ALBUM REVIEW: Blur - Blur

    By  1996, Blur was in a bit of a crisis on multiple fronts - they had enjoyed a few years as Britain's biggest group off the release of albums like Parklife and The Great Escape, but things had very quickly turned against them with the rise of Oasis making the group seem inauthentic and lame almost overnight. It was more than just the public's turn on Blur that was causing problems, as the group themselves were in turmoil and practically on the verge of a split - the brilliant guitarist Graham Coxon recalls feeling resentment towards bassist Alex James for his extravagant lifestyle and lead singer Damon Albarn for his domineering presence over the group's artistic direction, as Coxon himself began to embrace alternative and indie groups from America such as Pavement. One other facet is easier to see in hindsight: the Britpop phenomenon was fizzling out, and 1997 would prove to be the death-knell for the genre. While one could point towards plenty of other reasons as to why the genre died out in 1997, with the release of Radiohead's OK Computer and the overhype of Oasis' Be Here Now being two of the bigger ones, let's not forget about Blur's pivot towards alt rock on this album. One of the biggest groups in the genre underwent a sonic makeover on this album, and the results manage to sound like a natural progression of Blur's ideas and sounds. Blur is, in many ways, the ideal follow-up to the already more personal The Great Escape with its more barren production style and evolving writing style from Damon Albarn. While it is, in some ways, a transitional work, it shows a clear way forward for Blur in the future, while still managing to hit some of the highs that their previous records had flown to.

    A lot of what makes this self-titled release so appealing, at least in comparison to other Blur records, is the increased diversity in the sounds that the group is willing to explore throughout the album's runtime. This isn't to say that Blur were necessarily a group lacking in diversity, and a lot of their shining albums like Parklife and Modern Life is Rubbish show that they were very capable of varying their sound and creating different textures, but with it all fitting under the bubble of Britpop, it certainly created a very distinct feel. On Blur, though, there's much more wiggle-room for ideas, ranging from parodies of grunge on "Song 2" to the country tinged "Country Sad Ballad Man" to the pure indie rock of "You're So Great" (featuring a rare vocal from Graham Coxon) to the space-rock/folk of "Strange News From Another Star", which almost plays like a leftover from David Bowie's second album. A few songs still hold true to the group's Britpop sound, but these moments are pretty sparse on the album - "M.O.R." would probably sound pretty at home on The Great Escape, as would the incredibly catchy "Look Inside America" later in the album's tracklist. This is also without mentioning the brilliant album opener "Beetlebum", a seemingly brilliant mix of the immediate hook of Britpop with the moodiness of alt rock in what may possibly be their absolute best single - I've seen quite a few people compare this one to a moment on The Beatles' self-titled album, and it's not entirely hard to see why. Even if you take nothing away from the rest of this review, do yourself a favor and listen to "Beetlebum".

     Blur's self-titled album has plenty to offer outside of that track, though, and this is where the real greatness of their musical exploration shows itself - immediately after "Beetlebum" is the tongue-in-cheek "Song 2", one part grunge pastiche and another part dig at popular music. I used to hate this song in my youth, but now I find the guitar riff more than infectious and the "woo-hoo!" hook more catchy than annoying now. As previously mentioned, songs like "M.O.R." or "Look Inside America" showcase that Blur's pop sensibility remains very much alive, with the latter also containing some of Albarn's greatest lyricism on the album. The space-y "Theme From Retro" makes for a good transitional respite after the off-kilter "On Your Own" and just before the barren "You're So Great" with its demo-esque quality and fragile vocals and lyrics from Coxon. It's a surprising emotional climax of the album's first half. "Death of a Party" that immediately follows after is a crunchy piece of alt rock through and through, and one that invokes similar feels to a song like "He Thought of Cars" on The Great Escape, albeit much murkier and openly despair in its lyrical contents - the chorus sings of going "to another party and hang myself - gently on the shelf". It stands as one of the album's absolute strong points. Not long after is the similarly crunchy "I'm Just a Killer For Your Love" and the aforementioned Bowie sounding "Strange News From Another Star", and while both stand as great moments on the album, I'd give slightly more credit for the mellowness of "Strange News From Another Star". The album also ends on the pseudo spoken-word of "Essex Dogs", one part experimental and another part almost trip-hop in its musical sound - a peculiar, but intriguing way to end the album. That isn't to say that this album is a clean shot to the finish line, as some tracks like the punch-lacking "Moving On" or the noisy "Chinese Bombs" don't light the album on fire - the latter reminds me of a weak rewrite of "Bank Holiday" with its fast speed and guitar riff. There's also the general sense on this album it's a bit of a learning experience for the group, which does make the album feel a bit less confident than some of the previous releases.

    Still, Blur proved arguably the group's most pivotal album since Modern Life is Rubbish - their path was set for the future, and arguably that's a good thing. By the end of 1997, Britpop was effectively done, and only two more great hurrahs for the genre would follow. Blur did what Oasis didn't on their self-titled - they evolved with the times, and arguably put themselves in a better place than before. This self-titled release is an exploration of styles and sounds, complete with the crunch of alt rock and the still on-the-money writing ability of Albarn and Co. Even if it's a bit of an imperfect album, it still proves a more fulfilling full listen than The Great Escape, which if anything shows that a change in sound is probably what Blur needed. If not an absolute smash through and through, what we still have is a thoroughly enjoyable exploration of ideas that shows Blur successfully toying around with a few ideas and making plenty of great tunes along the way. Pleased to meet the new Blur.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Blur.