By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

TRACKLIST: The Ballad; St Charles Square; Barbaric; Russian Strings; The Everglades (For Leonard); The Narcissist; Goodbye Albert; Far Away Island; Avalon; The Heights

Blur played 2 rapturously received Wembley Stadium shows this month (where they are pictured above) but we haven’t seen them live since their Parklife heyday at the end of the last century.

• Read on for reasons including how we spotted Damon Albarn as we were writing this review in London City Airport

If Britpop was all about the unexpected triumph of the outsider or the underdog, then Blur were very much the band that barked first but Sheffield’s Pulp led by Jarvis Cocker left the lengthiest lasting impression from the period with us.

Our last Blur gig was, we think, 17 June 1995 at east London’s Mile End Stadium and our memories of that – a week before we saw Pulp headline the Saturday night at Glastonbury – were that our enthusiasm for Damon Albarn and co, certainly live, was sunsetting as their Country House foundations were very much laid.

Listening to this 9th album, and 1st since 2015’s The Magic Whip, we’re reminded of the initial spark we saw in them the 1st time we caught them at Aldershot’s West End Centre thanks to Jo Bartlett as debut baggy single She’s So High was charting in October 1990.

Jo writes of that gig in her terrific Indie Through The Looking Glass blog: ‘When Blur took to the stage, everyone surged down to the front and it all got quite chaotic. Damon started to climb on top of the PA speakers and Pat, who worked at the West End Centre was yelling ‘if he doesn’t get down, I’m, pulling the plug’. I’m glad things calmed down and the gig continued! Pat and I enjoy laughing at this now.’

The track on The Ballad Of Darren that will most transport you back to Blur’s early years is the uptempo guitar anthem St Charles Square which is as good as their Parklife heyday, boasts anthemic heavy guitar and the brilliant opening line: ‘I fucked up …’ Do we also hear Damon mutter ‘Tesco disco’ at 1 point? Fantastic either way.

We struggled with the 1st single from this collection The Narcissist because it is gentler, more mature and reflective and, although we love the catchy backing vocals, it’s more introspection than we were perhaps expecting from the band.

We’re not quite sure how many times we’ve seen them live but our favourite gig of theirs was probably at London’s Astoria in 1993 when the spark of 2nd album Modern Life Is Rubbish really started to catch fire and our favourite ever Blur song – Parklife’s Girls And Boys – suddenly seemed within their grasp.

Almost titular The Ballad begins this 1st album of new material for 8 years and the beautiful chord progressions and song ornamentation remind of past glories when the band were at their most interesting with the lyrics exposing: ‘I just looked into my life and all I saw was that you’re not coming back.’

This is their 9th album in 32 years and we love how all 10 tracks are credited to the 4-strong band and Barbaric is nothing like its title and boasts Blur’s most beautiful guitar hook in years with the chord striking: ‘I have lost the feeling that I thought I’d never lose’ and ‘All of us carry trauma.’

We’re writing this review on the day the album is released as we listen to it in the lounge at London City Airport and, appropriately yet unbelievably, Damon Albarn joins us in sunglasses and showbiz tracksuit as he waits for a plane to Florence where the band plays this weekend.

Russian Strings reminds us of the stately grace of Parklife single To The End with its melancholy and poise.

We’re seeing Pulp at Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith next week on their This Is What We Do For An Encore tour. They have a treasure trove of amazing songs to deploy but must envy Blur’s ability to continue releasing albums as here where the quality remains so high.

Perhaps we should see Blur again soon because the beautiful guitar picking of The Everglades here and later Bowie references on The Ballad Of Darren seem best appreciated live.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Blur Tickets
• Have you seen a Blur show before and what do you think of this album?
• Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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