Teatro Triste del Clown

Official Video:

I just downloaded this song right this second. It was the first single from 1993’s Modern Life is Rubish and I actually remember playing this back in the day. The album, and this song, were sort of not well received at the time, but, according to that Wikipedia entry, have grown in popularity since then.

This really does have a distinctly English flavor to it and, as in the way it references a number of English locations, it can tie itself lyrically to some of the great Beatles and Kinks tracks.

Official Video:

“Popscene” is something of a legendary rare track among fans of Blur. It was to be the first single off of a scrapped second album. It didn’t do especially well on the British charts and the band never released it on an album in England.

This live version is the only one I could find on iTunes. The song is considered to be one of the first Britpop singles (one AllMusic blogger argues that it is the song that started Britpop) and is stark contrast to their previous shoegazer songs.

Also, it rocks.

Live:

One last song from 1994’s Parklife album and maybe my favorite song by Blur. My, two of those in a row this time!

The song is rich and powerful on its own, but what does it mean? Most of the lyrics are taken from a shipping forecast, but Damon Albarn uses them to suggest something about the sadness of the human condition. Well, at least from my perspective.

This is the last song I have from The Best of Blur. The next six Blur songs are from other albums.

Official Video:

“On Your Own?” Love it. Maybe my favorite Blur song. Again.

This is from the 1997 Blur album and, to my pea sized brain, epitomizes everything I like about their sound. While some of their other songs sound like Scott Walker or Ray Davies, this one always sounds like an updated version of Mick Jagger to me. Seriously, imagine him singing it.

There is some debate about what exactly this song means, but I think it ties in with the Book of the Dead. I can’t say why, but something about the line “we’ll all be the same in the end” combined with some of the other imagery makes me think that. I am surely wrong.

I think what I love the most about this song is the chorus. I don’t understand it, but I love to sing it or chant it or whatever one does with it.

Official Video:

This is a lush song produced by Stephen Hague featuring a female voice singing in French and a bunch of violins.

The lyrics tell a story about a couple that has an enormous row and manages to reconcile in “the end.” While it isn’t one of my all time favorite songs, it is a lovely and uplifting relationship tune and one I rather enjoy listening to.

So, thanks to Christoph, we are back and live again!

Yay!

Unfortunately, thanks to the crash, we’ve lost the “about” and “bio” pages that used to live here. Maybe they’ve turned into entries. I don’t know.

Very odd. On the plus side, now I can go back to writing about Blur.

The site was broken. Now it should be not-broken. If you encounter any evidence to the contrary, post a comment here and let us know.

Official Video:

This is another song that bares an unmistakable debt to the work of Ray Davies.

An interesting note about this song has to do with the intense rivalry between Blur and Oasis in 1995. Blur’s record label deliberately moved the release date of this single so that it would directly compete with Oasis’ “Roll With It”. It has been widely documented that Blur’s song won the battle, but Oasis’ album What’s The Story (Morning Glory) far outsold Blur’s The Great Escape, winning the alleged war.

Albarn was outspoken in his derision of Oasis (though Albarn, as we’ve demonstrated through a look at his 90’s work with Blur, was pretty willing to publicly deride just about anyone). The war seemed to be sort of one sided, in the sense that (as near as I can tell) Albarn landed more precision blows while Oasis’ responses tended to be more of the “NO U” variety. That said, Oasis has remained one of the most consistently popular British bands of the last two decades, so take that for what its worth.

“Country House” is another catchy, catchy song that doesn’t sound like any other Blur song in my library - naturally.

Official Video:

This is the only song I have representing Blur’s 1991 debut album Leisure. At the time, they were one of a dozen British bands that sounded exactly like The Stone Roses - a band that is *not* currently in my library.

The big hit from that album was “There’s No Other Way,” a classic example of Shoegazer pop. This song is also available on The Best of Blur, but it bores me to tears, so I left it off. Indeed, I was not especially a big fan of this genre of music.

It reminded me a bit of another very popular band - The Church - who only hit once in the U.S. (with the excellent “Under the Milky Way”) but were widely popular despite the fact that their songs were deathly dull. Yes, I said it - I found the whole Manchester Scene of swirling guitars and slow, droning melodies dull as all get out. Maybe I just didn’t give it enough of a chance, but it never did it for me.

“She’s So High” is a decent enough song and I’m willing to hold it up as an example of something listenable from this music movement, but I confess that I don’t spend a whole lot of time seeking it out.

Official Video:

Back to 1995’s The Great Escape. “Charmless Man” is another song that seems, to me anyways, to be heavily inspired by Ray Davies. Indeed, “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” and “Sunny Afternoon” seem to be direct ancestors of this tune. I also imagine that The Arctic Monkey’s song “Fake Tales of San Francisco” seems to be about a similar character - indeed several of their songs bash people like this.

The song tells the story of an unfortunate encounter the singer has with this dull character in a bar. The man goes on and on about his education and his culture and his life, boring the poor singer cross-eyed.

At the moment, I am hard pressed to think of many American songs that so carefully eviscerate specific types of shallow Americans as certain songs by English bands attack their sycophants and hangers on. There must be some, I just can’t put my finger on what they are.

Oh, and its catchy as all hell.