop and everything in between. Combined with an instantly memorable and eye-catching album cover and superb production from Stephen Street, it marked Blur's ascension to the top of the mountain in British rock and made them megastars.

So how do you follow a masterpiece?  Blur unleashed The Great Escape in 1995, another #1 album, and after winning a protracted and nasty singles chart battle against Oasis, they were the kings of British rock music. However, the mania surrounding the band nearly tore them apart and in particular led to some immense strain between Damon and Graham. Revisionist reviewing by the UK music press after the initially laudatory reviews of Blur's new album and their tepid reviews of Oasis' new album led to the former album being slated in subsequent years while the latter took on almost mythic status. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. While The Great Escape overall was strong, it took Damon's character sketches to a darker, sneering extreme. Realizing the band's music and cohesion couldn't last if they continued down this path, they spent 1996 reinventing themselves and released what is probably the best album of their career, 1997's self-titled masterpiece.

Similar to the White Album, it's a sprawling yet cohesive work that is at times dark, humorous, despairing, and affirming as it covers a range of styles from perfect Beatle-esque rock ("Beetlebum" and "Look Inside America"), Bowie-ish psychedelia ("Strange News From Another Star), noisy thrash ("Song 2," "Chinese Bombs"), trip-hop ("I'm Just a Killer For Your Love," "Death of a Party"), and everything in between. They continued further in this direction with 1999's 13, this time breaking from Stephen Street and working with William Orbit. It's a much dirtier, noisier, and more harrowing album inspired in part by Damon's split from Justine Frischmann after nearly a decade as the premier power couple of 1990s British rock. Pieced together from Damon's demos and long, weird jams the band played in the studio, the album is as emotionally draining to listen to (check out "Battle" or "Caramel") as it was for the band to make, although there are also moments of fun ("Coffee and TV") and beauty ("Tender," "No Distance Left to Run," "Optigan 1").  However, when working on the follow-up in 2002, Graham left the band under mysterious circumstances. The resulting album, Blur's final album which was recorded as a three-piece with Damon taking over guitar duties, was 2003's eclectic Think Tank. Often called a Gorillaz album masquerading as a Blur album and drenched in Damon's ongoing fascination with world music and hip-hop, it's every bit as dark and dense an album as 13, from the uplifting opening track "Ambulance" to the despair of "On the Way to the Club" and the heartache of "Battery In Your Leg" (which is the only album track to feature Graham on guitar). After the tour to promote the album, the band went on a hiatus that, apart from some rumored activity in 2005 that never came to fruition, lasted all the way through Damon's worldwide success as the creative force behind Gorillaz and other various side-projects, until the end of 2008 when Damon and Graham repaired their friendship and got the band back together.

From 2009 through 2014, Blur toured around the world (although they inexplicably only played a mere two shows in America, where they have a large and dedicated cult following, including yours truly!) and released three new songs: 2010's one-off single "Fool's Day" on Record Store Day, and 2012's "Under the Westway" backed with "The Puritan." They showed that their live shows were as powerful and that the band were as tight as they ever were (more on their live performances in a bit), and the setlists were a nice cross section of their entire career, including quite a few rarities thrown in on the 2012 and 2013 set lists. However, while there were a few attempts to record a new album (most famously, sessions with William Orbit in early 2012 that ended in a public row in the musical papers, as well as some demo sessions in Hong Kong later in 2013 that came to naught), their final show in Tokyo in early 2014 has been the last we've heard from Blur as a band.  Damon has been active, as usual, with an excellent debut solo album and a tour that started in 2014 that shows no signs of slowing down heading into 2015. However, for the foreseeable future (and in my gut feeling), Blur are finished.  Besides Damon's solo career, Graham continues to record and release a series of interesting solo albums that he begun in 1998, Dave is a solicitor and radio/club DJ, and Alex is a writer and farmer.

