The Magic Whip
After a 12-year break between studio albums, Blur remain as intrepid and inventive as they’ve ever been. *The Magic Whip* finds the Britpop icons reuniting with a collection that\' s both wonderfully familiar and endlessly surprising. “Lonesome Street” kicks off with the ecstatic crunch of guitar and then takes on new colors and textures, with psychedelic synth flourishes and kooky harmonies. While the gleefully distorted “I Broadcast” buzzes and roars, the melancholy sway of “New World Towers” and the serpentine soul of “My Terracotta Heart” leave a haunting afterglow.
The Magic Whip is the first Blur album since 2003’s Think Tank, the first with guitarist Graham Coxon onboard since 1999’s 13 (Coxon was booted from the Think Tank sessions a week in and summarily quit), and the first with producer Stephen Street since 1997’s Blur. Like Albarn's recent solo work, it explores the distant traveler’s conflicting sense of wonder and alienation.
That Blur’s first studio album in 12 years saw the light of day is something of a minor miracle: The initial sessions for the full-length—which is also the group’s first record consistently featuring guitarist Graham Coxon since 1999’s 13—occurred in Hong Kong in mid-2013, and did nothing but gather dust until late…
The Magic Whip, on one hand inconceivably but on the other utterly expectedly, is Blur at the top of their game.
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Discussing Blur a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine posited that they were always the most progressive of the big Britpop bands.
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The Magic Whip is a mature, measured document from a band that’s never rested on its laurels.
Blur’s made-in-Hong-Kong album, their first for 12 years, overflows with lovely songs and touchingly reveals a band now happily reconciled
Blur - The Magic Whip review: Definitely better than any Oasis record in decades.
Blur's first album in 12 years is everything fans could have hoped for, says Helen Brown
Their eight album - and first in over a decade - could be one of their best. Album review by Joe Muggs