Blur’s “The Magic Whip” Reviewed

The first time I saw Blur live was at the Academy in 1994 and they were magnificent, and, till their break up circa 2003, I saw them every time they played New York and they never let me down. Not even the Thirteen gig at Roseland. But they haven’t played New York since they reformed in 2008 and recorded Blur is a different matter entirely.

There is an alternatively history to Blur and it goes like this: a good band who lack consistency on record. Figure “She’s So High” on Leisure lead to their masterpiece Modern Life Is Rubbish, and then a more or less steady downward beat to guitarist Graham Coxon getting the heave ho in 2002 and 2003’s Think Tank and their last album till this one, the just released The Magic Whip? As for lead singer renaissance man Damon Albarn’s solo career? Don’t get me started.

OK, do get me started. What a boring bastard he is solo. Albarn’s problem, and it infects The Magic Whip as well, is he has big idea s with neither the smarts nor the lyricism to pull em off time after time after time. Everyday Robot was a self-satisfied, obvious dirge: it is modern culture written for people who haven’t bothered paying attention.

Which leads us to The Magic Whip, a mish mash of tracks, recorded in Hong Kong in 2013 during a break in touring, then pieced together by Coxon and long time producer Stephen Street. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t, and Damon, who went back to Hong Kong in 2014 to get inspired lyrically, sort of like watching a travelogue on the Brazilian Rainforest before writing an opera about it, knocked off the lyrics.

This casualness really hurts some of these songs, “There Are Too Many of Us” is awful and obvious,the strings doomy, the mood gloomy, fuck off back to your country houses. I mean, really, overpopulation? “New World Towers” (just guess), “Pyongyang”? The cherry trees is the giveaway on this one.  “My Terracotta Heart”  has a lovely lyric, but the tune misses even if the acoustic guitar is a beauty.

But if a lot of the album misses, some of it hits nicely. “Ong Ong” is a folkie beauty, “Go Out” a drone rocker with a killer hook, “I Broadcast” a first rate rocker with great effects,it looks to be a “Green Shirt” concept and it works for me -“It’s got your blood type and your number” Damon cheerfully warns.”Ghost Song” is another instant depression but it ain’t bad at all. And if 4 out of 12 songs sounds a little meh, take a look at, say, The Great Escape, which has 15 songs of which three are great ones (and one masterpiece that not only won the Britpop wars but stands as the best use of “Balzac” on record). So as far as I am concerned The Magic Whip is a return to form. Good, sometimes not good, never as clever as it thinks it is, but with some good Blur songs to add to the catalog. A lot better than I thought it would be.

Grade: B