NEW BLUR ALBUM - The Ballad Of Darren

[dparrott]

It's of no real consequence, but I was playing my ten year anniversary singles set yesterday and noticed that the nine-song CD single of For Tomorrow is longer than the entire ten-song Ballad of Darren album.

Even discounting the multiple versions of For Tomorrow (for example leaving off the acoustic and album versions), that still leaves a satisfying seven song set that clocks in at just a few minutes shorter than Ballad. Same goes for Sunday Sunday and Chemical World, though obviously the quality of those B-sides are more varied.

What does this mean? Not much, just that Blur spoilt us in the 90s by putting out nearly an album's worth of material with each single.

Ah the good old days. I miss them. The Chemical World CD2 is near perfect to me.

[jonathas]

I would not be surprised if Sticks and Stones was recorded in The Waeve sessions.

Only a few weeks ago people were claiming with certainty on this forum that not only was Y'all Doomed only written by Graham but that he played all the instruments on it as well and now we are saying the same about Sticks and Stones?

If it was done during the recording of that album why would it not feature on that album? Would Rose be fine with one of the best songs recorded in that session not being used on their album to be saved for a Japanese exclusive track? Would Graham even be happy with that?

Damon's glorious, constellation-unfolding piano playing is absolutely unmistakeble on Sticks and Stones. Couldn't be anyone else.

[idreamofpikas]

Not saying anything with certainty, but who knows? Maybe it was started during Waeve sessions but not finished? The prospect of Graham bringing a song that’s 90% complete - recorded with the same producer no less - to the sessions and having the others add stuff seems as equally plausible as him offering up (or being asked to provide) an entirely new song for an extremely personal album someone else has written entirely. And no one from Blur has said a single word about it yet.

That’s no slight on them either way - they’ve avoided being specific about instrument credits for years, so I suspect there’s more than a few cases where it isn’t Damon keys Graham guitars Alex bass Dave drums.

The idea that this was completed or even 90% completed in the Waeve sessions and purposefully held back for Blur only to be demoted to an exclusive song for Japan seems needlessly insulting towards Graham.



And it makes little sense for the Waeve. Sticks and Stones is a great song. Easily more commercial and immediate than at least three of their 5 singles. Why would he hold that back when it was completed/pretty much completed?

There was around 6 months between the recording of the Waeve and the recording of the Ballad of Darren. More than enough time for Graham to have begun writing some songs that could end up on other projects such as the Blur album just like Damon had been doing.

[Redneck]

If you’re the same idreamofpikas that posts over at the Steve Hoffman forums, you’ll be aware of the hundreds of pages devoted to arguing over whether Paul or Ringo plays drums on Old Brown Shoe. That’s the same sort of question that can be asked here - it doesn’t lessen my enjoyment of the song, but it’s not an implausible scenario.

[stephen]

Seem to have two conversations going on here...but I believe modern life is rubbish had so many good bsides because they are the ditched tracks from the 92 album that never came out?

[Vorsprung]

bollocks…you don’t last 30+ years together by having a fragile ego…sticks and stones does not fit the album and is a cool b side.

Maybe graham (in his peculiar way) likes being the Japanese album version bonus track?

[Redneck]

Seem to have two conversations going on here...but I believe modern life is rubbish had so many good bsides because they are the ditched tracks from the 92 album that never came out?

From Select’s song-by-song rundown in 1995:

“All the songs for their second album had now been demoed at Matrix. Optimistically, they imagined a spring 1992 release. The tracklisting included ‘Oily Water’, ‘Mace’, ‘Badgeman Brown’, ‘Popscene’, ‘Resigned’, ‘Garden Central’, ‘Hanging Over’, ‘Into Another’ (aka ‘Headist’), ‘Peach’, ‘Bone Bag’, ‘Never Clever’, ‘Coping’, ‘My Ark’ and ‘Pressure on Julian’.”

