13

by

Blur

Edit

well. every cliché about blur being britpop to the bone aside: this album is truly a matserpiece, and one of the most underrated pop records of the nineties.

i dont feel like dwelling on the differences between blur, when blur is bloody english, and the blur that toss its guts right at the listener. this is simply something very different from what the band had ever done before, maybe except for tracks like 'sing' and 'essex dogs', though the intensity and the core of 13's tracklist is something quite astonishing.

its impossible for me to pinpoint certain tracks as better than the next one, as i think this is indeed an ALBUM, aching to be listened to as ONE piece. the atmosphere and despair in there is not to be written about, but listened to.

however, if you want to get the big picture before purchasing, you should probably listen to 'bugman', 'caramel' and 'battle', which would confuse the average blurhead a lot. simply go for the whole experience, and you wont regret a damn thing.

howl!!

I've had this CD a while, and though I am a pretty adventurous listener who doesn't need to be spoon-fed ear candy to enjoy the aural experience, "13" is nevertheless just too esoteric and ultimately difficult for me to really embrace. I think of it as an impressive palette of ideas, but with no real sense of focus or continuity. Each bizarre track just runs into the next, with a really cool sound or melodic idea summarily dumped in favor of something that doesn't work too well. Blur is definitely doing what they want, and that's really great, but it's definitely at the expense of melody -- something Blur used to do so well. I'm not advocating a return to Britpop -- they've already exhausted the possibilities there -- I'm just hoping that, in the future, they can reach a happy medium between experimentation and pop songcraft. My favorite tracks are "Bugman," "Coffee & TV," and "Battle"; "Tender" is too long, and "Swamp Song" is excruciating. I still think Blur is one of the most interesting bands in the world, and I expect that they will always do something innovating and challenging, but hopefully not alienating.