Britpop heroes BLUR scored their first No.1 album in the UK
with their paramount 3rd LPPARKLIFE which catapulted them
into stardom.
Mastermind Damon Albarn told NME back in 1994, “For me, Parklife
is like a loosely linked concept album involving all these different stories.
It’s the travels of the mystical lager-eater, seeing what’s going on in the
world and commenting on it.”
The album originally entitled ‘London‘, with the front sleeve being
a photo of a fruit-and-vegetable car, went four times platinum in
the UK.
In March of last year, Blur‘s ace guitarist Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall
joined forces, under the moniker of THE WAEVE and wrote and recorded/released
their excellent self-titled debut LP.
And their creativity/productivity obviously doesn’t stop there.
The duo just shared a brand-new single, titled CITY LIGHTS.
“The city lights bestow a unique magic on everyone – the beautiful and
the grotesque, the angels and the devils – shining and seductive, one
and all… Who wants to love you and who wants to destroy you?”
TUTV: City Lights is an arousing upper for the midnight hours when you hit town. Coxon lets his greedy guitar and his sultry saxophone have some blistery fun, the relentless bass/drums tandem take care of this steamy groove’s banging beat and Dougall joins the Blur man on the exultant chorus.
Touchdown. Hopefully this is a
harbinger for a second longplayer.
Britpop heroes BLUR played a best-of set at Coachella Festival last
weekend. But the crowd wasn’t into it, which annoyed frontman Damon
Albarn, especially during classic earworm Girls & Boys when he addressed
the audience: “You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well fucking sing it.
Know what I’m saying?”
Albarn doesn’t like The Stones new album title ‘Hackney Diamonds‘ and he was pissed off when they showed in Hackney (a London borough in Inner London, England) to promote the LP.
A month ago Britpop champs BLUR launched their 9th LP, titled The Ballad Of Darren.
Their first in 8 years, followed by a deluxe edition two weeks later, with a couple of new songs from those recording sessions.
And here’s another new track, titled STICKS AND STONES that featured only on the Japanese edition of the LP (why?).
Graham Coxon with The Waeve at Lokerse Feesten on 7 August – photo by Turn Up The Volume
It’s very rare that a Blur song is not sung by Damon Albarn. Like it happened
on the 1999 hit Coffee And TV when guitarist Graham Coxon did the singing
(also vocalist on his solo records and recently with his new project The Waeve).
Blur at Lokerse Feesten (Belgium) on 8 August – photo by Turn Up The Volume
And Coxon does it again on this trippy pop nugget with a funky groove and schizo guitars. One of the best pieces of the LP that wasn’t on the LP (except in Japan) and yes, great vocals by Coxon.
Britpop champs BLUR had another reunion tour in mind for a while,
but frontman Damon Albarn had one condition before doing it. “I want
to come back only after writing some new music.”
And that’s what exactly happened. Three weeks ago
album #9, named THE BALLAD OF DARREN came out.
NME said: “Their brilliance continues. The band’s joyous reunion only gets more emotional
with this tear-jerking, soaring epic. ‘The Ballad of Darren’ is so memorable and touching.”
TUTV said: “Lots of slow ones, lots of reflective musings, lots of romantic ballads (including Darren‘s one), lots of melancholia. They only rock out on the punked-up St. Charles Square.
To be honest, a surprisingly intimate record but it grows on you slowly but surely.”
And as promised, the 4 big friends started to tour earlier this year. Not day-to-day, but at
a selection of festivals and some special Blur events in their home country, like their two sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium in London last month (a total of 160.000 people).
Last Monday the four down-to-earth stars stopped in Belgium to entertain 15.000 (a sort
of club gig for them, I suppose) delirious fans, girls and boys, old and young, at Lokerse Festival. And we all had a smashing night. Screaming, jumping, applauding, drinking and going nuts for 90 minutes. Live music showed its magical powers again, making people HAPPY. The set included all their knockouts from the past, some lesser-known ones and
a couple of new songs.
One of the many orgastic moments came, of course,
with Song 2. The massive-all-together WOO-HOO chant
caused total euphoria. Glorious!!
It went like this.
I’m still buzzing today, 3 days later. WOO-HOO. Thank youBLUR.
SETLIST
1.St. Charles Square 2.There’s No Other Way 3.Popscene 4.Tracy Jacks 5.Beetlebum 6.Trimm Trabb 7.Villa Rosie 8. Coffee & TV 9.End of a Century 10.Country House 11.Parklife 12.To the End 13.Barbaric 14.Girls & Boys 15. Song 2 16.This Is a Low 17.Tender 18.The Narcissist 19.The Universal
NEW ALBUM
I can’ remember when the imperishable BLUR played Belgium.
Anyway they’re back tonight, playing at Lokerse Fest. I can’t
wait to go Woo-Hoo.
Suppose the band asked me to compile the
setlist it would be this stellar 15-track one.
.
By the way guitarist Graham Coxon already was present last night, playing with his side project THE WAEVE featuring the wonderful voice Rose Elinor Dougall. More about their fantastic gig tomorrow.
A (too) chill-out, romantic and ruminative record like if Damon Albarn took
some time off his busy Gorillaz schedule, got lazy and decided to dream/write
some mellow ballads. Mind you, good songs, but too many reveries for my liking.
I expected/wanted more rippers like St. Charles Square (actually the only rocker
on the LP).
Anyway, yesterday they already dropped a deluxe edition with
two new tracks from The Ballad Of Darren sessions on it.
The upbeat cut The Rabbi and another mellow ballad named The Swan.
I don’t have a clue why these 2 songs weren’t on the original album in the
first place. Take the money and run, I suppose.
