13

Blur (album)

It’s all too easy to join the bandwagon-hoppers and say how you’ve always loved Blur, right from the very start when Country House went to No1. They’re the sort of people who, last May, stuck a poster of the 1997-98 Arsenal squad over a poster of the 1996-97 Manchester United squad on their bedroom walls. I can’t stand people like that. Besides, I’m a Luton Town supporter so by definition the word "bandwagon" (or "promotion" for that matter) means nothing to me. So, now the Blur Bandwagon has been sent to the scrapyard and all the kids have moved on to Billie and Steps, maybe they can get on with doing decent music again. This they have done. 1997’s Blur started it by dumping the Nineties Lad rubbish in favour of stuff like MOR and Song 2 and 13 has continued, albeit in a slightly different direction. The rocky stuff’s still there, such as Bugman, which is as insane as usual, but the slower stuff is really something rather wondrous as Tender and Trimm Trabb proves. Right, that should be all you need to know, go out and buy it.

You still here?

NB. Despite the badly thought-out review you see above, I really do believe 13 is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard and to this day it annoys the hell out of me that I couldn’t do a better review. Oh well...

AT MY MOST BEAUTIFUL

REM

Ah, a new REM single. I bet it sounds dull and miserable like most of their more recent singles. (Listens) Hang on a minute, what’s this? It says REM on the cover, but surely this is some obscure Beach Boys song in the God Only Knows vein. (Listens again) No, that’s definitely Michael Stipe doing the singing, such as it is. It’s really sad to hear someone’s voice degrade over the years and his tones are what really set the whole thing back. Maybe ten years ago he’d have made a better stab at this, but then ten years ago he would’ve been too busy recording decent stuff like Orange Crush and Losing My Religion to bother with a sad rump like this middle-aged tat.