The Blur Albums Ranked
With a retroactive look at the great Britpop War of the ’90s between Oasis and Blur, I’m definitely Team Blur. The tremendously popular foursome of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree had their share of tabloid hullabaloo not unlike the antics of the Gallagher brothers, fueled by their youthful arrogance and the like. But when reflecting back on the music, and certainly Albarn’s career in particular in the ever-increasing time between Blur projects, the band’s contributions to music definitely have a stronger pull on me. Across the (just shy of) 32 years Blur has released their nine albums, an impression of updated ’60s instincts and bolder experimentation emerges, although to be clear, not always to the most immediately rewarding results.
#9–13 (1999)
Favorite track: “Coffee & TV”
13 is without a doubt Blur’s most experimental album. That wouldn’t have necessarily immediately made it my least favorite, but it just so happens that those aforementioned “immediately rewarding results” are fewer and further between. The record starts in a more typical Blur vein, with “Coffee & TV” jangling and grooving with a pop verve. But then 13 takes a darker turn. I should point out that although the album isn’t immediately rewarding, that doesn’t make it bad. Indeed, Blur has yet to make a less-than-good record. Revisiting 13 and its descent into musical psychedelia, dissonance, ambience, and madness certainly yields its own pleasures…just not ones to rival Blur’s other work.
#8 — THE BALLAD OF DARREN (2023)
Favorite track: “Russian Strings”
Although THE BALLAD OF DARREN isn’t quite as alienating or outright experimental as 13, its, well, slower balladic pace and spacey reflection does certainly separate it from many of its predecessors. Of course, Blur is much older now; the record is their latest at the time of this writing and the impetus for this piece. You can hear that age on THE BALLAD OF DARREN, not in a “rehash the good times” way that many bands that have been in the business for more than 30 years do it. No, Blur’s instincts are to play things softer and sadder, offering up chill soundscapes that are slightly warped by Albarn’s ever-deeper voice and wistful and rueful lyrics. THE BALLAD OF DARREN envelops the listener with a sense of melancholy, a far cry from Blur’s intelligent pop confection days, and although that’s an admirable new track to take for an older band, it also doesn’t delight me as much as the old stuff.
#7 — THE MAGIC WHIP (2015)
Favorite track: “Thought I Was a Spaceman”
The ambience of THE BALLAD OF DARREN was definitely foretold by its predecessor THE MAGIC WHIP. There is a bit more whimsy to the sound of this return from Blur, which came after the biggest gap between albums for the band with just under 12 years since THINK TANK. A track like “Thought I Was a Spaceman,” fittingly, floats out into a spacey realm, but others, like “There Are Too Many of Us,” bounce with that pop sensibility heard in previous Blur projects and especially Albarn’s Gorillaz work. True to its album cover, THE MAGIC WHIP gives a sense of a rain-soaked metropolis, full of neon-tinged pleasures and noir-ish moments of introspection.
#6 — LEISURE (1991)
Favorite track: “She’s So High”
I don’t think I was quite conscious of the fact that Blur didn’t just outright create or appear into the Britpop landscape. With their debut album LEISURE, the quartet channeled the “Madchester” scene and shoegaze, and it wasn’t until their second album MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH, in conjunction with the addition of Oasis and other competing bands in the space, that the “Britpop” idea was really cemented. In any event, these genre and era labels belie the fact that the work done on LEISURE isn’t quite separate from its immediate successors. It’s true that the poppy yet languid sound and pace of the record would be kicked into overdrive in short order, but Blur’s ability to warp sounds into a kind of funhouse mirror of accepted genre conventions is immediately apparent. “She’s So High” is one of my favorite Blur songs, and while this album opener sets a bar that’s never quite hit on the rest of LEISURE, the record gives a set of listening experiences distinct from the band’s most famed work while foreshadowing the greatness to come.
