The Boys from Blur are back

BLUR

Think Tank

Virgin Records

Ihave virtually stopped writing music reviews. After years of enthusiastically ranting against boy bands and praising the "less-commercialized" artists, I’ve pretty much gotten tired of it all. It’s just that listening to new CDs and then offering my poor thoughts on the music has finally taken its toll on the pleasure. Oh sure, I’d pop up once in awhile whenever the mood strikes me, but I have basically given up on the whole thing.

So isn’t it just dandy (or unfortunate) that the group co-responsible (Oasis being the other) for the revival of the Britpop popularity in the mid-1990s is the reason for me to start jamming again with the hacks who have nothing better to do than to criticize other people’s work because they wish it was them playing instead? Hee hee, those words may have hit a nail on somebody’s head, but I’ll write as I please, thank you (don’t I always?)

Anyway, I’m missing the point here. A lady friend somehow got hold of an advanced copy of Blur’s latest album and sold it to me for a measly P300 (bless her little soul). The group hasn’t done anything in almost four years (except for lead singer Damon Albarn’s widely-successful Gorillaz), so I immediately popped open the music tray and waited for the group to serenade me. It was widely believed that the band had broken up for good, but with this latest dipper on the shops, the rumors quickly dried up.

I was at first annoyed by the first track Ambulance because it was about 12 minutes long and I could not distinguish what genre it was supposed to be. It shifted from techno to funk to electronica and it was too much for my conservative taste in experimental music. It was only after the second track and carrier single Out of Time that I suddenly realized how much I missed the boys’ off-keyed style of melodious singing. The song features a lazy but earnest Albarn vocal and whimsically ends with a profound lyric: "You’ve been so busy lately, you haven’t found the time, to open up your mind, and watch the world spinning gently, out of time." Already a classic in my book.

Some of the more radio-friendly tracks on the record include Brothers and Sisters, Crazy Beat, Good Song, and Battery In Your Leg. The latter, which is also the final song, is the only track on the album where long-time guitarist Graham Coxon played. Sadly, Coxon parted ways with the group before production started and it is highly ironic that "Think Tank" sounds a lot more like Blur’s earlier efforts.

Except for Albarn’s occasional insertions of crappy world-dance beats, at least half the songs on the album brings the listener back to the old Blur days when the group would make anybody think and dance at the same time. It is sometimes hard to imagine that this was the band that made Song 2 (the famous "woo-hoo" song) the sleeper hit single of 1998. It is also hard to believe that this was the same group of boys who made intelligent music a hot priority before the last decade ran out. But alas, time always took care of everything. And sadly, this album might not have the same impact as "Parklife" or the standard "The Great Escape."

The songs, lyrics, guitar and drumming fills range from good to fantastic, mind you, but the lack of Coxon, who has always had the keener ear on the Blur sound, is noticeably missed.

After the final seconds have ticked away on "Think Tank," all that is left is a feeling of both frustration and contentedness. For one part, it is a relief that the band can still rock on with the best of them. But their stubbornness in experimentation and complete disregard for commercialism, no matter how admirable, is disappointing. "Think Tank" is definitely a good album, thanks to tracks like Out of Time, Good Song, and Brothers and Sisters. But there are simply too many instances of the band drifting into self-serving asides that end up detracting greatly from an otherwise solid number of gems.

Fortunately for the lads, Blur is still a hot commodity, and the fans took care of that – kicking Justin Timberlake out of the number one charts in the UK and pushing this one in. Only artists like Blur or Oasis can still release relatively weak albums and make it sell. Doggone it, I sure hope that the boys (or old boys) are back.

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(Author’s note: some info taken from "music-critic" website)

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Readers who have e-mailed me letters ranging from mid-last year to last week can expect a reply in a few days. It might not mean much now, but I’m finally devoting a whole weekend to reply to all of them. Thank you. E-mail: reubem_matthew@hotmail.com