FEATURE:
Leisure, to The Ballad of Darren…
Ranking Blur’s Album Lead Singles
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NOBODY at the start of this week…
IN THIS PHOTO: Blur in 2023: Alex James, Graham Coxon, Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree/PHOTO CREDIT: Reuben Bastienne-Lewis
expected that we’d get news from Blur that they have a new album coming out! They have played a gig at Colchester Arts Centre last night - where it was rapturously received and reviewed! The band are preparing for gigs at Wembley Stadium in July. Their new album, The Ballad of Darren, is out on 21st July. The lead single, The Narcissist, was premiered on Steve Lamacq’s BBC Radio 6 Music show on Thursday. The single went out just before 5 p.m. It was an amazing revelation from the band! Before I get to the point of this feature, NME were among those who reported the news of Blur’s new phase and album:
“Blur have announced details of a surprise new album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ and shared the first single ‘The Narcissist’.
The returning Britpop legends first announced their comeback back in November with news of a huge Wembley Stadium show – before going on to reveal a second date at the venue before a run of European festival shows and an intimate UK warm-up tour, which kicks off in their hometown of Colchester tomorrow (Friday May 19).
Now, the band have revealed that the 10-track ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ will arrive on 21 July via Parlophone, and is available for pre-order here. The band’s first album since 2015’s ‘The Magic Whip‘ comes previewed by the single ‘The Narcissist’ – a moderately-paced bittersweet track reminiscent of the alt-rock leanings of 2003’s ‘Think Tank’.
The band’s ninth album was produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Foals, Depeche Mode) and recorded at Studio 13 in London and Devon. Speaking about the making of the record, the band said that it found them taking a stock of their relationship
Frontman Damon Albarn described ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ as “an aftershock record” loaded with “reflection and comment on where we find ourselves now”, while guitarist Graham Coxon said: “The older and madder we get, it becomes more essential that what we play is loaded with the right emotion and intention. Sometimes just a riff doesn’t do the job”.
You can pre-order The Ballad of Darren. Following 2015’s The Magic Whip, this will be the group’s ninth studio album. I am excited to see what comes from that album. Their first gig since announcing the album went down a storm! Preparing for the Wembley shows, all eyes are on the sensational Blur. Because The Narcissist is out and is different to any other lead single they have released, I wanted to order them. Here is my ranking of Blur’s…
ALBUM lead singles.
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NINE: Go Out (The Magic Whip)
Single Release Date: 19th February, 2015
Producers: Stephen Street/Graham Coxon/Damon Albarn
Album Release Date: 27th April, 2015
Labels: Parlophone/Warner Bros.
Highest Chart Position: 64 (Belgium (Ultratip Bubbling Under Wallonia)
Critical Reception:
“Its fair to say that the return of britpop heroes Blur caught just about everyone off guard. The news of a headline spot at this year’s British Summer Time festival and the impending arrival of their 8th studio album ‘Magic Whip’ seemed almost spontaneous, but finally brought an end to a lengthy period of speculation over the band’s future.
While ‘Go Out’ is merely a tasty morsel of what’s to come, it gives us a reminder (as if we needed one) of why this announcement is cause for celebration. Coxon’s guitar wails and groans before collapsing under its own weight into a bubbling swamp of futuristic synth. A chorus of ‘o-o-o-ohs’ ushers proceedings forwards before Damon interjects with his distinctive estuary swagger. Throughout, it treads the line between grunge and post punk, but splateered with just enough whimsy to keep your attention.
It’s far from their most elegant work but that’s not to say it’s flimsy. Every chiming guitar stab, every howl of screeching feedback has been meticulously placed and to intriguing effect. Rough and ready it might be, but one thing is for sure – it’s inimitably Blur. Welcome back, gents. It’s been too long” – The Indiependent
EIGHT: Country House (The Great Escape)
Single Release Date: 14th August, 1995
Producer: Stephen Street
Album Release Date: 11th September, 1995
Labels: Food/Parlophone
Highest Chart Position: 1 (UK Singles (OCC)
Critical Reception:
“You can see why Country House winds people up. Thanks to the 1995 chart battle with Oasis's lumpen Roll With It, it was released on a tidal wave of hype unrivalled in British pop. Added to that, it's got oompah-brass, cor-blimey vocals, Damon Albarn's pleased-with-himself lyrics and a video seemingly set inside Alex James's head. Even the band didn't seem to like it – once they moved on to to the noisier fare of 1997's Blur album, Country House was banished from the live set, much to the relief of Graham Coxon who'd been attempting to "turn it into thrash metal" on a nightly basis.
