BLUR SELF-TITLED ALBUM POLL (1997)

i love the production on this. shame the songs arent all up to par. and i hate the fucking choir and the oh so trembly ballads.

i love the production on this. shame the songs arent all up to par. and i hate the fucking choir and the oh so trembly ballads.

Wrong album

I just wanted to give props to Alex's Duran Duran-y bass part in "On Your Own". That is just too much.

It's like that little tiny bit of "Girls & Boys" to put the cream in your coffee. Or tea. But not TV.

oops. i was thinking of 13.

Does anyone else here besides me think "Strange News From Another Star" is Bowie-esque?

Bowie should have covered that shit. Oh yes.

Maybe a little bit, but there is no one Blur track more blatantly Bowie-esque than "Entertain Me" anyway.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

this is their best album, i think.. i really love graham coxon's guitar sound (influenced by pavment??).. i read he used distortion pedals with nearly-dead batteries to get those nasty sewage-guitar type sounds

I'm so ashamed to admit I finally sold the Parklife CD I could just about hang myself on the gallows right this minute. But I rationalized it at the time you know - "I've been there done this". RONG.

But YET I've still got the Leisure CD in my stacks??? There is no justice in this world!

Yes, yes, yes I know the 13 love. I love it too but I'll only go back to 13 when I've finished gobbling up several other albums and two scrumptious CD-R's of B-sides.

THIS POLL HAS NOT ENDED YET PLEASE CAST YOUR VOTES THANK YOU :)

Okay, woah, woah, woah. Doesn't the first part of "Theme From Retro" remind you of the first part of Dead Kennedys' "Holiday In Cambodia"????

your points are intriguing but irrelevant, since Song 2 is the answer... COME ON OF COURSE IT IS!

I think the one-way ILX discourse of "lol limey retards" needs a reversal, at times.

even limey retards know this one, tho.

limey retards and only limey retards

"limey retards" is redundant, amirite? :)

I'm willing to bet that every song will get a vote except "theme from retro" and the bonus.

Theme From Retro is probably in my top 5 album favourites. Shame if it gets 0.

Dear Americans, Song 2 is rubbish. You are all cheap thrill-junkies with no feel for the possibilities of music. Thank you! :)

Hahaha LJ to the rescue again in a single bound!

poor, poor, poor.. ouch Song 2

All I know it's it's fucking 6:45 AM here and I was just about to fall asleep at last when Parklife the title track came on and wowowow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Great, that "Death Of A Party" somehow got 6 votes, thought I was the only one who voted for it.

shocked no one voted for "country sad"! good track.

That was the main thing I noted, too, Zeus, that "Death of A Party" placed so highly. I was really pleased about that.

Blimey, lots of love for "Country sad" but no votes!

Although I never liked it much.

huh!

this album is still good. On Your Own is top 5 Blur

as a transitional album, it shows Blur experimenting with new influences and certain songwriting hallmarks that Damon would later capitalise on further.

Songs like 'I'm Just A Killer For Your Love' and 'The Death Of A Party' are proto-13, proto-Gorillaz, although I didn't realise it at the time: swampy, downbeat and groove-based without much in the way of lyrical depth.

I never need to hear Song 2 ever again.

MOR was a strange choice of single: other than some cool guitar FX, it's wholly unremarkable. Moving On is also unnecessary filler.

P much everything else is worthwhile though. Definitely the start of a sound I would find myself enjoying less, but retaining Damon's interest in pop melodies which he would later shake off

"you're so great" is the best song coxon ever wrote

I really like Coffee + TV personally

One of the criticisms I've heard leveled at Blur is that they were bandwagon jumpers, and often late to the party with it. That, or that they were merely a jumble of influences with no ideas of their own.

Even if this were the truth, it misses the point. I don't think Blur's core audience in the 90s really gave much of a shit. If anything, Leisure opened me up to shoegaze. Parklife opened me up to bands like Wire. Great Escape was a primer for getting me into the second Specials album. I'd not bothered with Pavement until I heard the self titled album. I was young with a library card and a copy of Select magazine. Hearing these influences which I didn't realise were influences all on one CD was perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n8k0fB82nU&ab_channel=GrayGuitars

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n8k0fB82nU&ab_channel=GrayGuitars

FUCK

I was young with a library card and a copy of Select magazine.

The front line of every revolution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n8k0fB82nU&ab_channel=GrayGuitars

This album meant so incredibly much to me around the time it came out, and now I feel like I struggle to remember how any of these songs went. It was such a time and a place, and that time is gone and I no longer live in that place.

has anyone made the "Country Bad Salad Man" joke yet?

Man I love this album. Not really a Blur fan otherwise, parts of 13 notwithstanding. Love the sound of this thing

would’ve voted death of a party probably. theme from retro is rad, Essex dogs is rad.. mor is rad... oh man

blur seem to do trip hop rather well? see also: trailerpark

As a wee American I was sorta perplexed by blur before this album came out. It seemed like.. extremely English music by English people for English people or something.. a real stark contrast to Oasis’ thing (the only context I ever heard mentioned pre-97 was on MTV re oasis beef). idk this is probably gibberish.

Not much of a fan, but I love "You're So Great."

country sad ballad man deserved a vote!!

I haven't really listened to this album in the last 20 years, but I still often come back to All Your Life and Dancehall, both much better than anything on the LP imo.

my favorite part of the album is probably the outro to “beetlebum”... the way Graham bends the third note of his guitar part and how it meshes with each chord in the progression.. really sets my heart a flutter

Polished Stone is also a fantastic B-side from this time

“uh oh what’s that device right there”