If remembering much about Blur proves to be too much of a blur, we can jog your memory. During the 90’s, this London foursome shared a rivalry with Oasis that defined the Britpop era, a sound that looked back to the pop acts of the 60’s. If Oasis were the Beatles in this comparison – in fact, they were more like the Rolling Stones – then Blur were like the Kinks. Somewhat shadowed by their Northern counterparts, their music was dry, sardonic, fun, and thoroughly fixated upon the anxieties of modern living and what it means to be English.
Across albums like Modern Life is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994), Blur (1997), they refined their neo-baroque alt-rock sound, culminating in their best work 13 (1999), which featured “song 2”, a number that would be recognisable to most. So to learn that all these years later Blur was releasing yet another album, especially after frontman Damon Albarn found another outlet with Gorillaz, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was that compelled them to band together again and record The Ballad of Darren. After listening to the album, it doesn’t seem to be a tasteless cash grab, but perhaps more poignantly, a way for these four gentlemen to address their past together and navigate the highs and lows of being middle-aged.
The record certainly opens on a high note with ‘The Ballad’, a tender and emotive song that sets the tone wonderfully in conjunction with the brilliant cover art from Scottish photographer Martin Parr. From the opening strums of the acoustic guitar, the song plays like a familiar hug from the band and builds itself up beautifully – the orchestration near the end harkens back to gems like ‘The Universal’. Production wise this album really shines with its high fidelity and seems to borrow a lot from Bowie’s Blackstar in terms of mood and aesthetic. Albarn’s voice has seasoned wonderfully, now possessing a deeper sort of drawl, and is full of warmth, longing, and heartbreak. While his mood here is suitably more depressed, tracks like ‘The Narcissist’ and ‘Barbaric’, are more on the energetic side and while the former is a great song, the latter not so much.
This lack of consistency is thus perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this release. There are some truly great numbers here that showcase Blur at their best, but equally plenty of fluff that seems to simply go through the motions. While The Ballad of Darren is a heartfelt journey into middle-age malaise, it seems to suffer from being to general an exploration of this feeling, rather than being a genuine, almost spiritual, probing of it. Nevertheless, fans of the band or those seeking a poignant, nostalgic listening experience will find a lot to love here.