It's worth another look, though. Far from being a knocked-out knees-up, Country House is deceptively complex and completely bonkers. It's the second chorus where things get weird – Albarn's chirpy hook about "a very big house in the country" is backed by a falsetto counter, "blow, blow me out I am so sad, I don't know why", both disconcerting and wonderfully melancholy, leading into Coxon's queasiest guitar solo, a discordant, seasick riff of scarttershot notes and fractured scales seemingly beamed in from Sonic Youth or Pavement. The effect is a splash of genuine art-school creativity oddly absent from Damien Hirst's accompanying video, and totally at odds with what Britpop was supposed to be about by that point. Shed Seven could never have done it. The "Blow, blow me out"s return for the breakdown, underpinned by Coxon's chiming guitar to create a ghostly harmony that's more Pink Floyd than Lily the Pink. Even the late arrival of a Madness brass section can't wreck the magic.
When you read Liam Gallagher's famous dismissal of Blur as "chimney-sweep music", this is the track that comes to mind and you can see what he meant. But Country House has everything that made (and makes) Blur fascinating: the common touch, the terrace chorus, the arched eyebrow, the weirdness, the art-school sound, the desire to annoy and to fit in and to lead the field, to be the outsider and the everyman, all at once. It's never completely satisfying, but it's the confidence and the contradictions that save it” – The Guardian
SEVEN: She's So High (Leisure)
Single Release Date: 15th October, 1990
Producer: Steve Lovell
Album Release Date: 26th August, 1991
Label: Food
Highest Chart Position: 48 (UK Chart Singles)
Critical Reception:
“Besides the title track, the CD version contained one other cut also appearing on the 12" release, "I Know." Instead of "Sing," though, "Down" was the third song that appeared here. Designed as a more or less open homage to My Bloody Valentine, Coxon's guitar takes on some of the low-end surge and sprawl familiar from Kevin Shields' own efforts at blowing out speaker stacks. James and Rowntree aim for head-nodding vibes more immediately familiar from, say, early Loop at half the volume or intensity, while Albarn's woozy vocals suit the general air of psychoactive reaction. Compared to real mind melters from, say, Spacemen 3, this is pretty light going, but it's still a worthy listen and one of the better Blur B-sides” – AllMusic
SIX: Girls & Boys (Parklife)
Single Release Date: 7th March, 1994
Producer: Stephen Street
Album Release Date: 25th April, 1994
Label: Food
Highest Chart Position: 4 (US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)
Critical Reception:
“AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "Girls & Boys" as "undeniably catchy" and "one of the best (songs) Blur ever recorded", praising the band for making the song "feel exactly like Eurotrash", and stating that the chorus was "an absolutely devastating put-down of '90s gender-bending, where even ambi-sexuals didn't know whose fantasy they were fulfilling." Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "Alternative band takes a detour into clubland with an amusing, word-twisting ditty fleshed out with a trance-like synth energy and a hard, syncopated beat, courtesy of the Pet Shop Boys. Way-hip single's primary selling point is the brain-numbing refrain "girls who want boys like boys to be girls who do boys like they're girls who do girls like they're boys." Try saying that three times fast. A good bet for dancefloor action, track should also get a crack at pop/crossover radio." Troy J. Augusto from Cash Box felt that "this track will light up dance floors first, with top-40 and even some experimental urban radio stations close behind. Not what we've come to expect from this quirky guitar-pop combo, which is part of the appeal here. And don't be surprised if RuPaul records a cover of this tasty gem." Chuck Campbell from Knoxville News Sentinel wrote in his review of Parklife, "That great song, "Girls & Boys", is a twisting, slapping, lusty and instantly satisfying neo-disco track featuring Graham Coxon's teasing guitar and Damon Albarn's endearing vocals." He added, "Those who allow Parklife to continue playing after the conclusion of "Girls & Boys" will be disappointed initially, because nothing else on the album is so acutely infectious."
