Blur
13

THE REVIEW

"13" is yet another masterpiece by Blur... But you have to listen to it many times to fully enjoy it… At times it's frightening.

The whole thing opens with the atypical "Tender", seven minutes and forty-three seconds of unique melodies, with a gospel choir in the chorus and an incredibly country-bluesy guitar. Bassist Alex James plays a double bass and drummer Rowntree, to achieve that particular sound heard on the second quarter of each beat, hits wooden planks on the floor.

Then comes the first shock: "Bugman" is highly cacophonous yet at the same time incredibly enjoyable… The vacuum cleaner that bursts in at the 1'44'' mark, almost covering all other sounds, is terrifying… The last two minutes were completely improvised (according to Albarn), featuring alternating guitar riffs with bursts of running water and various rustles. Then there's one of the singles "Coffee & Tv", the one with the milk carton video, a track in which a very strange chord progression (including an F major and B flat major in the key of B major) accompanies an equally peculiar vocal line. Coxon's abrasive yet enjoyable cacophonous solo appears in the middle.

An organ melody leads into "Swamp Song", an oriental-inspired noise-rock track, said by Albarn to be inspired by Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir". From the fourth minute, music is accompanied by hysterical laughter and messy noises leading to an acoustic guitar ending. "1992" is a gem… a terribly sad slow tune that dates back to 1992 but was left in the drawer and forgotten. Albarn revisited it after breaking up with Justine Frischmann and wrote a very depressing lyric for it. Once again, the chord progression is very unique. The piece itself would last just over two minutes, but a sound described by Coxon as "UFO landing" created through feedback extends it to five and a half minutes.

"B.L.U.R.E.M.I" (the only title written in blue instead of white in the booklet… and I never understood why) is a chaotic punk-vocoder track that flows into a brief synthesizer interlude. Then comes another track that represents Blur's new direction well: "Battle", almost eight minutes of psychedelic progressive rock. It opens with a keyboard, followed by a spectacular drum and a cavernous, at times dub-like, bass. The melody is very unusual, and often Albarn's words are indecipherable… Very Sigur Ròs-like, no doubt!

"Mellow Song" is an acoustically opened track but then becomes a duet between sitar and guitar with a bass-rich drum base. The demo of the track is available as a b-side of the single "Tender". "Trailerpark" is a distortion-heavy funky track very much like Beck(!) with a telegraphic rapped text and a somewhat out-of-tune organ base… The track closes with a more aggressive, still very distorted coda. "Caramel" is the sister of "Battle": another seven and a half minutes of eccentricities, with a very particular vocal line (the Do Doo Do Do Doooo choruses are irresistible) that closes with car sounds and a techno-rock finish (reminds me of U2's "Pop" tracks).

Then comes "Trimm Trabb", which Blur wanted as a single, a jungly-folk with lo-fi noises in the background. It starts acoustic and calm only to become cacophonous and noisy (listen at minute 4'10'' to Coxon's riffs to believe it). "No Distance Left To Run" is the last single extracted, a terribly sad slow blues once again dedicated to Albarn's ex. The set closes with "Optigan 1", an improvised waltz from 1997 meant to be a b-side for "M.O.R" but then shelved for the new album.

Two notes have now become a habit: the b-sides. There aren't many unreleased tracks, mostly remixes, such as the drum'n'bass version of "Tender" or the dub-reggae version of "Bugman". Among the unreleased, however, how can one not mention the wonderful "All We Want", catchy and definable as the new Beetlebum, the stunning instrumental "French Song", an eight-minute piece, the aforementioned "Mellow Jam", the base for "Mellow Song", and the techno "I Got Law", a bonus track from the Japanese edition of 13, then reused as the base for "Tomorrow Never Comes" in "Gorillaz?"

The booklet is sparse this time… Featuring horrible drawings and only including the credits of the disc… A disappointment… For booklet enthusiasts like me, don't bother buying the original disc in-store… Get it on iTunes instead!

Still, an excellent album, worthy of 5 stars… A Blur classic… To be digested slowly though… Because it’s a bit difficult, described by Coxon as "a mind-blowing trip in devil's time"…