In a latest 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 palms up. “It was apparent, wasn’t it?” he advised The Solar. “I believe we are able to formally say that Oasis gained the battle, the warfare, the marketing campaign, all the things.”
It is apt timing to attract a line below 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 primary story on the Six O’Clock Information, a daft defining second of Britpop. It had jumped the shark.
Blur gained that skirmish, in fact – 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 inquisitive about being the centre of consideration,” he might very effectively hint that line of pondering again to then.
Nation Home is a foolish tune, a kind of bouncy fortress model of Blur and one they might by no means return to. As an alternative, Blur and Albarn turned extra creative and experimental. In each his work with the band that made him well-known and his quite a few different tasks – Gorillaz, Africa Categorical, The Good, The Dangerous & 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 ceaselessly being stereotyped. He has change into 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 an alternate 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 greatest since that fateful sparring match with Oasis again in 1995:
Blur – Beetlebum (1997)
Properly, we’d as effectively begin on the (new) starting. Beetlebum was Blur’s first single from their self-titled fifth album, a file that drew a line below 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 appeared like 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 might simply simply refill this record with post-Nation Home Blur songs. However I gained’t do this as a result of Albarn has made plenty of wonderful music in different tasks through the years. I’ll depart Blur to the facet (for now) with Trimm Trabb, an excellent 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 shaped Gorillaz with Tank Lady co-creator Jamie Hewlett. Albarn dealt with the music facet of issues with Hewlett overseeing art work 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 Dangerous & The Queen – Herculean (2007)
After the disbanding of Blur in 2003, Albarn actually pressed forward along with his extra-curricular actions, to the purpose that it turned onerous to establish which of them the extras have been. Possibly they have been simply all a part of the stressed Albarn curriculum. The Good, The Dangerous & The Queen introduced collectively Albarn, Conflict bassist Paul Simonon, The Verve’s Simon Tong and Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen. This was the most effective second from their self-titled 2007 debut, all space-y grooves and dreamy soundscapes. There’s a implausible tune in there someplace too, however actually that is all in regards to the kaleidoscopic vibes.
Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill (2010)
Gorillaz’ third album Plastic Seashore was a sprawling epic that includes visitor turns from Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Bobby Womack (see beneath), Lou Reed, Mark E Smith, De La Soul and extra, nevertheless it’s greatest tune was one in every of its extra low-key affairs. There’s each loads 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 additionally has a hook robust sufficient to soundtrack Purpose 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 unbelievable, 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 remaining album – he died in 2014. However what a send-off.
Damon Albarn – You & Me (2014)
The team-up with Womack and Russell immediately led into Albarn’s debut solo album. Titled On a regular basis Robots, it was constructed from a good 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 eager for its hypnotic remaining 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 below his personal identify. In step with its creation in his Icelandic dwelling, 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 appears like the proper snapshot of a Covid world the place it felt like all the things had stopped.
Africa Categorical – Soledad (2025)
And so to his most up-to-date tour. Albarn has been a ringleading power in Africa Categorical, a collective bringing collectively artists from internationally with its roots in shining a lightweight 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 a lot of high-profile, improvisation-centric stay reveals and 7 information, the newest of which got here out this month and introduces Latin flavours and Mexican music into the combo. That is its irresistible calling card.
