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Blur | 
| Artist: Blur
Label: Food
Category: Music
List Price: £10.99
Buy Used: £0.82
as of 25/11/2009 23:30 GMT details
You Save: £10.17 (93%)
New (29) Used (56) Collectible (1) from £0.82
Seller: zoverstocks
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 3929
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 724385556227
EAN: 0724385556227
ASIN: B000006T1P
Release Date: January 17, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Beetlebum | | • | Song 2 | | • | Country Sad Ballad Man | | • | MOR | | • | On Your Own | | • | Theme From Retro | | • | You're So Great | | • | Death Of A Party | | • | Chinese Bombs | | • | I'm Just A Killer For Your Love | | • | Look Inside America | | • | Strange News From Another Star | | • | Movin' On | | • | Essex Dogs |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Having found himself at a creative cul-de-sac with 1995's IThe Great Escape/I, Damon Albarn bought a flat in Iceland and set about re-evaluating his role in Blur. What emerged was a more soulful, democratised sound. Gone were the Kinks-influenced vignettes about life in suburban England, to be replaced by a more cathartic approach. Grunge influences, for so long off-limits, were now detectable in the loose, angularity of tracks like "Country Sad Ballad Man" and "Song 2". Sensing that this might just be his moment, Blur's resident hard-core fan Graham Coxon is the driving momentum behind much of the band's fifth album. And yet, accidentally or not, some sense of Englishness lingers--be it the Specials' "Ghost Town" on "Theme from Retro", early David Bowie on the desolate "Strange News from Another Star" or the Beatles on "Beetlebum". Ambitious it might have been, but the sheer quality of these songs made IBlur/I their biggest seller to date. This truly is the great escape. --IPeter Paphides/I
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
 A step ahead of 'brit-pop', this is a new sound for Blur. April 4, 2000
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
It is likely that the majority of Blur fans who purchased this album as soon as it was released were, like me, expecting more of the fun, catchy tunes that featured on Parklife and The Great Escape. However, what we got was something entirely different. This album on first listen seems to feature a much darker sound, which was hinted at in the later tracks of The Great Escape. But to simply label this sound 'dark' is not to do it credit. The more you listen to the album, the less dense and 'pretentious' (as it has been labelled) it will seem. Aside from Song 2, the majority of this album has an almost acoustic feel, and yet this seems to actually increase the impact of the songs: For, without a doubt, the standard of songwriting on this album is as high if not higher than it has ever been. Songs such as 'Country Sad Ballad Man' and the heart-renderingly beautiful 'On Your Own' highlight Damon Albarn's ability to write tracks that really stand up over time. This is the point of this album. On first listen it doesn't immediately impress. However, after a few listens, the quality becomes clearer and clearer. For me, this is Blur's finest album to date, because it manages to avoid all the 'brit-pop' and rock clichés which they used to good effect in their previous albums. If 'Song 2' is all you have heard of this album, you may be surprised when you hear the album for the first time, but it is well worth the effort of a few more listens instead of discarding it immediately. All in all, I would thoroughly recommend this album to any music lover, and although some might disagree with a rating of 5 stars, no album is perfect, and to give it 4 stars doesn't do this beaufiful record justice. Listen...and enjoy.
One Of The Finest May 3, 2003
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
This album is stunning.pEnd of.pWhere most would assume that after their admittedly somewhat commercial 'The Great Escape' Blur would return with yet more indiepop, but they infact came back with a harder, almost haunting sound that one associates with their later releases. pThe fact is that although songs such as 'Parklife' and 'There's No Other Way' may be accesible to the masses, songs such as 'Beetlebum' and 'I'm Just A Killer...' must be regarded as far more representative of Blur's talent.br brOf course, many people look no further than 'Song 2' when listening to this work, even the no1 hit 'Beetlebum' is rarely mentioned these days. In fact all the tracks here are great; the other two singles, 'MOR' and 'On Your Own' are fantastically worked and deserve higher praise, but the real gems are harder to find in the form of 'Strange News From Another Star', 'Death Of A Party' and 'Country Sad Ballad Man'. These tracks all exist on a lower ebb complimentary to the feeling of the times and shows blur in an all new light, adding depth and diversity to their already critically acclaimed back catalogue.pOverall this album is, for me, not only Blur's most accomplshed work but also a greater addition to a record collection than 'What's The Story' by Oasis (the other great album of the time).
Wahoo! November 18, 2004
Chris Rigby
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
Blur's 1997 self-titled classic is a forgotten masterpiece. Cruelly overshadowed by the infinetly more commercial "Parklife", "Blur" is consistently more entertaining, beautiful and engaging.brAnd yes, "Song 2" is on this album. But there is so much more to "Blur" than just this one, admittadly great, track. "Beetlebum" is epic, "Chinese Bombs" explosive and "Your're So Great" is tearjerking. brIn fact nearly every track on this album is stunning. Yes, "M.O.R" leans slightly towards bland boredom, but an excellent mashed fade-out saves it, while "Movin' On" will grow on you.brThere is of course the token pointless Blur track, on this album its the spooky "Theme From Retro."brApart from that though "Blur" is a lo-fi masterclass, drawing on the best features of Pavement et al. Wake up everyone: its better than "Parklife".
EXCEPTIONAL February 12, 2000
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I would say this this is Blur's Revolver, but to imply that 'Blur' is anything but a unique offering from a great band and that it cannot stand on it's own merits would be to do it a great disservice. Adroitly slipping the bonds of their Brit-pop past, here is an album of extraordinary creativity. Few bands have the genius to completely reinvent themselves in the way Blur do here, with songs of such beauty ('Essex Dogs', 'Beetlebum'), power ('Chinese Bombs', 'Song 2'), and spirit ('On Your Own', 'Movin' On') that you can't help but be completely affected by what's on offer, and get the feeling this was a special time creatively for Blur as a band. Each song is so much an onion, layer upon layer, that there's enough to keep you enthralled for years, and even then you'll never forget these wonderful tracks. The very best Blur.
The most criminally underrated album of the 1990's March 20, 2001
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
Ahhh 1997... the year of U2s shocking Discotheque and the spice girls. The year music finally went over-commercial. So how ironic, that perhaps the most popular band in the previous two years decided to go totally non-commercial. And 'Blur' is the result. An exceptional album from an exceptional band. The opener beetlebum still after four years of play, sends shivers down my spine. I doubt that you haven't heard the grungy brilliance that is song 2. Country Sad Ballad Man relives the life of 60's star PJ Proby, a very, very laid back tune, it could perhaps be the older sibling of trailerpark on following album 13. M.O.R is another blinding track, although the remix that was released as a single was a hundred times better. On Your Own, is one of the best songs on the album and maybe it should have been a bigger success as a single than it was. Theme from retro is the song that sums up the difference between Blur and previous albums Leisure, Modern life is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape. This song belongs on 13. So experimental its unreal, hard to listen to at first. Next comes Graham's first effort on vocals (except from a dire B-side) on You're So Great, again this is the natural predecessor to what became Coffee + TV on 13. All in all this is a supurb album.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 29
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