JJ72 had a great run of hits, Long Way South (personal favourite) , October Swimmer, Snow, Oxygen, Algeria. kinda vanished when The Strokes showed up and changed what alternative music in the new millennium was. side note Hilary Woods was a cutie saw them twice, once supporting Muse i think, and th...

The Magic Whip is maybe the 3rd or 4th best Blur album, with no identifiable or lasting major hit single, supported by a handful of medium sized gigs. Demon Days and Plastic Beach both sold a heap of records, contained multiple hits, and led to mammoth world tours of arenas and festival headline se...

I think the comparison with Radiohead is a bit misleading - Blur have always been a band who were intensely interested in competition, in standing out, in reflecting the time and in demonstrating their influences, whereas Radiohead have always been a (creditably) inward-looking band. Blur could in ...

Given Blur's sound tended to evolve and change every few years I think it could be argued much of Gorillaz's output could have been a future Blur's. It is not like Blur had not experimented with other singers before. Had Damon never been so close to Jamie (or never fallen out with Graham) we may ha...

Got me onto Superman by Seymour on You Tube....Blur in the early days were chaotic and punk none of this barely made it onto Leisure... Should have had studio versions of Day Upon Day and Superman Definitely. I actually like Leisure, I think it's underrated really, it has some of Blur's best songs ...

Yes I would agree, when we say this Blur album is better than that Gorillaz album, or this Graham album is better than that Damon album, usually what we are really saying is I prefer it. Statements like "fact" or "beyond question" are not really helpful because all they seem to do is rile people up....

If someone dismisses another person's opinion by saying their opinion is a fact or whatever, then of course that's just being silly. But I strongly believe someone could put together a strong argument that, for example, Revolver is a work of greater artistic value than S Club 7'S greatest hits. The ...

The Magic Whip was an unexpected treat but I think it was mixed - Go Out, Lonesome Street are retro souding and unfortunately banal songs. I loved Ong Ong, My Terracotta Heart, Pyongyang, and Ghost Ship. Overall Demon Days, Plastic Beach and the first TGTBATQ are better albums than The Magic Whip. ...

Still, I would have expected the Universal to be higher, pre-2012 or not. If anything that is a song that has really grown in stature over the decades. I'm also surprised that Beetlebum isn't higher. Both are now on 27.7 million. They are fantastic amounts for songs from the 90's that did not break...

I'm very much in the camp that says there were was plenty more gas in the Blur tank and in hindsight it feels like a missed opportunity. Radiohead were able to stay creatively vital whilst remaining as a band for example. Suede's recent albums have also been very good. I've liked some of Gorillaz st...

Ghost Ship could be a Gorillaz song and by virtue of that alone has a more contemporaneous sound and potentially wider reach than most of Blur's back catalogue. It's also much less anachronistic than some of Blur's biggest hits. Ghost Ship could arguably have existed any time in the last 40 years or...

jonathas wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2020, 11:33

Shane MacGowan would be both topical and terrific.

Yeah!I love the Pogues and I've long thought this. I think he could bring a similar vibe to Shaun Ryder on Dare.

For me it's a decent album but isn't in the same league as the run of albums MLIR to 13. Personally I also prefer Leisure although perhaps that's more subjective. I think those earlier albums benefit from the fact Blur was the main ongoing concern for all members of the band, as opposed to the two l...

Coldplay are clearly very sharp operators but they have world class management and business brains in the background. I'm not sure Damon has always benefitted from the same calibre of advice. Coldplay took the U2 route, they relentlessly toured, especially the US, to take advantage of their success...

I think there was definitely a feeling they might go a bit Radiohead around this time. But generally I feel as if they had wide open vistas ahead of them and what stopped them pursuing them as a 4 piece was that they needed a break from each other rather than the creative wellspring of the band runn...