Blur’s first album since 2015 has been released on New Music Friday – revisit our review and stream it right here.
“There are many bigger ones, but revisionism is a nagging 21st century problem.”
“In the rush to condemn the present, society is increasingly reliant on misrepresenting the past. This applies persistently in music, manifesting itself in noisy proclamations that such and such a thing is the perfect album, a flawless work of art whose merits lie way above your uneducated palate (mate).”
Blur aren’t falling for it. The older you get the more you realise that perfection is a myth, that flaws make for grain and the fantasy of ideal is solely the luxurious delusion of the idealist themselves. No, Damon, Alex, Graham and Dave know how to do it wrong, and they’re experienced enough to turn that into a loveable strength.
“Take the quartet’s last album, 2015’s The Magic Whip, their first in twelve years. Assembled in the manner of a Frankenstein, it was never posited as some kind of messianic second coming, just an interesting bunch of new material rescued from the cutting room floor. And it was because of this savvy advance lowering of the critical bar that the results were easier to love, if only from a distance.”
Click here for the review in full