Artist bio

See also: Gorillaz, Graham Coxon

In England and Japan, Blur was a paragon of '90s pop music, one of the "big three" (alongside Oasis and Suede) that launched the new wave of Britpop in the early part of that decade. In America, they're largely known as a one-hit wonder for the written-in-two-minutes Pixies ripoff "Song 2". Natch.

The group's four-pronged musical attack was Beatlesque in makeup as well as in sonic temperament: drummer Dave Rowntree, the eldest of the group, was an accomplished drummer who came of age in assorted punk bands; bassist Alex James was a dreamer with a sharply honed predilection for making candy pop. Guitarist Graham Coxon was the group's heart, a technically dextrous musician with an ear for dissonance and an ability to rein in the bombast favoured by singer/songwriter Damon Albarn, the cheeky frontman able to churn out classic pop melodies and fit his malleable voice into a number of widely varying outfits.

Blur matured over its first two albums into a respectable britpop outfit informed by early Who, the Kinks, the Beatles, etc. but really exploded with third effort Parklife, which boiled down the British character sketches and modern life ruminations into a heady brew that topped the U.K. charts for quite a while.

Two albums later, Coxon's infatuation with American indie rock like Sonic Youth and Pavement won the day, as the group's fifth, self-titled album took a more underground bent. The direction was a neccessary one, and kept Blur relevant into the latter half of the '90s. Follow-up 13 was even more 'out-there', a swampy melange on which you can almost hear the group members pulling the sound in different directions.

With Coxon getting the boot in 2002 (just as his solo career was blossoming), who knows where Blur will head next, but the group has made a significant imprint on the pop canon, including about a handful of all-time classic tunes. Which will of course, differ depending on who you talk to.

Albums by this artist

Think Tank (2004)

'Music Is My Radar' (2001)

13 (1999)

Blur (1997)

The Great Escape (1995)

Parklife (1994)

Modern Life Is Rubbish (Recommended) (1993)

Leisure (1991)

Concerts

March 16, 2003
Bowery Ballroom, New York

Blur

The Great Escape

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» MATT KALOGERAKIS | STAFF WRITER

Blur The Great Escape Food/Virgin, 1995 RiYL: The Beatles, the Kinks, Pulp

It's hard to truly understand Blur's "English Life" Trilogy without hearing all three albums. The Great Escape is that last piece of the puzzle which ties everything together and takes the band's formula of acidic, hook-laden English character sketches to its logical extreme. The record's dark, focused attack also helps prove Damon Albarn is one of the most intuitive songwriters of the modern era.

Whereas Modern Life Is Rubbish was filled with poppy accounts of the British middle class seen through a mod's eyes, and Parklife displayed trashier stories of British city culture, The Great Escape is all about the hidden agendas of upper-class British suburbanites. Damon sketches some memorable aural vignettes: take the sex-crazed couple in "Stereotypes" ("the neighbors may be staring / but they are just past caring") or the "naughty" businessman in "Mr. Robinson's Quango" who's wearing plaid french knickers and stockings under his suit.

"Charmless Man" creates a character in the same vein as "Tracy Jacks" and "Colin Zeal," except this charmless man is a stuck-up snob who "says he can get in anywhere for free" and "knows his Claret from his Beaujolais." Damon Albarn at his very best goes to work on "Country House," succinctly narrating the story of a rich, middle-aged man who wants to get away from the ratrace. Now that he lives in his "very big house in the country," "life's a different story." But just when it seems all might be fun and games in the country, an unsettling middle-eight appears: "blow, blow me out / i am so sad / i don't know why," our hero moans.

Even the sound of the album is cleaner than the previous two, with more string arrangements and tighter production. Though the songs' demeanor is generally darker, the music comes through squeaky clean, even in the case of fuzzy guitar riffs like those on "Stereotypes," which are somehow streamlined, distortion and all.

Musically, this is one of Blur's strongest albums to date, easily standing up to both previous albums in the "English Life" Trilogy. Great guitar work by Graham Coxon on tracks like "Mr. Robinson's Quango" and "Charmless Man" makes those songs classic pieces of pop rock. Still, it's on the more straight-ahead rock tunes, like "Stereotypes" and "It Could Be You," where the band's musical performances really shine.

The Great Escape is Britpop at its very best, and a tidy ending to the "old" Blur before the indie rock brilliance of Blur and 13. In order to truly appreciate the genius of Damon Albarn & co., this album is a must.

MATT KALOGERAKIS |