Blur and 13

[This is Jessie here.  My sweet and sophisticated husband Josh graciously agreed to contribute to my blog today.  After his smarmy comment on this post earlier in the week, I figured it was the least he could do.  Take it away, Josh!]

Ok, here goes. Jessie has been trying to get me to start my own “blog” for sometime now to write about things I am interested in. Most of you reading this know me, but the gist of it is: I am the best. My taste in music and movies is unparalleled. The best band ever, Radiohead, I practically discovered. Ok, so they had three albums out by the time I bought Ok Computer (aka “The Best Album Ever”) but I would like to think that anybody in the U.S. knows about them because of me. Same thing with the UK version of The Office. I brought that Stateside. I also love my family and stuff, but that’s beside the point right now. Since Jessie brought up the idea of me “blogging” or “Facebooking” or whatever it’s called, I have been thinking hard about what my first topic would be about. I knew it would have to be about something that means a lot to me, and represents the kind of person I am. Would it be about Ok Computer (aka “The Best Album Ever”), or Kid A (“As Good as Ok Computer (aka “The Best Album Ever”)”), or even Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (aka “Also the Best Album Ever”)? I could write about the “hidden” messages I think are in The White Album (not murdery, Manson hidden messages). In the end, although I could write ad nauseam about any of these albums, I decided to write about British band Blur’s sixth album 13.

Let me tell you why I picked Blur. Blur are awesome. Blur are also very underrated. Jessie does not give Blur their propers. A lot of my friends do not give Blur their propers. It is a shame. England was crazy about Blur in the mid-90s, they and Oasis fought for the Britpop throne! It was very intense. Anyways, Blur released four albums from 1991-1995. These albums were good, but in my opinion they were not cohesive. They have some great singles on them, but there is a lot of what I would call “filler” and maybe even a little of what I would call “crap”. This would not be a popular opinion in England circa 1994. They loved Parklife, they thought Parklife was pretty much “The Best Album Ever” It is not. Parklife is Blur’s legacy in England. BUT! In 1997 they released their eponymous fifth album. The new album was meant to be more lo-fi, more indie rock. More Pavement-y. It’s really great, you should check it out. Blur were moving more toward the sound they would exhibit in 13.

I was a Junior in High School when 13 came out. Around this time I was watching a lot of MTV2 and they were playing “Tender” quite a bit. I had known a little bit about Blur from seeing some of their other videos: “Beetlebum”, “The Universal”, and “Song 2”. You guys know “Song 2”, it’s the only song by Blur anybody knows, which is really too bad. Everybody knows “Song 2”. Santa Claus knows “Song 2”. The Pope and the Dali Lama know “Song 2.” My parents probably even know “Song 2”. (Watch all those videos, though, you won’t regret it. Seriously.) So there I am, watching “Tender” all the time and loving it. I think about buying 13, but don’t yet. Later, me and my friend T were at track practice. I said to him, “You know who are two good bands from England?”

T was like, “Who?”

I go, “Radiohead and Blur.”

He says, “Word.” (T and I were hanging out a bunch and watching “Tender” on MTV2 all the time. He knew what was up.) A few months later we got the opportunity to go to Europe with a group from our High School. It was sweet. When we were in the hotel rooms we were checking out MTVUK or MTVEurope or whatever it was called. They were playing two videos over and over again. One of them was “When You Say Nothing at All” by Ronan Keating. Yes, the Ronan Keating of UK supergroup Boyzone. (Two quick facts about that song: First, I really liked it at the time and still do to this day. Second, it was the first song I ever downloaded from a file sharing website.) “Coffee & TV” by Blur was the other one. “Coffee & TV” is probably widely recognized as Blur’s best video, and rightly so. More on that later. When we got back I bought 13. At the time, I wasn’t really an “album” guy. I would mostly listen to just the songs I had heard before. So my knowledge of 13 was really just “Tender” and “Coffee & TV”. But that was okay, I loved those songs!

Flash forward a few years. It was 2003, I was newly married to my wonderful Jessica. One day I was reading a list of underrated albums in a music magazine in lieu of going to class (I think it was Accounting). Lo and behold 13 was on that list. Since I had nothing else to do that day, I immediately put it on. Long story short, after several listens I was very impressed. I listened to it pretty regularly from that point on.

So what makes 13 so great? A lot of things. It’s a very complex album that rewards repeat listens. My favorite element of a lot of Blur’s songs and especially the songs on 13 is Graham Coxon’s guitar playing. It’s hard to describe what is so great about it, but a lot of it is because it is so subtle. In 13 a lot of the guitar is buried in fuzz or filtered heavily. There aren’t really “solos” to speak of, but intricate melodies behind Damon Albarn’s vocal melody. Another part of what makes it great is that it is pretentious. Over the top pretentious. After about half the songs there are small instrumental sound collages or experimental bits of music that go on for a minute or two. In B.L.U.R.E.M.I. Albarn’s voice is so synthesized that is borderline annoying. It seems just thrown together without much thought to song order or flow. Three of the songs are over seven minutes long. Another three are over five minutes long. It seems like a deliberate statement that Britpop is dead and Blur doesn’t care. Sorry, Oasis. You lose. But it does flow, and it works. There are many different genres and ideas represented. It also manages to be rich and layered without the production of the album detracting from the final sum. You could say it is overproduced, but not in a bad way. It was, and still is, ahead of its time.

One
of the most surprising parts of 13 is the way the singles sound with the rest of the album. “Tender” is a folky song with a gospel choir singing backup. Now that I hear it again Damon Albarn sort of sounds like David Bowie on this song. “Battle”, too. The Thin White Duke is another genius artist that gets no love from my wife or friends. But I digress. “Coffee & TV” is a fun and upbeat pop song. But you knew that because you listened to the song from the link above, right? This song is definitely one of Blur’s best. The guitar line during the chorus ranks up there with my favorite guitar bits of all time. Alex James’ bass in that song is the reason I wanted to get a bass guitar. Great song. The last single is the hidden gem at the end of the album, “No Distance Left to Run”. Those are the only three songs that could even be singles. Now listen to another song from 13. It is called 1992. Whoa. Kinda depressing. Sample lyric: “What do you owe me? The price of your piece of mind.” Sort of in the same vein as “No Distance Left to Run”. Now is the time I should mention that Damon Albarn (the primary songwriter) broke up with his long time girlfriend before writing most of the songs for 13. As a result of this, most of the album is very dark. “Battle” is seven and a half minutes of heavy bass and electronic buzzing . Very atmospheric. That’s another thing, it gets darker and more depressing (better, too) as the album goes on. The tenth song is “Caramel” and although I usually pronounce that word car-mel, this song can not be said any other way then care-a-mel. Listen and you’ll agree.

I don’t know that there is a whole lot more I can say about 13 without boring everyone to tears. It is one of my favorites and I think I will enjoy it for a long time. If any of you came to Jessie’s blog today looking for quilting info, sorry if you were disappointed. If you have read all of it to the end, thanks. Hopefully you thought it interesting.