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The song “Autograph” is amazing.
after that point i feel that the media attention that followed that single spun their heads a bit.
before then they had bounced around and been another shoegaze band, lots of generic shambly jangly fuzz, but some interesting and original bits and pieces.
but once they got their faces in smash hits etc that sniff of potential fame, fortune and mass teen adulation seemed to steer them into focusing future output on chart domination, rather than ideas and music for ideas and music's sake.
ultimately they became not much more than shameless 'pastiche-eurs'. eg, here's a wire soudalike. here's a kinks soundalike. here's a francoise hardy soudalike. what simon reynolds calls 'record collection' bands. bands who are no more than the bare-faced sum of their influences. no abiding gestalt (sorry for the fancy word) to define them as a force beyond imitation.
you can say that's very witty and post-modern, but it's the kipling quote again; 'it's clever, but is it art?'. post-punchline what is left? a creative artistic vacuum left in the space in which an original statement could have been. a wasted opportunity.
post-britpop they calmed down, got a grip and defined themselves, but by then group dynamics had descended into the 'let it be' phase and their days as a collective were numbered.
my view anyway. i was pretty young (school/college) so that is how i remember it. they seemed very smash hits to me, whereas groups like slowdive and stereolab were doing something original.
graham was always the one i warmed to most when reading interviews and seeing him on the chart show. but i felt he was trapped. if he was in slowdive or stereolab or something similar he would have been happier and achieved more. maybe.
but he seems shy like me, so i can get how a big personality face like damon could take charge and him not want to be a voice of dissent when everyone else wanted totp glory.
as for bernard, suede had success but they weren't the same. lush swoony guitar soaked ballads like 'breakdown' and 'sleeping pills' disappeared and poppier more immidiate things like 'trash' and 'she's in fashion' replaced it. for me suede was bernard and brett thinking and writing as one.
i would agree he didn't move from that to something equally successful, but that would have been quite suprising. chemistry such as he found with brett is usually a one-off. the mcalmont album was good tho. and 'yes' was a mighty pop statement (as the jools clip above tesitfies).
Blur wrote some fantastic songs, many of which were Coxon-heavy, and most of them are great.
As for Suede. I like Butler's playing, but honestly I think Coming Up is their best album by a country mile.
Blur were definitely the most interesting and creative band in the otherwise awful britpop genre imo.
Id commend their off forgotten 2nd album Modern Life Is Rubbish to anyone, it's basically solid gold all the way through and it has some classic Coxon playing on it.
https://www.humonegro.com/wp-content/BLUR-ARE-SHITE.jpg
There is some right guardian style bullshit regurgitation going on in this thread
I would have said it sounds like an AC30 but I have no idea what he used
I think both Blur and Coxon were worse off without each other. It was very much a partnership that lead to a "more than sum of parts" arrangement with Coxon & Albarn sparking off each other.
I'd be happier with the straight to the point method.
I'd prefer not to be a critical of music generally, these guys, particularly in this case blur and to some extent suede, have achieved so much more than anyone on this thread. I wouldn't knock them for their achievements or sit about spouting hypothesis of greater achievement based on a solitary opinion.
They've made a living from doing what I dream to do.
Given that if you dive hard enough you will find an influence from x,y or z on any track ever written it all seems pointless.
I don't dish out points for your eclectic taste and ability to make comparisons. I'd more impressed if you could show something that you have done that would add weight to your opinion.
It's easy to be critical from your arm chair and frankly it can be awfully boring.
There are centuries worth of music in circulation you will always find similarities.
Yes, some may sneer at the "borrowing" from the Kinks, Small Faces etc but until that point (with the exception of Suede's more art-school/Bowie esque stylings), most music was looking to the US for influence. People were still buying Big Muffs, dodgy cardigans and trying to be the next Cobain - thankfully, IMHO, the overt British-ness of MLIR and some of the other music that exploded (and it did explode... I was playing original music around the clubs/pubs of London at that time) blew that introverted bollocks squarely out of the water. Gone were the woe-is-me angst and in was the "what the fuck is this all about... 'ave it!" mentality. We celebrated being who we were - not what we were told to aspire to.
I also get pissed off by the "Smash Hits" bollocks about Blur. By this point, Blur were doing the Starshaped Tour (which I followed around the country) and were nothing like their previous "baggy" image that had been foisted on them by their record company. It was that image that put them on the cover of Smash Hits - and they rebelled MASSIVELY against it pretty much as soon as they'd stopped promoting that first album... which was weak. Some great Graham moments but stylistically it was a mess - Graham was trying to be Neil Young (his words), Damon was singing with forced Americanisms and Dave and Alex were constrained by trying to be "dancy". As soon as the DMs, shorter hair, blue jeans (hence the song Blue Jeans later) etc came in - along with the partying - Smash Hits dropped them like a stone. However, by this point the "serious" wankers on the Maker and NME had them pigeon-holed as wannabe pop stars. Actually, they were doing something different - its just that those wankers were too busy looking for sunlight in their own arseholes (as normal) to see it.
I agree that the world isn't as great a place since they've stopped working together - however, I'd also say it had run its course and it was the right decision. Graham's solo stuff is BRILLIANT (and incredibly varied) plus has got so much better since he got sober and cleaned up his act, Damon's stuff with Gorillaz was... not my bag but a clever concept, sadly some of the other stuff was weak IMHO (worthy, but weak).
I remember the scene *well* at the time - and some of the bands I supported or even supported us went on to great things. Some were good and some were not. The cream did rise to the top, but as Jarvis says... "shit floats". Blur were amazing back then - I probably saw them live more than any other of the Britpop guys and live it was always 110% commitment. And having been kicked in the head by Damon as he crowd surfed over us as Graham sang "please don't kill our singer" to the tune of There's No Other Way, they are special memories.
I'm going to go ahead and stick up for all three of the "Britpop" era Blur albums (MLIR, Parklife and Great Escape).
TGE is certainly weaker than the other two but it has some real stand out tracks, plus it actually has twists and turns in a way most albums don't, who expected a song about sadly seperated Japanese lovers at the end? Also "The Universal" is on it. I should have led with that.
TGE was also the first Blur album I ever bought, from Spinadisc in Northampton
I knew we could do better than a load of "bullshit", "bollocks", and "shite".
The first two Suede albums move me.