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Rating:
Yay! I'm the first to review this new Blur release... no, it's not an album of new material, unfortunately, but a collection of old singles plus live favorites. It has a great tracklist, as in addition to the most famous songs, it also includes the quirkier ones from their albums, which best define their sound. The first CD opens with "Beetlebum", a 1997 hit, which serves as a bridge between the britpop period and the lo-fi/alternative period. Besides the very famous singles "Girls & Boys", "For Tomorrow", "Coffee & Tv" (the one with the famous video of the milk carton wandering around the city), "Out Of Time", "Song 2", and "The Universal", here are their most significant non-singles: "Blue Jeans", the psychedelic britpop from "Modern Life Is Rubbish", 1993; "Bugman", one of the most unsettling tracks from the album "13", crazy to the max, and, according to Damon, almost completely improvised. Listen at minute 1'48'' for the entry of a vacuum cleaner... "Sing" is the top track of "Leisure", an extraordinarily dreamlike ballad (for me...). The cherry on top is "This Is A Low", the ultra-epic slow piece that closed Parklife...
Here begins disc 2, where for the first time "Popscene" is included, a cornerstone of the group, as well as the beginning of britpop, which back in 1992 was a tremendous flop (#34 UK) and therefore was not included in "Modern Life..." released a year later and in no best of... besides the other singles, other gems of their non-single repertoire stand out: "Trimm Trabb", according to the initial plans, was supposed to be a single, but the record labels considered it too anti-commercial... it's amazing: a grunge-folk with lo-fi noises in the background and rather schizophrenic sounds: the beginning is calm, then the second part becomes aggressive, chaotic (listen to Coxon's guitar). "Badhead" was one of the potential singles from "Parklife", a rather calm slow track, a full britpop style ballad, complete with brass. "Strange News From Another Star" is a masterpiece from "Blur", an essential track made of keyboards and an acoustic guitar, with a delicate voice. The ending is thundering, with two drums playing simultaneously. The whole thing closes with "Battery In Your Leg", the poignant ballad from "Think Tank", the last track with Coxon.
This album (which comes out next Friday) offers nothing new, that's the flaw... neither a b-side, an unreleased track, nothing significant... but it's a great release for newcomers, who won't want to buy all Blur's albums (which I recommend, for the great booklets and content...), as it contains singles and various gems... so it's not a terrible release, better than the Best Of from 2000.
I'm hoping for a new album of unreleased tracks, Coxon doesn't rule out the possibility... for now let's enjoy them live... in their new look (see the photos circulating on the internet to believe it: Coxon went red, like a true punk, and all the others look a bit aged...)
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