Blur - The Magic Whip Review

Despite Blur's beloved back catalogue, the band has never stuck to a distinct sound. Starting off as plastic Madchester before offering a critique of the influx of American grunge with Modern Life is Rubbish before creating the southern England dose of Britpop but then embracing the American Indie scene and letting Graham Coxon take near full control and finally, for twelve years, settling for what has become the standard of Damon Albarn; world music.

It raises the question of why Blur became one of the biggest bands of the nineties? Was it the fact that in the midsts of Britpop that Blur was the thinking man's contender as opposed to the lumbering but reassuring oaf called Oasis? 

Was it Damon Albarn who was capable of telling stories with his lyrics instead of trying to simply finding words that rhymed? Was it Graham Coxon, one of the most underated guitarists trying to break out? Was it the sum of all parts for that magic period of a year with Modern Life... and Parklife?

Or maybe they were simply consistently good and the decade long absence has made the heart grow even more nostalgic for the whatif? What could Blur do next and can it top everything they've done before it?

Sure, we've had some sprinklings of new music in the gap between the band's 2009 reunion and The Magic Whip's release, all rekindling what made Blur so enjoyable in the first place but the question remained, how well can an entire album twelve years after a split possibly be? 

Doubly so because one of the more influential members was absent for then final album Think Tank? How does this change the dynamic and what kind of album could be crafted in this new world of music?

The answer, mercifully, is not Blur's worst effort, by a long shot.

Continuing Blur's ever changing output, The Magic Whip is more of a conglomeration of Blur's previous albums, under the banner of Hong Kong being the setting. Despite this, opening track Lonesome Street is a delightful nod to Britpop; a bouncy, punchy guitar-pop with easy on the ears vocals from Albarn. It wouldn't sit out of place on Modern Life... or Parklife but strangely doesn't set the tone for the record.

On the contrary; Ice Cream Man with it's childish lyrics and more stripped back music, has the hallmarks of more Britpop but takes more influence from the minimalism Albarn showcased with Everyday Robots. It's a bit too simple for it's own good and sadly offers one of the only duff moments on the album.

For those who discovered Blur in the midst of their album also called Blur and didn't realise Song 2 was a pisstake, Go Out is nearly five minutes of guitar shredding goodness and the combination of the guitar shredding and the catchy hook of "going to the local" will no doubt make this a live favourite.

But the album has it's quieter guitar driven moments, more inline with 13. Recent single There Are Too Many of Us, the first half of Thought I Was a Spaceman and Pyongyang never go to the rockier extremes of Go Out, but instead offer more well rounded and straight forward pop tracks. There Are Too Many of Us in particular sounds more a potential candidate for a Gorillaz comeback, but its the bridge which makes it a Blur track through and through and a great one at that.

And it's that that makes The Magic Whip a great Blur album. It's the sum of all it's parts coming together to make a more enjoyable album instead of one domineering factor coming in and everyone else playing along for the sake of happy families. It's easily, the most united band effort since Parklife and it shows with a strangely concise and enjoyable album which, rather than reinventing the wheel, is more bring the pieces back together and trying to see what made everything work in the first place.

You can argue that for a band that spent it's entire run as everchanging that the idea of the record being something familiar is sad, but for once, it's actually nice to see the band return to the well and maybe prove, after over a decade that they still have it.

Sure, the album has it's bad moments, the aforementioned Ice Cream Man is more an experiment gone wrong than anything and sets an unfortunate alarm bell off in the first quarter of the record. Mirrorball, whilst a decent track, shouldn't have been the closing number, it doesn't really have anything in common with the rest of the album and whilst the rest of the record has more of a bounce and rejuvenation, it's western style doesn't give the record a merry send off nor an emotional one.

But again, on the whole, The Magic Whip is nowhere near the worst Blur album. It's neither the best and part of me thinks that was never the intention but it can safely rest in the middle of an already impressive discography and for now and after twelve long years, that's more than enough.

8/10

H

@Retcon_Nation