Steve Hochman from Los Angeles Times praised it as a "delightfully sly single". Pan-European magazine Music & Media viewed it as a "comical pastiche on '80s "new romantics"." Martin Aston from Music Week gave it four out of five, complimenting it as "an irresistibly feisty pop bite and, as such, a probable Top 10 hit.” John Kilgo from The Network Forty described it as an "outstanding, infectious" tune. Paul Evans from Rolling Stone felt it is "echoing '80s synth pop". Sylvia Patterson from Smash Hits rated it four out of five, writing, "An organ-grinder of synth pings and guitar perks which sounds just like Elastica (whose singer Damon snogs). It is the sound of Now! (ie 1982) which was a good sound so that's all right. Sort of." Rob Sheffield from Spin described the song as "a scrumptiously sleek Duran-gänger, sounding exactly like the Fab Five circa "Planet Earth" and "Hungry Like the Wolf"." He added, "Over a Eurodisco bass line, vocalist Damon Albarn croons about a beach full of teenagers stewing in their own auto-erotic juices: "Nothing is wasted / Only reproduced / You get nasty blisters / Deep obsession, but we haven't been introduced"."[28] James Hunter from Vibe called it a "brilliant turn on new wave disco that boasts the year's best bent guitars. They bounce all this into a great English, um, blur” – Wikipedia
FIVE: Beetlebum (Blur)
Single Release Date: 20th January, 1997
Producer: Stephen Street
Album Release Date: 10th February, 1997
Label: Food
Highest Chart Position: 1 (UK Singles (OCC)
Critical Reception:
“The question “what happens after Britpop?” wasn’t just an urgent one for the music press and the new bands courting it. It was also fairly pressing for the Britpop bands themselves, Blur in particular. Whoever’s idea it had been, the marketing triumph of Summer ’95 had a lingering and unexpected consequence: once conjured, the Blur/Oasis rivalry could not be easily controlled. The two bands were now bound together as if by some dreadful oath – each liable to be measured on the other’s latest achievements, however irrelevant the comparison.
In 1996 this had done Blur no favours. Sales of The Great Escape would have stood solidly alongside any contemporary LP – except the only one it would actually be compared to. The band, once fawned-over, found themselves exposed to less generous readings from critics – their Britpop-era work a trilogy that had dragged on too long and failed to stick the landing.
“Beetlebum”, when it first appeared, was pressed into this storyline too. Taking some faint clue from the harmonies (and, to be fair, the title) I remember some critics positioning it as a landgrab on White Album-era Beatles: the knotty, raw, arty part of the Beatle legacy that Oasis would never touch. Sense prevailed when the LP came out, and it became more obvious that the band were playing greedy catch-up with all the ideas that had come out of American indie rock in the 90s. They came to bury Britpop, not to extend it.
From this point, the Oasis link began to work in their favour, even as they played it down. Nobody would deny that in the fallout of Britpop, Damon Albarn embraced his magpie side and started hopping across projects and genres with liberated abandon. But because the band most easily linked with Blur became such a byword for bloody-minded non-invention, Albarn’s experimentation within that band was cast in a particularly friendly light. If the most readily-recalled alternative was a shambolic living museum, it’s easy to look at experimenting with indie rock, post-rock or gospel as good things by definition, rather than ask “OK, what does he actually do with them?”
So, on “Beetlebum”, what does he do with his inspirations? On a structural level, it’s rather good: Blur are writing a song using standard post-Nirvana dynamics, with surly, choppy verses that ought to flare into rage on the chorus, but instead bloom into sleepy, burnt-out neo-psychedelic harmonies. Two different parts of the alt.rock landscape, brought together on a Number One hit. It’s admirable and effective, but I also find “Beetlebum” extremely hard to like.
