Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and co return with their ninth LP, and first since 2015, a reflective, melancholy mostly slow-paced release of vivid, wistful beauty. It’s considerably more satisfying than 2015’s reunite album, The Magic Whip, the song ideas sketched by Albarn in hotels abroad during his last Gorillaz tour. The chemistry of Blur centres very much the combination of Albarn’s voice with Coxon’s restless, innovative guitar work, and backing vocals, often wonderfully downbeat but resilient. The title is inspired by Blur’s longtime security man, Darren “Smoggy” Evans, who in 2003 urged Albarn to finish a 2003 demo, which now becomes the slow opener, The Ballad. And there are some real beauties on this album – especially The Narcissist (about the travails of fame), Far Away Island, and The Heights, which mostly set the pace and tone, while there’s a crooning orchestral sheen to Russian Strings, which echoes some of Arctic Monkeys’ recent releases, and the fact that producer James Ford bridges both bands. But there’s also the upbeat pop of Barbaric, and perhaps most interesting. and gnarlier, gritty St Charles Square, which channels Scary Monsters-era David Bowie, Coxon’s guitar squirming in all directions while Albarn sings “I fucked up … something down here… living under the floorboards.” Demons and angels everywhere. Out on Parlophone.
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