The Universal Blur (Awesome 2)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Awesome 2
Date:	28/04/08 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An excellent band that has released some brilliant albums over the years.

Disadvantages: The band is currently on hiatus.

Reading the book 'Bit of a Blur' recently, I remembered just how much I love the music of the great British band that is Blur. For many years now I have had a strong appreciation for the music of the band, always the albums that Blur have released have been full of life and excitement; catchy tracks have been a prominent feature of all of the bands releases and never does the music of Blur cease to amaze me.

'Popscene' was the first single that Blur ever released as a band, it was released to coincide with the bands Rollercoaster tour, a tour that would take in the United States and came about as a result of the band being £60 000 in debt. The idea was to recuperate some of these major losses, although the single only charted at number 32 it was a huge turning point for the band. It was a very British sounding record, the start of something new and really rather special; Britpop. American grunge bands such as Nirvana were ruling the charts at the time, Blur wanted to change this and once more make British music popular. The band did not like the stale music scene that was present, a world where many sound-alike bands riddled the scene and no one seemed prepared to do things a little bit differently.

In 1994 Blur's breakthrough record was released in the form of 'Parklife', an excellent album which features the hit singles of 'Girls & Boys' and title track 'Parklife' also. 'Girls & Boys' was the first single released here, a track that peaked at number five in the charts and can perhaps be considered as one of the best tracks that this band has ever written. The whole 'Parklife' album is excellent, a supreme breakthrough record from the band and one that I personally am particularly fond of. The irony here is that the success of Britpop meant that a number of copycat bands were formed in order to jump on the bandwagon and ride on the success of the Britpop genre. There were a couple of good Britpop bands and a sea of others that were merely copying the leaders and had no real original ideas of their own. A genre of music that was created to get rid of copycat bands merely made change to the sound that was being copied. The music scene was still all too similar, grunge had been replaced with Britpop however and this was now the genre of choice for bands to be creating.

Blur followed the 'Parklife' album the following year with 'The Great Escape', another strong release and one that contains some top tracks such as 'Charmless Man' and 'Country House'. This is another incredible album and yet another Blur release that I have nothing but love for. Always the music of Blur has appealed to me greatly, there is something greatly satisfying about listening to the bands albums and never does this band ever seem to put a note wrong. In 1997 the band released the self-titled album 'Blur', the fifth of the bands career and a never huge success. The anthemic 'Song 2' features here, a track that is full of life and in which the band sounds incredibly enthusiastic. The sound created here sounds somewhat similar to the Nirvana grunge sound that the band replaced with Britpop; perhaps this is a parody on behalf of the band, a tongue in cheek musical stab at the popular genre bands such as Blur and Oasis managed to replace with their very British sounding take on music.

In total there are seven studio albums out there release by Blur, '13' was the sixth and was released in 1999, 'Think Tank' the seventh and emerged in 2003. These two albums provide further evidence of the excellence of this band, for a band to have released seven strong albums is no small achievement and I personally love each and every one of them. Some of the bands finest music can be found on 'Blur: The Best of', a compilation album which was released in the year 2000 comprising of some of the bands greatest hits. Tracks from the bands first five alums can be found here and although the release ignores the latter two albums it is an extremely complete collection indeed. The album features a grand total of eighteen Blur tracks, all of which are excellent and for all those that are not familiar with the bands music then this is as good a starting place as any. Listening to 'Blur: The best of' gives you a great idea of the brilliance of Blur as a band, the four-piece has released some excellent music over the years and the compilation collection showcases this sensationally.

Since 2003 the band has been on hiatus. No official statements have been released about the future of Blur as yet; it would seem however that a reunion is extremely unlikely. Several times there have been suggestions that Blur would reform as a band, it is yet to happen though and all four members currently seem happy to be doing their own thing. The factor that initially stopped the band coming back together was that the bands guitarist Graham Coxon did not want to return and vocalist Daman Albarn did not want to make music without him as, I quote 'Why don't I get another guitarist? Because there's none better than Coxon'. It would be great for Blur to reform and release another album, whether or not this will ever actually happen remains to be seen but I personally remain optimistic. The music of Blur has in my opinion always been excellent, seven excellent Blur albums are in existence and for that I am extremely grateful. All four members of Blur are extremely talented, the bands sound has always impressed me and never does the music fail to enthral.

Blur; perhaps the best band there ever has been.

Summary: Blur is an excellent band, almost definitely my very favourite of all time.