[Kibarry]

The Ballad

https://youtu.be/nCoN16zdM08

[munch]

The Ballad

https://youtu.be/nCoN16zdM08

So sad

[munch]

Not saying anything with certainty, but who knows? Maybe it was started during Waeve sessions but not finished? The prospect of Graham bringing a song that’s 90% complete - recorded with the same producer no less - to the sessions and having the others add stuff seems as equally plausible as him offering up (or being asked to provide) an entirely new song for an extremely personal album someone else has written entirely. And no one from Blur has said a single word about it yet.

That’s no slight on them either way - they’ve avoided being specific about instrument credits for years, so I suspect there’s more than a few cases where it isn’t Damon keys Graham guitars Alex bass Dave drums.

The idea that this was completed or even 90% completed in the Waeve sessions and purposefully held back for Blur only to be demoted to an exclusive song for Japan seems needlessly insulting towards Graham.



And it makes little sense for the Waeve. Sticks and Stones is a great song. Easily more commercial and immediate than at least three of their 5 singles. Why would he hold that back when it was completed/pretty much completed?

There was around 6 months between the recording of the Waeve and the recording of the Ballad of Darren. More than enough time for Graham to have begun writing some songs that could end up on other projects such as the Blur album just like Damon had been doing.

yeah i don't see much of a need for discussion. I'm sure Graham was part of the decision to keep it off the album. I also think a lot of decisions were made quite fast in the short time frame this album was produced and released. Perhaps Sticks and Stones would have been better on the album (I reckon) BUT the decision completely makes sense if you're listening to the tracks produced and trying to put together a coherent track-list in a short amount of time.
I personally don't think the song was produced in Waeve recordings. It sounds too much like Blur. Sure it could have been written before, but so were Damons.

[idreamofpikas]

Unless a song hits it big in a film/tv show or the band release a new album within the next 12 months this is likely to be Blur's peak on Spotify. So close to 13 million. Now that the album has been out for a month the viewership will begin to drop.

One month on and the streaming figures are very respectable. Already over 27 million streams

https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/7MhMgC ... lbums.html

For perspective, this is double the streams of Damon's last solo album or the second The Good the Bad the Queen. And has already gone past Noel's album released 6 weeks earlier and with the first two singles released in 2022.

https://kworb.net/spotify/artist/7sjttK ... lbums.html


But half of the Foo Fighters album and likely that gap is growing to grow as the year goes on.

My guess is that it will be around the 50 million mark by the end of the year and seems to be repeating The Magic Whip's success on Spotify (though that was released slightly before Spotify's dominance). Which is more than respectable for a band who have been around as long as Blur have.

[Sledge Hammer]

Sticks And Stones on Spotify, nice!

[lumaka]

Auto-generated notes on Youtube say (about Sticks and Stones):

Bass: Alex James
Keyboards, Piano: Damon Albarn
Drums: Dave Rowntree
Mixer: David Wrench
Engineer: Giacomo Vianello
Engineer: Grace Banks
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals: Graham Coxon
Additional Production: Graham Coxon
Keyboards: James Ford
Producer: James Ford
Masterer: Matt Colton
Engineer: Samuel Egglenton
Additional Production: Samuel Egglenton
Writer: A. James
Writer: D. Albarn
Writer: D. Rowntree
Writer: G.Coxon

[Redneck]

Auto-generated notes on Youtube say (about Sticks and Stones):

Bass: Alex James
Keyboards, Piano: Damon Albarn
Drums: Dave Rowntree
Mixer: David Wrench
Engineer: Giacomo Vianello
Engineer: Grace Banks
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals: Graham Coxon
Additional Production: Graham Coxon
Keyboards: James Ford
Producer: James Ford
Masterer: Matt Colton
Engineer: Samuel Egglenton
Additional Production: Samuel Egglenton
Writer: A. James
Writer: D. Albarn
Writer: D. Rowntree
Writer: G.Coxon

Not reliable. That’s just the credits for the album as metadata.

[lumaka]

Honestly I have no idea what's the source of these data but they're different for every song.