Artist – Album: Blur – Think Tank
Released: 5th
May 2003
Sounds Like: The ‘Girls
& Boys’ boys become men
Of the two bands most readily associated with Britpop –
Oasis and Blur – one spent the decade after its death continuing to create the
same laddish boozy anthems, with arguably diminishing returns, and the other was
Blur. Following their huge success with Parklife and the Great Escape, the band
decided to take something of an abrupt turn into lo-fi influenced alternative rock
on their sixth studio album Blur, presaging the end of the mid nineties Britpop
era.
On their seventh album the group took another u-turn, moving
away from the Pavement sphere of influence onto more of a Radiohead orientated
sound. For the first time they introduced electronic beats and elements of trip
hop to the alternative rock mix, and the result is, for the most part, a pleasantly
interesting and rewarding album. A selection of the opening cuts, ‘Ambulance’, ‘Out of Time’ (worth the
admission price alone) and ‘Good Song’ stand up next to anything in
the extensive back catalogue – lush, gorgeous and poignant songs that are
further enhanced by Damon Albarn’s world-weary vocals.
Unfortunately, the song in between – ‘Crazy Beat’ – is a bit of a stinker. It introduces a vocoder style
chorus in the style of Daft Punk, with none of that collective’s warmth and
charm. This track is indicitive of the (rare and relative) failures that prevent this album from
becoming on a par with the best early indie forays into electronica such as Kid A and Music Has
the Right to Children. Being a step or two behind those two though really isn’t
so bad and it’s quite an achievement for the group that not long before were
releasing Cool Britannia fluff like ‘Country
House’.
Albumaday... rating:
7/10
1. Ambulance
– 5:09
2. Out
of Time – 3:52
3. Crazy
Beat – 3:15
4. Good
Song – 3:09
5. On
the Way to the Club – 3:48
6. Brothers
and Sisters – 3:47
7. Caravan
– 4:36
8. We’ve
Got a File on You – 1:03
9. Moroccan
Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club -3:03
10. Sweet
Song – 4:01
11. Jets
– 6:25
12. Gene
by Gene – 3:49
13. Battery
in Your Leg – 3:20
Listen to ‘Out of Time’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRkX1Up1vnc
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