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at a glance...
Hometown: Essex/London, England
Formed: 1988
Personnel:
Damon Albarn -vocals, piano, organ, synthesisers
Graham Coxon -guitars, vocals, "occasional" saxophone
Alex James -bass
Dave Rowntree -drums
Related Bands:
Seymour, Graham Coxon, Silver Apples, Elastica, Fat Les, Damon Albarn
Notes:
In 1989 they were a noisy, unpredictable art-rock outfit saddled with the terrible name Seymour. By 1999 they had become a noisy art-rock outfit using the slightly less terrible name Blur. A lot happened in between. Blur killed baggy, pretended to be mods, birthed Britpop, pretended to be Americans...and released some of the decade's best pop records along the way. Early hit singles "She's So High" and "There's No Other Way" provided an auspicious beginning, but the band almost imploded before 1993's Modern Life is Rubbish gave them a new look and a second life. Parklife pulled them out of the indie ghetto and into the British tabloids, but a foolish, if fun battle with Oasis overshadowed 1996's The Great Escape. It was to be the last of Blur's trilogy of English Life albums, and 1997's "Song 2" made them a surprise favorite in America's football stadia. Go figure.
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Blur
The Great Escape
Food/EMI, Released 1995
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Undeservedly overshadowed by the bizarre Blur-Oasis rivalry, there's a definite air of finality about The Great Escape. A much darker and bleaker record than Parklife, Blur's trademark infectious pop tunes are pitted against hardened rhythms and merciless lyrics, and crammed with obsessive, claustrophobic detail. There are spirals of treacherously smooth guitar on "Best Days," and the frenetic, whirling organ on the cautionary tale of "Ernold Same." Musically it's reminiscent of the more manic end of English pop - think Madness or even the Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band, though menacing rather than mildly comic.
All this seems a bit near the bone for a band so often criticized for their supposed sneering aloofness. There's no easy distance or ironic detachment here. Instead, there's an eerie undertone of elegiac sadness. So on "Country House," upbeat rhythms and sharp lyrics (who else would rhyme Balzac and Prozac?) suddenly fall away to reveal the song's plaintive subtext: "Blow, blow me out /I feel so sad/I don't know why." "The Universal," the album's centerpiece, begins with the tackiest of sounds - staccato Spandau Ballet guitar and car ad strings - and yet somehow crescendos into a genuinely moving anthem.
Part pre-millennial tension, part dying embers of Tory Britain, The Great Escape is the haunting sound of a world imploding. On the last track, "Yuko and Hiro," over babble of incomprehensible voices and strange electronic noises, Damon sings "I never see you/We are never together/I'll love you forever" into the ether. Somehow, though, you know things will never be the same.
If you like Blur, check out:
Blur Blur
Blur Modern Life Is Rubbish
Blur Parklife
Blur 13
Blur Leisure
Graham Coxon The Sky Is Too High
Madness Divine Madness
Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band Unpeeled
The Pixies Doolittle
-- Emily Marsden
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