My problem with it is Albarn himself. As well as the social observation songs, and the character songs, he’s always built tracks around ennui and exhaustion, and often they’re his best (“To The End” and “This Is A Low” for instance). As his songwriting seemed to get more personal later in the 90s, though, I found less of a way into these songs. Perhaps because he’d been an effective observer, or perhaps just because he’d been a callous one, I could never get invested in hearing Damon Albarn bare his soul. “Beetlebum” is supposedly written to capture Albarn’s experiences with heroin, which might justify its sullen, self-enclosed feel, but even given that unpromising topic there’s no rock junkie whose drug memories I’d be less interested in. As I said on the “Country House” thread, empathy was never his strong suit – and that goes for eliciting it as well as feeling it.
However unusually-crafted “Beetlebum” is, or however odd seeing it at No.1 was (odd, though not unexpected – this is a fanbase record in an era friendly to them), I find listening to it a cold, unrewarding experience. Or I would, if not for one thing: Graham Coxon’s aggressive guitar work. Competing with Albarn’s listless vocal for too much of the song, he still gives “Beetlebum” its two highpoints. There’s that purposefully ugly, stabbing intro, his guitar scraping at a fixed point like a compass into wood. And there’s the coda, where his plaintive closing riff struggles to keep its bearings on a tide of hostile, skronky overdubs. These parts are thrilling where the rest of the song is sulky, and point to a way out of the Britpop trap that’s spurred by invention, not hurt pride.
Score: 5” – Freaky Trigger
FOUR: Out of Time (Think Tank)
Single Release Date: 14th April, 2003
Producers: Blur/Ben Hillier
Album Release Date: 5th May, 2003
Label: Parlophone
Highest Chart Position: 5 (UK Singles (OCC)
Critical Reception:
“Out of Time" was met with positive reviews from music critics. Alex Needham from NME called it the band's "most straightforwardedly touching single for ages", while Paul Moody from the same magazine praised the song too, stating that Albarn "sings in a voice so pure, clear and welcoming you want to have a shower in it", and "suddenly 'Songbird' doesn't sound so clever after all". Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine thought that "Out of Time" is "lovely", whereas Barry Walters from Rolling Stone called it a "gorgeously mournful single". Kitty Empire of The Observer called it an excellent example of Blur's emancipation, being "saturated with new sounds but faithful to melody". She also deemed the song "a great ballad, intimate and live-sounding, in the tradition of great Albarn ballads like 'Tender' or 'To the End'". According to BBC Music's Dan Tallis, the song is "a perfect pop song and the band struggle to better it". He continued saying that "you only have to listen to 'Out Of Time' a couple of times for it to become embedded in your brain; the dreamy vocals and gentle African drum beat soothe and calm your mind". Andy Greenwald from Spin claimed that "Out of Time" is "the album's highlight", describing the song as "failure-soaked" and "heart-stoppingly lovely".
Devon Powers of PopMatters described the track as "a much more straightforward, apace ballad" compared to the previous song on the album, "Ambulance". Rob Brunner from Entertainment Weekly commented that Albarn's "heartfelt vocals" make up for "sappy" lyrics, while Paste's Jeff Elbel called the track the finest moment on Think Tank. Andrew Future of Drowned in Sound commented that the song "is content to swoon around the string-laiden waves of its own longing beauty, but only reveals its full worth after repeated visits". Similarly, Jeres from Playlouder noted that it "is the best Blur single in ages, but it requires more than a few listens". Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork called the song a "majestic, snaking" song, but noted that it "relies less on the lugubrious, Gibraltar-docked solo than the vast, four-dimensional environment surrounding it". Alexis Petridis from The Guardian deemed it a "doleful and world-weary on" song. In a less positive review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the track a "hushed, melancholic elegy in the same vein as 'To the End' and 'Tender', though not as good as either" – Wikipedia
THREE: The Narcissist (The Ballad of Darren)
Single Release Date: 18th May, 2023
Producer: James Ford
Album Release Date: 21st July, 2023
Labels: Parlophone/Warner Bros.
Chart Position: T.B.C.
