Released: July 21
On their first album in eight years, Blur lay themselves bare across 10 tracks that cut to the core of the band’s essence, channeling echoes of the past while reflecting the group as they stand today.
The reunion of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree blossomed organically into ‘The Ballad of Darren’; a creative process that saw them workshop two or three songs a day, drawing on the muscle memory of shared history until they had the songs that form the record with a sound that’s unmistakably that of the Britpop legends.
Its title song – which serves as the album opener – is a haunting introduction to a new era for the act and roots itself in the past, with a distinct yearning for times gone by in Albarn’s vocal as he intones ‘I met you at an early show… I fell in love with you’.
Deceptively enchanting melodies permeate across the project on tracks like Barbaric, on which he poses ‘At what cost, the feelings that we thought we’d never lose?’, while Russian Strings sees him in the moment, pondering his only options: ‘…turn the music up / I’m hitting the hard stuff’.
But hand in hand with the melancholic nostalgia is also a collection of striking tunes that encompass the spectrum of Blur’s creative output; St. Charles Square oozes swagger with a distinct art-pop flair, while lead single The Narcissist is evocative of the guitar-heavy nineties. Meanwhile, Avalon is strictly future-facing, with a focus on building towards better and striving for spiritual peace.
For more than 30 years Blur have continued to push the boundaries of their sound and that creativity extends to their latest project. This time around, they offer a body of work that’s equally rooted in the past – with multiple nods to former glories subtly woven throughout – while establishing a place for the group in today’s climate that remains current and appealing.
‘The Ballad of Darren’ may not be Blur’s boldest statement, but it’s a lush body of work that reads as a thank you to fans for a lifetime of continued support and a reminder that, decades into their chart-topping run, Blur are very much alive.