I don't make the following comparisons lightly, but there are MANY parallels between Blur and the Beatles. Taking the Beatles' huge impact on pretty much every aspect of Western culture out of the equation and focusing solely on music, the two bands are much more similar than you probably think.  As an obsessive fan of both bands, I've spent countless hours pondering these similarities, so here goes. First, both bands consist of four members and only those four members throughout their years of fame. Yes, the Beatles had Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, as well as countless other transient members in their earlier years, while Blur had additional members who came and went before they settled on their classic line-up. But from the moment when both bands began their recording careers and started their career ascension, they both had stable line-ups that never changed. John, Paul, and George all grew up together and were best friends; Ringo, who they got to know years before he joined the band, fit right in and the band became known as a tight unit made up of four distinctive personalities. The same is true for Blur: Damon, Graham, and Dave were friends growing up and when Alex was brought into the fold later, the personalities meshed. Again, a band that looked like (and was) a gang of brothers, all with unique and instantly identifiable personalities.  In both bands, every member was integral to their sound and image and each was 100% irreplaceable. Both were led by two dominant creative individuals, although in the Beatles' case it was collaborative (Lennon/McCartney) whereas in Blur there is one songwriter (Albarn) and his lieutenant who helps with arrangements (Coxon).  Both bands have rock-solid rhythm sections led by incredibly melodic bass players (McCartney and James) and drummers who have the chops to stretch out when they need to but always play for the song (Starr and Rowntree). The Beatles were obviously more prolific, releasing 13 albums (one of which is a double album) and 14 non-album singles and b-sides over the course of their 8 year recording career, whereas Blur clock in with only 7 albums and 6 non-album singles over the course of their nearly 25 years of existence. However, what both have in common is that they always pushed forward and continually developed and evolved their sound, never releasing an album that sounded like anything before it.  While the Beatles' and Blur's closest peers, the Rolling Stones and Oasis, respectively, made many great records and stood neck-and-neck with them in the charts, both had a tendency to not deviate much from their signature sounds. Not so for the Beatles and Blur: while the Beatles obviously made much larger leaps, going from Please Please Me to Revolver/Sgt. Pepper to Abbey Road in a span of 7 years, Blur's jumps from Modern Life is Rubbish/Parklife to Blur to 13 were no less dramatic in the 1990s.

Where the two bands differ significantly, however, is when live performances enter the equation. I realize it isn't an entirely fair comparison because the Beatles gigged relentlessly in their pre-fame days and were hampered by being famous during the infancy of the rock concert era, when amplification and PA equipment was woefully inadequate for the enormous venues and audiences they were playing.  However, during their fame years, they only toured from 1962-1966 and by the end were only playing 20-30 minute sets that no one (including the band themselves) could hear anyway. By contrast, Blur undertook years of grueling, year-long world tours every year from 1990 to 1997 before scaling back, although their schedules in 1999, 2003, and 2012-13 were no less rigorous. And where the Beatles spent most of their touring years limited by their equipment as to what they could reproduce onstage, Blur were much more adventurous, throwing in a lot of deeper album cuts and b-sides into their set lists over the years. (You can, of course, read all about this in my two books on Blur's live performance history...sorry for the shameless plug but the segue was right there!).

As for what Blur's music means to me, they were the first band who were active during my lifetime that I followed absolutely religiously the way I obsessed over the Beatles, devouring every scrap of news and eagerly awaiting every new single and album. There were other bands I followed seriously during their careers while I was a teenager and into my 20s (notably R.E.M.) but I wasn't as fanatical about them the way I was with Blur.  I first heard Blur's music without really knowing it in the early to mid 1990s when "There's No Other Way" and "Girls and Boys" were minor hits on the alternative rock and college radio stations I used to listen to.  My first real exposure was  in late 1996/early 1997 when I heard tracks from their self-titled album (which was released in February 1997) on the radio. "Song 2" and in particular "Beetlebum" just blew me away and led me to buy the album and devour it. Later on that year, my roommate happened to have a copy of The Great Escape that he didn't particularly care for. With that, I was on my way and I've been a rabid fan ever since. My only lament about my fandom is that I wasn't able to somehow be in the UK during all of it, because while they are huge in the UK and also hugely popular in Europe, Asia, and South America, they've always been a cult band here in the USA, darlings of Anglophiles and indie rock lovers in the know and all but ignored by mainstream music and radio. For perspective, while in the UK Damon is first and foremost the lead singer of Blur and Gorillaz is known to be his side project, in America the script is flipped: he's guy behind Gorillaz who also used to be in "that band that did that woo-hoo song."  That being said, I am fortunate enough to have seen them in concert, once in 2003, and it was a fantastic show.  I had a chance to see Blur in 1999 as well but passed on it due to scheduling conflicts with my exams, a decision I've regretted ever since. I've also seen Gorillaz (2010) and Damon (2014) and in all cases, Damon has proven that he is one of the most talented and diverse musicians of the past 25 years.  Blur's music has not only soundtracked most of my life but has led me to write books on them and allowed me to connect with so many people around the world through the online fan community, some of whom I consider true friends (we will meet one day soon!). It's also been really gratifying when I've introduced my friends to their music over the years and converted them into big fans.

Blur now: Alex, Damon, Graham, Dave

While many bands have claimed to take up the mantle of the Beatles, I really do think that Blur are the closest anyone has gotten, checking off all of the relevant boxes: stable band membership, unique individual personalities, timeless music, and an ever-changing and developing sound. If you're still skeptical, I hope you'll dig a bit deeper than the overview I've presented here and discover their music for yourself. I bet you won't be disappointed!

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