Critical Reception:
“There are two sides to Blur’s sporadic reunions. There are the live shows – Glastonbury in 2009, a trawl around the world’s festivals in 2012, a global arena tour in 2015, an unexpected one-off performance at one of Damon Albarn’s Africa Express events in 2019 – which are reliably rapturously received: a chance, as Graham Coxon recently put it to “revisit all those great songs”, complete with a distinct emotional charge driven by nostalgia and the evidence that the once-fractured relationships within the band have been mended. And then there is the issue of recording and releasing new material.
By far the most adventurous band among Britpop’s big league, willing to change and push forward in a way their peers seldom were, it doesn’t fit Blur’s profile to reconstitute purely as a heartwarming exercise in nostalgia. But their actual recording process has been fraught since re-forming in 2008. Blur were reported to have made three attempts to record a new album, but only three songs emerged, as limited edition singles; Albarn apparently called time on album sessions in 2012 midway through recording, much to the chagrin of producer William Orbit. Albarn likewise suggested that the tracks recorded at impromptu 2013 sessions in Hong Kong would constitute “one of those records that never comes out”, before Coxon completed the music in secret and invited the singer to add lyrics: Albarn looked faintly surprised to be at the hastily arranged press conference that announced 2015’s acclaimed The Magic Whip.
Perhaps the issue is the weight of expectation, and not merely because of the music they made in the 90s. Blur’s two chief protagonists have pursued impressively eclectic solo paths; Albarn in particular has made a career out of refusing to stand still, so the standard reunion album practice of warming over former glories, creating a memory-jogging simulacrum of the past, won’t cut it. Under the circumstances, you can see why Blur chose to record a new album in secret, suddenly announcing it months after another set of reunion shows went on sale. Entitled The Ballad of Darren and being released on 21 July, Albarn has called it rather gnomically “an aftershock record; reflection and comment on where we find ourselves now”.
The first track to be released from it, The Narcissist, is both less understated than the singles they released in 2012, and less confounding than Go Out, the largely tune-free, feedback-drenched track that heralded the arrival of The Magic Whip. It’s also more straightforward than that album’s more experimental moments (Pyongyang or Thought I Was a Spaceman), chugging along on a two-chord Coxon riff and a metronomic, vaguely motorik rhythm track, before rising into a gently anthemic chorus. If you were forced at gunpoint to compare it to a 90s Blur single, you’d probably pick Coffee and TV” – The Guardian
TWO: Tender (13)
Single Release Date: 22nd February, 1999
Producer: William Orbit
Album Release Date: 15th March, 1999
Labels: Food/Parlophone
Highest Chart Position: 2 (UK Singles (OCC)
Critical Reception:
“The song was awarded “Single of the Fortnight” in Smash Hits, writing: “At seven-and-three-quarter minutes, Tender is at least two too long, but it’s still the best skiffle-folk hymn of the year so far!” Chuck Taylor of Billboard called it a “huge departure” for the band and a “stellar piece of work,” whose sound is reminiscent of the late-‘60s and early-‘70s. He wrote: “it’s simply a polished, well-produced tip of the hat to a time when British pop stars could sing… and play tinny guitar solos without irony.[12] Sarah Davis of Dotmusic called it a “breath of fresh air” and a “beautiful hymn of consolation,” while noting its similarity to “Give Peace a Chance” by John Lennon. “Tender” was nominated in the category of Best British Single at the 2000 BRIT Awards. However, the award was won by Robbie Williams for “She’s the One” – Wikipedia
ONE: For Tomorrow (Modern Life Is Rubbish)
Single Release Date: 19th April, 1993
Producer: Stephen Street
Album Release Date: 10th May, 1993
Labels: Food/SBK (U.S.)
Highest Chart Position: 28 (UK Single Chart)
Critical Reception:
“The lead single ‘For Tomorrow’ is a microcosm of the whole project. Rightfully the opener, the track carries a glam rock edge with Albarn’s vocal delivery reminiscent of David Bowie circa 1971-72, with lush strings that colour the song, heightening its melodic grandeur. It’s a delightful presentation of the sickening humdrum of an ordinary day where boys and girls are “holding on for tomorrow”, a better, brighter tomorrow” – The Indiependent