The band I keep assuming is done keeps coming back. Brit popsters Blur have just released their eighth album, The Magic Whip, and their first since way back in 2003. Despite the fact that they are essentially a pop act Blur has always been rather ambitious with their music. Meaning though they did have a sound they never took the easy way out. That remains the same here. You get a little bit of a lot. What remains the same is that the guitars are front and centre. Then you get a little folk, a dash of electro-pop, a whisper of Middle Eastern and then a touch of psychedelic. Using some weird form of Blur magic though the songs are all rather different and yet they all work together as a coherent whole. For instance, the lead single off the album is “Lonesome Street” and it totally has that classic Blur sound to it in that it is poppy without making you sick of it in short order. Listening to all twelve tracks you are reminded that they are a band with a unique sound and type of songwriting. They always sound like they have plenty bubbling under the surface waiting to burst forward.
Blur – The Magic Whip
