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 palms up. “It was apparent, wasn’t it?” he advised The Solar. “I feel we will formally say that Oasis received the battle, the battle, the marketing campaign, every little thing.”
It is apt timing to attract a line underneath 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 grew to become 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 received that skirmish, after all – their track Nation Home pipping Roll With It to the highest spot. However Oasis wouldn’t be within the runner-up spot for lengthy. A couple of months later, they launched their second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and have become one of many world’s greatest bands. As for Blur? Properly, they got here out of the entire expertise a special band. When Albarn mentioned within the interview that, “I killed Damon the pop star a few years in the past… I’m simply not that all for being the centre of consideration,” he might very nicely hint that line of pondering again to then.
Nation Home is a foolish track, a form of bouncy fortress model of Blur and one they might by no means return to. As an alternative, Blur and Albarn grew to become extra ingenious 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 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 ceaselessly being stereotyped. He has grow to be an artist you’ll be able to 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 era. Right here’s ten of his greatest since that fateful sparring match with Oasis again in 1995:
Blur – Beetlebum (1997)
Properly, we’d as nicely begin on the (new) starting. Beetlebum was Blur’s first single from their self-titled fifth album, a report that drew a line underneath 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 seemed 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 replenish this record with post-Nation Home Blur songs. However I received’t do this as a result of Albarn has made a lot of glorious music in different tasks through the years. I’ll go away Blur to the aspect (for now) with Trimm Trabb, a superb minimize 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 type 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 art work and animations. Mixing hip-hop, art-pop, electronica, Gorillaz can now be thought to be 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 grew to become onerous to determine which of them the extras had been. Possibly they had 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 most effective second from their self-titled 2007 debut, all space-y grooves and dreamy soundscapes. There’s a implausible track 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, but it surely’s greatest track was one in all 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 track that appears to saunter alongside with no care on this planet 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 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 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 had 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 looking forward to 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 underneath his personal identify. According to its creation in his Icelandic house, this title observe 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 seems like the proper snapshot of a Covid world the place it felt like every little thing had stopped.
Africa Categorical – Soledad (2025)
And so to his most up-to-date tour. Albarn has been a ringleading pressure in Africa Categorical, 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 twenty 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 dwell exhibits 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.
