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I bought it over the weekend and in some places it reminded me of the Lightning Seeds which is no bad thing (although without Ian Broudie's quirkiness). Its a bit sludgy elsewhere tbh and you are right, there's none of the inventiveness of GC in evidence
I've listened all the way through once, obviously not on the level of their peak and pomp, very little anyone does is, but I did find it an interesting listen.
If anything overall it feels more like the more mellow tracks off 13 and Think Tank than anything else, songs like "1992" off that one remind me of the new one.
A few thoughts...
"St Charles Square" strikes me as a classic Coxon riff - it's amusing to watch the video and look at him playing it - it's very "Coxon" (fiddly, looks fiddly)...
"Barbaric" is interesting - very driven by a classic Alex bassline, the guitar there is almost Johnny Marr like rather than Graham's more sledgehammer style! The post ... is that a key change?... bit though is very lovely.
"Russian Strings" is off one of the last two Arctic Monkey's albums surely?
"The Narcissist" - the most Blur thing on the album, but missing the anger of youth - which I think is basically it - Coxon got it all out on his solo albums - now they write songs about being a dickhead when you are younger - it sounds autobiographical to me.
No time now to do all the tracks but some thoughts!
I think now he's so often working on both at once the lines between Blur and Gorillaz are blurring (lol) more all the time. I get the impression that most of this album was Blur fattening up demos Albarn had kicking around as opposed to whatever their process used to be.
I remember hearing the song "Silent Running" off the last Gorillaz album and thinking "hang on, this is a fucking Blur song" - I'm not saying some of the songs here sound like they may have been Gorillaz demos, but, if I found out they were I'd not be shocked.
St Charles Square though is full-on robo-Coxon, surely?? Narcissist has some great Coxon noise guitar too towards the end. They're 30 years on from Parklife / Modern Life Is Rubbish and it's very different. Agree that most is like the 13 / Think Tank mellower tracks. That's not a bad thing for me.
Must dig out, literally or metaphorically "Magic Whip" for another spin, "to the local.." etc
I generally find it a good sign if a new album warms up my love of a band again
I was expecting Tracy Jacks and got Tracy Barlow !
https://youtu.be/K79Z26S73Ug
I will say that St Charles Square and The Narcissist were absolutely immense live. Instant classics and unmistakably Blur.
https://www.facebook.com/rendallsrestorations?fref=ts
As you were
H
www.proudhoney.com
I've also got that big singles box from the 10th anniversary somewhere!
I love Blur
Thanks for the tip BTW will check it out...