In a current interview, Damon Albarn mirrored on the truth that Oasis are enjoying a mammoth seven nights at Wembley Stadium when Blur “solely” managed two in 2023 and held his arms up. “It was apparent, wasn’t it?” he informed The Solar. “I believe we are able to formally say that Oasis received the battle, the warfare, the marketing campaign, every little thing.”
It is apt timing to attract a line beneath the so-called Battle Of Britpop. It’s 30 years subsequent month since Albarn’s Blur took on Oasis in a much-publicised scrap for Quantity One, the 2 teams releasing singles in the identical week in a head-to-head that turned the speaking level of the nation, featured as the principle story on the Six O’Clock Information, a daft defining second of Britpop. It had jumped the shark.
Blur received that skirmish, after all – their tune Nation Home pipping Roll With It to the highest spot. However Oasis wouldn’t be within the runner-up spot for lengthy. Just a few months later, they launched their second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and have become one of many world’s largest bands. As for Blur? Properly, they got here out of the entire expertise a unique band. When Albarn stated within the interview that, “I killed Damon the pop star a few years in the past… I’m simply not that thinking about being the centre of consideration,” he may very properly hint that line of considering again to then.
Nation Home is a foolish tune, a type of bouncy citadel model of Blur and one they might by no means return to. As a substitute, Blur and Albarn turned extra ingenious and experimental. In each his work with the band that made him well-known and his quite a few different initiatives – Gorillaz, Africa Specific, The Good, The Unhealthy & The Queen, his solo work – Albarn has at all times acted like a person possessed with the thought of pushing issues ahead, as if that second within the highlight scarred him with a imaginative and prescient of eternally being stereotyped. He has turn out to be an artist you possibly can by no means pin down. Sure, Oasis are the larger band, their return has been a triumph and rightly so. However Albarn took another path and in doing so has established himself as one of the daring and sensible songwriters of his technology. Right here’s ten of his finest since that fateful sparring match with Oasis again in 1995:
Blur – Beetlebum (1997)
Properly, we would as properly begin on the (new) starting. Beetlebum was Blur’s first single from their self-titled fifth album, a report that drew a line beneath their trio of albums exploring the British situation with a Kinks-y swagger. With its indifferent vocal, jagged riff and a melody that went from underlying menace to euphoric launch, Beetlebum was the sound of Blur mark 2. And it gave the impression of The Beatles which, after all of the Oasis baiting, was fairly humorous.
Blur – Trimm Trabb (1999)
OK, I’m already struggling right here as a result of I may simply simply replenish this listing with post-Nation Home Blur songs. However I received’t do this as a result of Albarn has made a number of glorious music in different initiatives over time. I’ll go away Blur to the aspect (for now) with Trimm Trabb, a superb lower from Blur’s 13 that melded psychedelic-rock, indelible melodies, playful harmonies, barbed blasts of guitar and a thrillingly rollicking outro.
Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood (2001)
No-one anticipated Damon to have an enormous hit with a digital band as a result of no-one anticipated Damon to kind a digital band. That’s as a result of no-one knew what a digital band was. However that’s what occurred when he fashioned Gorillaz with Tank Woman co-creator Jamie Hewlett. Albarn dealt with the music aspect of issues with Hewlett overseeing paintings and animations. Mixing hip-hop, art-pop, electronica, Gorillaz can now be considered correct trailblazers for an genre-fluid time. This was the infectious powwow that they launched themselves with.
The Good, The Unhealthy & The Queen – Herculean (2007)
After the disbanding of Blur in 2003, Albarn actually pressed forward together with his extra-curricular actions, to the purpose that it turned laborious to determine which of them the extras have been. Perhaps they have been simply all a part of the stressed Albarn curriculum. The Good, The Unhealthy & The Queen introduced collectively Albarn, Conflict bassist Paul Simonon, The Verve’s Simon Tong and Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen. This was the very best second from their self-titled 2007 debut, all space-y grooves and dreamy soundscapes. There’s a unbelievable tune in there someplace too, however actually that is all concerning the kaleidoscopic vibes.
Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill (2010)
Gorillaz’ third album Plastic Seaside was a sprawling epic that includes visitor turns from Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Bobby Womack (see under), Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, De La Soul and extra, however it’s finest tune was one among its extra low-key affairs. There’s each rather a lot occurring in On Melancholy Hill’s 4 minutes and never a lot in any respect, a breezy synth-pop quantity that sounds more and more reflective over repeated listens, a tune that appears to saunter alongside with no care on the earth but in addition has a hook robust sufficient to soundtrack Objective Of The Month on the centre of it. It’s a complete delight.
Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man In The Universe (2012)
Albarn had enlisted Womack to crane-lift the refrain of Gorillaz’s pulsing Stylo skyward in 2010 and, two years later, went all-in with the soul icon by producing his 27th studio album The Bravest Man In The Universe alongside XL supremo Richard Russell. It positioned the US singer’s unimaginable, raspy croon in a minimalist, digital setting, the music ethereal and ambient, giving his voice all of the room it required. It ended up being Womack’s last album – he died in 2014. However what a send-off.
Damon Albarn – You & Me (2014)
The team-up with Womack and Russell instantly led into Albarn’s debut solo album. Titled On a regular basis Robots, it was constructed from a fair sparser sonic palette – bar the odd exception, these have been songs constructed from plaintive piano, stripped-down beats and Albarn’s hushed, wistful vocal. You & Me is its most mesmerising second, a creeping, melancholic ballad that shapeshifts into one thing uplifting and longing for its hypnotic last third.
Damon Albarn – The Nearer The Fountain The Extra Pure The Stream Flows (2021)
Humorous how Albarn has saved his most forlorn work for launch beneath his personal identify. Consistent with its creation in his Icelandic residence, this title monitor from his second solo album sounds extra like one thing you’d discover on a Sigur Rós album than one thing from the creator of Parklife. A slow-moving, ambient hymnal, 4 years later it feels like the right snapshot of a Covid world the place it felt like every little thing had stopped.
Africa Specific – Soledad (2025)
And so to his most up-to-date tour. Albarn has been a ringleading drive in Africa Specific, a collective bringing collectively artists from the world over with its roots in shining a light-weight on African musicians, since its formation in 2005. Over 20 years, it has paired seemingly irreconcilable artists to wondrous impact, proving that the phrase irreconcilable shouldn’t exist in music. There was numerous high-profile, improvisation-centric reside reveals and 7 data, the latest of which got here out this month and introduces Latin flavours and Mexican music into the combination. That is its irresistible calling card.
