Yeah, looking at some of the setlists Oily Water and Turn it Up were already being played in 91 (as was Popscene) and by early 92 Colin Zeal and Pressure on Julian were being played. Coping and Sunday Sunday were played at Glastonbury 92. I think Sunday Sunday in particular points hints at the direc...

Stereotypes perhaps. I can kind of imagine Liam singing that one. Bang possibly too.

For me, a lot of the songs have the good beginnings of songs but they never really get going. They sort of plateau at a level which makes them sound like the band has run out of ideas and/or time or effort. I would probably put New World Towers, Ice Cream Man, I Thought I Was Spaceman, I Broadcast a...

It seems really strange now even though there was something of a precedence for it - everyone from The Beatles to Dylan to Bowie tried their hand at acting to varying degrees. Damon was in drama school before Blur and in a way I think it may have been one of the first signs of him spreading his wing...

Yes I've checked out some of them. My thoughts: Friends I think is great and works really well as an album as a whole. It's got a lovely feel to it and is strong right the way through. Sunflower and Surf's Up are perhaps like consistent but arguably have higher individual moments - This Whole World...

Exactly.... At the time of "Smiley Smile" release even Carl Wilson said that it was "a bunt instead of a grand slam" and that is an excellent analogy. If "Smile" was released in later 1966 as intended, it might have received a lot of acclaim but don't know if the masses would have fully embraced it...

I've been listening to Syd a lot recently. There's quite a big difference between his work with Pink Floyd and his solo stuff. The Pink Floyd stuff is very psychedelic but also (the singles at least) quite poppy, with quite a produced sound, whereas his solo stuff is much more low key, much less pro...

Don’t like Smiley Smile that much. Pretty weak compared to the Smile Sessions, in my opinion at least. The sessions box set is how the album would have sounded and the differences are huge, especially Vega-Tables and Wonderful. Completely different. Yeah.... several others share the exact same stan...

Snow

Leisure, especially the B-Sides, has some wonderful Syd Barretesque psychedelia that they didn't really develop after. Sing and Inertia are particularly great and stand up to anything Blur or Damon/Graham solo have done since.

I've long been in a fan of Pet Sounds and Smile - in fact I've long believed Pet Sounds to be the greatest album ever made. But it's only the last few weeks that I've delved further into the Beach Boys work, inspired by some of the suggestions in this thread. And it's fair to say I'm becoming a litt...

A 7 for me. I've really enjoyed listening to it so far and Magic City is among my favourite Damon songs of the last ten years. There are some very fine songs on here - Humility, Kansas, Idaho and Souk Eye being the other stand outs for me - but as an album overall I don't think it has nearly the sam...

good stuff so far but can't help thinking he's mislaid his box of choruses again.... Correct, the joy of rap not plastered everywhere has now to led to your point, will Damon ever make a decent chorus EVER again? Let's not forget this is a criticism Damon has faced virtually his whole career. As ea...

I'm really loving this album too - I've had it on repeat since last Friday. It flows brilliantly with every song sounding like it belongs on there and has some really witty and insightful lyrics from Alex Turner. I really like the slightly dark, twisted, dystopian jazz- lounge vibe of the record - i...

It became 3 years old last Friday. But, broadly speaking, it still feels fairly contemporaneous and recent.

By way of contrast, however, just 2 years and 4 months separated the release of Modern Life is Rubbish from the release of The Great Escape - no wonder it all felt totally manic!