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Blur
I have absolutely no problem understanding why these guys have had such a hard time breaking the American market. First of all, they write lyrics that don’t translate to Americans. Second, they sound as if they couldn’t care less anyway. Now, is that any way to impress the nice Americans?
Blur represent everything that Americans don’t get about English pop. They perform guitar rawk without much to provide any sense of cohesive unity, or even originality. In order to survive the extraordinarily fickle English music market, they have changed their style every two albums or so. This helped them survive on their side of the puddle, but it didn’t do them any good over here. It didn’t help that all of these ‘stylistic’ changes hardly affected the band’s sound at all, with each incarnation leaving them sounding like any other second-rate guitar-based pop band.
I’ve listened to this disk five times in a row, and yet I have absolutely no idea what the hell they are going on about. Some attitude creeps through, but it never seems particularly clever (or particularly literate). Some examples – "This is the next century. The universal is free. You can find it anywhere." "When I feel heavy metal, and I’m on pins and needles, Well, I lie and I’m easy…" A track like "Tender" features a gospel-sized chorus and is pleasant musically but is so lyrically inept that it becomes grating. Here’s its chorus; "Oh my baby, oh my baby, Oh, why. Oh, my," repeated ad infinitum. Who needs this gobbledygook?
Some songs are good, but not particularly noteworthy. "Boys and Girls" is a bit of disco fun. "The Universal" features some interesting orchestration, and "Park Life" is a lively stomper. "This Is a Low" sinks in a bit after repeated listenings, but not enough to warrant the attention I paid it. A trifle like "To the End" combines bits of Burt Bacharach and Serge Gainsbourg, but results only in a mediocre lift of the "Midnight Cowboy" theme.
Elsewhere, the music and lyrics are so English that it’s almost alienating. "Beetlebum," for instance, is ludicrous; "Beetlebum, because you’re young, she’s a gun. Now what you’ve done, Beetlebum……" What the heck is that supposed to mean? Do they get this in England? The extra live disk that comes with this set helps to explain things a bit, especially when you hear the English crowd going crazy and singing along, but Americans will probably continue to scratch their heads. "This Is a Low" is even less clear – "On the Malin head, Blackpool looks blue and red, and the Queen, she’s gone ‘round the bend. Jumped off Lands End." It is no wonder that these guys lost their battle with Oasis for supremacy.
Grade: 
 
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