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

Modern Life Is Rubbish

---

» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

NATN Recommended Blur Modern Life Is Rubbish Food, 1993 RiYL: Suede, The Beatles, The Who Sell Out, Julian Cope

This is the modern sound of Britpop: Four lads in London break out of a record company-created stereotype (their name was given to them by A&R men) and surprise the masses with a mature and complex second album.

With Modern Life Is Rubbish, Blur has dropped the shoegazer mentality of Leisure in favor of a neo-mod attitude, crafting precise pop songs more intent on sounding dynamic and intricate than just good. Additionally, Damon Albarn's lyrics slant toward telling stories of middle-class englishmen and women, stuck in everyday life. He starts developing memorable characters, a stage that few modern songwriters tend to reach.

In the opening song, "For Tomorrow," we meet Susan (she's a naughty girl with a lovely smile) and Jim (who utters the album's title), both "hanging on for dear life" and "holding on for tomorrow." Two songs later, "Colin Zeal" shows up as a mildly successful chap one might see in the tube, smiling and checking his watch. As Damon tells it, "he's an affable man / with a plausible plan / keeps his eye on the news / keeps his future in hand."

Blur keep the pop hooks going, resolutely besting the material on their first album with classic tracks like "Star Shaped" and "Chemical World," both shots of British pop culture given as catchy nuggets with lyrical bite. These are the type of songs that make one really wonder what it takes to get a big hit in America(though they established Blur in their homeland as serious artists).

The album is arranged (most effectively on LP and cassette) into two halves separated by an "Intermission" and closing with "Commercial Break." These two buffers are just fragments of songs that fit best as segues. This kind of arrangement gives an extra touch of class to the album, qualifying it as more of a listening experience.

And the diversity of Modern Life Is Rubbish makes it rather an essential album to capture the full understanding of what Blur is all about. Here the band first (and in some cases, best) expresses many facets that have since defined them in the pop world.

The album has a bit of almost anything someone could want from a Britpop band: intricate power pop ("Coping"), ironic English character studies ("Advert"), sublime mood pieces ("Resigned"), and just pure rock ("Pop Scene") -- all in a classy framework.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.