#5 — THINK TANK (2003)
Favorite track: “Ambulance”
Yeah, you can tell THINK TANK came out after the inception of Albarn’s Gorillaz project. Using sample loops, Afrobeats, deep, bassy, and atmospheric synths, and other electronic elements, the record is conceptually related to the “virtual band’s” self-titled debut. That could probably be contributed to Albarn’s increased stewardship as Coxon left Blur early in the process of recording THINK TANK. Coxon is a great musician and songwriter, but regardless, the record that precipitated Blur’s extra-long hiatus is awesome. Moody, offbeat, and just kind of weird, THINK TANK consciously rejected Blur’s Britpop success, not unlike 13. But unlike 13, the result is a wonderfully textured album that I feel more comfortable immersing myself in. THINK TANK may be the middle point on this list of Blur’s albums, but from here on in, the work is great, not just good.
#4 — BLUR (1997)
Favorite track: “Beetlebum”
After “slagging” America (that’s how those Brits put it, right?) during their trilogy of “true” Britpop works amid the generally nostalgic “Cool Britannia” era of the ’90s (probably because grunge-heads didn’t want to hear their shoegaze when they toured America for LEISURE), Blur notoriously eschewed a lot of their native influences for their self-titled (yet fifth) album. It wasn’t all gone of course, as album opener “Beetlebum” fits right in with PARKLIFE or something, but with subsequent songs and megahit “Song 2,” certainly Blur’s most recognizable song in the US at least, the band made something more guitar-aggressive. If THINK TANK was a total Albarn-led effort, BLUR’s reorientation was Coxon’s direction. Maybe it’s just because I’m an American, but Blur’s take on bands like Pavement isn’t a disappointing sidestep, as was feared ahead of the album’s release. BLUR was indeed a huge commercial success, but more than that, it demonstrated the band’s ability to branch out, channeling some aspects of the then-most-recent work into a different kind of energy
#3 — THE GREAT ESCAPE (1995)
Favorite track: “Stereotypes”
THE GREAT ESCAPE was the closer of Blur’s true Britpop album trilogy and apparently one of Albarn’s great regrets. I don’t get it because the record rules. It’s true that following MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH and PARKLIFE reveals THE GREAT ESCAPE to be not as overwhelmingly fresh, but since this is what churning out three albums in as many years sounds like for Blur, they rightfully occupy a celebrated place in music. From opener “Stereotypes” all the way down to “Yuko and Hiro,” the record proceeds at a madcap pace, with some meditative introspection thrown in here and there. There are hints of where Blur would go here and there, but more importantly, THE GREAT ESCAPE is, and I’ll use this phrase once again, intelligent pop confection.
#2 — MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH (1993)
Favorite track: “Blue Jeans”
With their sophomore album, Blur totally reinvented themselves and helped jumpstart the whole Britpop phenomenon. Channeling The Kinks and Ray Davies’ integration of British themes and music hall sonic traditions into then-contemporary pop rock, MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH fused that second wave interpretation with the ’90s paradigm of pop rock. The result is an album that just hops from great hook to great hook, all the while imparting deeply felt emotional experiences. “Blue Jeans” may be my favorite Blur song for its ability to describe an angst and wistfulness that can be transposed onto any manner of “problems” I’ve had throughout my life, but its source record’s appeal is also its fun. MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH is an electrifying listen and its place in second, as opposed to first, was a hard decision to make…
#1 — PARKLIFE (1994)
Favorite track: “Girls & Boys”
…but in the end, follow up PARKLIFE is closer to the “all killer no filler” mark I love to bring up. Sonically, it strays further from the Kinks influence, as disco-y opener “Girls & Boys” makes immediately clear. But the commentary on British life and the relationships of everyday people is just as favorably compared to Davies’ talents. Unlike their contemporaries Oasis and their obvious Beatles patterns, however, Blur was never totally defined by their inspirations. Therein lies the distinction for my Team Blur membership. In any event, taken as its own work, PARKLIFE is a great album. The record’s musical verve and sheen is laid onto an often lyrically cynical and angsty youthfulness, a defining quality of all of Blur’s work. But with PARKLIFE, the Britpop pioneers rendered that down into the best hooks of their career, creating an album that makes you think and dance!
