Now we have what promises to be a bumpy ride, it's a whole bunch of Blur albums. Luckily I gave away my copy of Leisure years ago so we start with Modern Life is Rubbish (1993). I've always had a soft spot for Modern Life is Rubbish, probably partly because the music press were so keen to give it a kicking at the time. The best parts of it work really well, and those parts are the ones which give themselves up to pop songwriting rather than slavishly aping other people's work. 'Star Shaped', 'Blue Jeans' and 'Chemical World' are great tunes which suggest that the band might be able to move past their influences and create their own style. On the other hand, the tragic copyism of Damon Albarn's still lingering Barrett fixation is all too evident ('Miss America' is a truly pathetic attempt to pay homage) and the Elvis Costello by numbers of 'Sunday Sunday' is a shame. When not worshipping at rock's various altars though, it's a solid album with a handful of really great tunes. The "oi-oi"-ness of it all can get a bit wearing, but if you can ignore the barrow-boy delivery that Albarn had to work so hard to get over, it's a really enjoyable album.
Speaking of ripping people off though, the guitar riff to Tracy Jacks from Parklife (1994) is IDENTICAL to a guitar riff from an XTC song. See if you know which one. Stand back in awe at Coxon and Albarn's sheer audacity eh? Still if you're going to steal, steal from the best. Parklife is a better album than it should be in many ways though. It's got a lot of ideas (plenty of them other people's but never mind) and a lot of vigour. The dedication to Englishness as a musical concept is stronger than ever and the Kinksian world still informs a lot of what goes on here (songs called 'Bank Holiday'? Still being pretty obvious about it all). But songs like 'End of a Century', 'To the End' and 'This is a Low' are really good and there's plenty of other songs that still seem unexpected and interesting amongst the self-conscious playacting. Things go weirdly awry with The Great Escape (1995). The production is strangely glossy and it makes the songs sound even more as if they aren't much more than parody (I mean, 'Country House'? Really, must try harder). I think there are some fabulous songs on The Great Escape (I really love 'The Universal' despite its British Gas ad ruination) but the whole feel of the record does the good songs no favours and a lot of the album is little more than frippery at best and redundant at worst. I wonder if the concept of a kind of late Tory, rising New Labour, England as a plastic, shiny, venal and vapid thing was too successful, making the album sound like a celebration of the same rather than a critique.
Too much commercial success (ironically) coupled with some critical savaging seemed to make the band retreat and regroup. 1997's Blur album was titled as something of a statement of intent, suggesting a restart. The sound is much more low-key, much more in tune with the individual band members personal musical tastes (I think this is where Coxon really started to assert himself as a songwriter). As a result it's a much warmer and seemingly much more sincere record. All Blur albums are too long and need shaving down a bit and this one is no exception but it has some really great songs on it and it really does feel like the ironic distance has been abandoned in favour of something less guarded. Better yet is 13 (1999) which I think cements Graham's role as Albarn's equal. His painting is on the cover, songs that are clearly his are much more evident and it's finally a Blur album that feels like, for the most part, something genuine is happening. I like all their albums really, but until 13 a lot of the time it feels like they were a band trying on different outfits and never once wearing their own clothes. 13 has some terrible longueurs ('Trimm Trabb' may only be five minutes long but it feels like an eternity) but also some wonderful songs on it ('No Distance Left to Run' for instance), but it was the last gasp as far as I'm concerned and what followed didn't interest me much.
Last for today is Scottish ambient experimentalists Boards of Canada's second album Geogaddi (2002). Everybody loves Music Has the Right to Children, and rightly so, it's a fabulous record. But Geogaddi really does leave me cold. There's virtually none of the melodicism of the previous album and it sounds to me like a lot of navel gazing electronica, which can work sometimes but can also just be stultifyingly dull. It's not that bad, but I don't really feel that there's any great purpose to it being around. To be completely cruel about it, it's simply a good example of a genre that is absolutely bloated (and already was by the time it was made) and is full of good examples. In other words this record has been made so many times I can't tell the difference between one and another. Which is a shame because Music Has the Right really is a fine record.
Loads and loads of Bongwater tomorrow which I'm very much looking forward to.
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