Blur performing at the 2023 Corona Capital Festival (Lisa Mark)
Blur were live in Mexico on November 18th.
Corona Capital Festival last weekend was the latest stop on Blur‘s big live reunion this year which has also taken in The Ballad Of Darren, their first studio album since 2015’s The Magic Whip.
“Opener The Ballad neatly illustrates this dichotomy,” our review reads. “A reflection on the winding road they’ve taken, its louche trappings – mournful piano, strings, multi-tracked harmonies – feel just like the sort of thing Alex Turner’s been roasted for, with Coxon breathily countering, ‘I Met you at an early show/We travelled round the world together’.”
Far less indulgent is St. Charles Square, a Bowie-aping romp that, whisper it quietly, bears more than a passing resemblance to early Suede. ‘I fucked up’, Albarn muses ‘I’m not the first to do it’, whilst the rest of the number deals with monsters under the floorboards. You want answers? You’ll need to find an old-fashioned postcard to write them on first.
