You've been so busy lately that you haven't found the time

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts.

11/05/03 : Think Tank - Blur


Our fifth visit with them Blur lads and I remember listening to this once, thinking it was OK and then never listening to it again - why would I do that? Maybe a second listen will explain all...

Hmmm - yeah, it's OK and, in a lot of places, quite interesting. However, it's not all that easy to love (at least on first listen) and it's quite kitchen-sinky in places, often feeling somewhat aimless. I did however like "Out Of Time" - it felt like a classic downbeat Blur track. But overall, I understand why I never listened to it again - it struggle to imagine it pulled too many neutrals in.

We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a twelve week run - you can't help but feel they were expecting better than that. The rest of the top five were Justin Timberlake, The White Stripes, Busted and Madonna with the next highest new entry being, quite obviously, a best-of from The Drifters (#11).

Wikipedia has quite a lot for a British album (262 milliPeppers) and it tells us it's their seventh album and is considered to continue the themes shown on their previous album, 13. Recording started without Graham Coxon because he was being treated for alcoholism and depression - he did join them a bit later, but things were strained so he just left them to it. Most of the rest of the entry goes into a great level of detail without really saying anything, which is quite impressive. However, it does tell me something I obviously suspected but don't think I ever knew for certain, which is that the album cover is a Banksy - he doesn't normally do conventional commercial work, but amusingly half-defended it by saying "It was a good record and [the commission was] quite a lot of money".

Critically, the reviews were mostly very positive (it feels like a very critic-friendly album - Q gave it their Album Of The Year award) except for AllMusic who described it as "a lousy album" and, latterly, one Damon Albarn, who said "it's... got some real stinkers on it – there's some bollocks on there". Commercially, it only hit the top spot here (their fifth consecutive #1 album and they're up to seven now), but it got to #3 in Ireland, top twenty across most of Europe and #56 in the US, which was their highest placing there at the time - somewhat surprisingly, The Magic Whip is the one that's done best over there for them, getting to #24.

"Customers also listened to" a load of solo and side projects from the various members of the group, which I suspect cover a wide range of genres (and quality). I can see there's plenty to admire here, not least the ambition but for me it ended up feeling like it was trying too much which resulted in a lack of direction.

04/05/03 - A bit rubbish, really
18/05/03 - Not for me, thank you

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