| Blur |  | Artist: Blur
Category: Music
List Price: CDN$ 10.99
Buy New: CDN$ 6.72
as of 7/31/2010 19:13 CDT details
You Save: CDN$ 4.27 (39%)
New (12) Used (7) from CDN$ 3.84
Seller: moviemars-canada
Rating:  119 reviews
Sales Rank: 7,792
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
UPC: 724384287627
EAN: 0724384287627
ASIN: B000000WDA
Release Date: February 18, 1997
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | BEETLEBUM | | • | SONG 2 | | • | COUNTRY SAD BALLAD MAN | | • | M.O.R. | | • | ON YOUR OWN | | • | THEME FROM RETRO | | • | YOU'RE SO GREAT | | • | DEATH OF A PARTY | | • | CHINESE BOMBS | | • | I'M JUST A KILLER FOR YOUR LOVE | | • | LOOK INSIDE AMERICA | | • | STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR | | • | MOVIN' ON | | • | ESSEX DOGS |
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.co.uk
Having found himself at a creative cul-de-sac with 1995's The Great Escape, Damon Albarn bought a flat in Iceland and set about re-evaluating his role in Blur. What emerged was a more soulful, democratised sound. Gone were the Kinks-influenced vignettes about life in suburban England, to be replaced by a more cathartic approach. Grunge influences, for so long off-limits, were now detectable in the loose, angularity of tracks like "Country Sad Ballad Man" and "Song 2". Sensing that this might just be his moment, Blur's resident hard-core fan Graham Coxon is the driving momentum behind much of the band's fifth album. And yet, accidentally or not, some sense of Englishness lingers--be it the Specials' "Ghost Town" on "Theme From Retro" early David Bowie on the desolate "Strange News From Another Star" or the Beatles on "Beetlebum". Ambitious it might have been, but the sheer quality of these songs made Blur their biggest seller to date. This truly was the great escape. --Peter Paphides
Amazon.com essential recording
By early 1997, British pop had become less a scene than a competition, so with this album, Blur's frontman Damon Albarn basically announced that he was withdrawing from the race, in favor of exploring other kinds of rock he'd been getting into. Most of Blur finds the band discovering the clipped structures and oblique words of American indie rock (the best hook on the album goes "woo-hoo!"), and that's a liberating strategy. Without having to exemplify England's Dreaming, Albarn can be tuneful and playful, and even when he cribs directly from his favorite records ("M.O.R." is pure Bowie, and "You're So Great" tries for Guided by Voices-style non-production), his gift for texture puts his stamp on these songs. --Douglas Wolk
Un Essentiel amazon.fr
Blur est un disque courageux. Celui d'un groupe au sommet de son succès qui ose prendre quelques distances avec la britpop dont il fut un des fleurons, quitte à se prendre une gamelle commerciale. Flashback : à l'origine, Blur, emmené par son leader Damon Albarn, est plutôt un groupe versé dans la pop typiquement british des Kinks, de XTC ou du Bowie de Ziggy Stardust comme en témoignent Modern Life Is Rubbish ou Parklife. On est alors au milieu des années 90. En dehors du tubesque "Beetlebum", le virage à 360° pris par le groupe à la fin des 90's avec Blur en déroute plus d'un. Plutôt que de rivaliser avec Oasis, Albarn et les siens proposent des chansons ouvertes aux dissonances du rock arty et du post rock. À tel point qu'un de leurs titres sera remixé par Thurston Moore de Sonic Youth ! Gonflé, Blur est un pari risqué sur le long terme : un disque qui assurément restera comme une des pierres de touche du groupe. --Philippe Robert
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 119
 Unfocused March 3, 2010
Sampson Simpson (Canada)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Listening to Blur (the album) is like listening to music from outside the car: muffled, unfocused, messy, and confusing. Some look at the change in sound and claim brilliance. I am not one of those people. Yes, bands do need to change their sound to evolve and stay relevant. Blur, however lacks coherant songs and melodies. Only a few tracks on album #5 retain song structure and hooks: "Beetlebum" and of course the much overplayed "Song 2". The rest is a haze, a druggy mish-mash of sounds that goes nowhere.
I personally believe that Blur were the wrong band to attempt this lo-fi sound, they were much better as a pop band. There are other bands who do this better. To me, the proof in the pudding is how this stiffed in my record store days. We had "listening stations" so people could test the album before buying. Inevitably, rarely did they buy. When "Song 2" was released on a Big Shiny Tunes disc, people stopped buying this album altogether.
In the end, the sales of this album should be credited to the monstrous smash hit that was "Song 2". Without that song, the album would have completely stiffed. Personally, I liked Blur as a casual fan, but this album left me confused and disappointed. No matter how many times it was played (and believe me, we gave it a more than fair shake), it just refused to catch on with me or any of my co-workers. We did try.
Want something truly experimental and cool? Try some Kid A. Or some Trout Mask Replica. You gonna listen to A Simple Plan your whole life? But, I think this album faired well in the contemporary press reviews simply because it was the cool thing to do. I don't think any of those critics listen to the album today. I know I sure don't.
1 star, bordering on a 2.
 Nice variety. September 9, 2006
Death and Roll (Oh! Canada?)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you think of good music as a balance of dynamics, innovation, musicianship, tempo and volume then this will be ok for you. If you only like Beatle's clones you'll think this is pretty poor. Stay safe - don't buy it. Try something a bit different ... you never know you might even begin making your own choices and listening to good music.
Hurrendous! November 7, 2005
Weird Al,Weird Al
This just might be the worst album I've ever heard! Some of the songs on the album are not bad, such as Beetlebum, Song 2, etc. However, most of the album is incredibly depressing, annoying, and awkward. Damon Albarn's voice can sound pretty nauseating as well! I think it caused me psychological damage when I listened to it a few years ago. This was something different for Blur. They decided to experiment and try something new. Now, I usually have no problem with bands doing that. I've been impressed with what Radiohead has come up with in the past few years. However, this self-titled 1997 Blur album for the most part sounds like one big, horrible hallucination! Very poor: 1 star!
 Creative rebirth and possibly.... June 14, 2004
Sakos (United States)
....their best overall album. After the revisionist fall-out following The Great Escape, Damon Albarn redirected Blur's focus towards difficult, original music that encompassed more than just English influences and brought in Americana, much to the delight of guitarist Graham Coxon. The result is 1997's Blur, an album of spacey, original, and complex music with a lo-fi edge, beating out Radiohead's OK Computer by 7 months. Standout tracks include Beetlebum, Song 2, Country Sad Ballad Man, Death of a Party, and Strange News From Another Star.
Overrated June 2, 2004
aminor7 (Shanghai)
Now I really don't think Blur is all that bad of a band, but they are definately overrated. If most of their music was along the lines of "Essex Dogs" and "Trailer Park" I would say they were a great band. Better than 90% of the garbage out there today, but not something I'd listen to all the time.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 119
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