Aaron Matthews uses “lifts” not “elevators.”

Leading up to their 1997 self-titled triumph, pundits harped that Blur had won the battle of Britpop but lost the war to Oasis. After all, What’s the Story, Morning Glory was a critical and commercial success, going quadruple platinum in America when Blur could barely crack the Billboard 200. More damning was that 1995’s The Great Escape marked a stylistic dead end–the crisp, poppy Stephen Street production began to sound gaudy and forced, and the songs all bled into each other.

1997 found the pendulum shifting back to Albarn & Co after Oasis’s Be Here Now was received with critical opprobrium and a swift sales drop-off following a record-breaking chart debut. New Britannia was crumbling, they couldn’t sell a record to anyone who called Bobbies “policemen,” and Graham Coxon developed the drinking habits of Andy Capp.  Somehow, this led the lads of Blur to take inspiration from Britpop’s antithesis – American indie rock. While their opposition to American grunge inspired Blur’s peak years, suddenly Beck and Pavement became key influences transmitted through Coxon, the resident indie obsessive.

Blur documents a wildly successful band almost completely abandoning their signature sound to tour America’s dominant indie subgenres circa 1997. Grunge parody “Song 2” is Blur’s best known song outside the U.K, topping grunge by distilling its sound and aesthetic into an poppier package. Industrial music earns representation with the bongo powered thump of “Death Of A Party.” Originally demo-ed in 1992, the song’s spacey, downbeat vibe anticipates singer Damon Albarn’s future Gorillaz work. “Strange News From Another Star” is Space Oddity-era Bowie by way of indie electronica. “Theme From Retro” is dubbed out post-rock ala Tortoise, while “Look Inside America” is an inverted Britpop song–the horn-driven strums sounding like a Parklife castoff, with lyrics about touring America.

Coxon’s spiky and unique guitar playing drives the tunes, from the jerky stop-start riff of “Beetlebum” to the Lennon-esque solo on “Look Inside America.” Seemingly unlearning all of his production tricks, Street helped channel a raw, direct sound. Blur was an exit strategy–a way out of the bombastic arrangements and snide lyrics of their Britpop apex. At the very least, it was an important battle in the war.

Download:
MP3: Blur-”Death of a Party”
MP3: Blur-”Beetlebum”

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