: Matt Bishop
: Blur Every Album, Every Song
: Sonicbond Publishing
: 9781789526134
: 1
: CHF 4.40
:
: Musik
: English
: 160
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

Formed as shambolic art-punk four-piece Seymour whilst attending London's Goldsmiths University, the rechristened Blur released their debut album Leisure in 1991, marking them as promising indie upstarts in thrall to the voguish sub-genres of baggy and shoegaze. Following a radical stylistic shift on sophomore LP Modern Life Is Rubbish, Blur became a UK household name in 1994 upon the advent of their era-defining Britpop masterpiece Parklife. A year later, the infamous chart battle with arch-rivals Oasis marred number one single 'Country House'. They changed direction again on fifth album Blur - a grungier affair that yielded the transatlantic smash hit 'Song 2'.
Though guitarist Graham Coxon departed during sessions for seventh album Think Tank, the original foursome reunited in 2009 for a series of triumphant comeback shows, culminating in the unexpected release of 2015's Hong Kong-recorded The Magic Whip. A restlessly inventive group to file alongside other eclectic British artists such as The Beatles, David Bowie and Queen, this book explores every Blur album in detail, including all the singles, B-sides and selected rarities, making this a comprehensive guide to one of the 1990's most successful and iconic rock bands.


Hailing from Rayleigh, Essex, Matt Bishop's career in the music industry has spanned over fifteen years. He was the singer/songwriter of indie rock band Switches, whilst subsequent work has seen his compositions featured in numerous TV shows, movies and adverts worldwide. Currently signed to Sony's Magic Star roster, his latest incarnation as Wonderpop presents an animated musical world of original rock and pop songs written especially for children. Matt lives with his wife Adrienne, daughter Lola and their cat Honey in Crystal Palace, South London. This book is his debut as a writer.
Chapter3

Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)


Personnel:

Damon Albarn: lead vocals, keyboards, piano

Graham Coxon: guitars, backing vocals, percussion, Black and Decker drill

Alex James: bass

Dave Rowntree: drums, percussion

Stephen Street: drumbox, handclaps, Casio S1000, typewriter bell

The Kick Horns: brass

Kate St John: oboe, cor anglais, saxophone

The Duke String Quartet: strings

Miriam Stockley and Mae McKenna: backing vocals on ‘For Tomorrow’

Recorded: October 1991-March 1993 at Matrix and Maison Rouge studios

Producers: Stephen Street, Steve Lovell, John Smith, Blur

Release dates: UK: 10 May 1993, US: 16 November 1993

Label: Food/Parlophone (UK), SBK (US)

Chart Placings: UK: 15, US: did not chart

Following the near-gold-disc success ofLeisure, Food Records sent Blur straight back into Matrix studios in October 1991 to record demos for a planned second album. Optimistically and somewhat naively, the guys had hoped for a Spring 1992 release date for the new LP, drawing up a rough track list which included ‘Oily Water’, ‘Mace’, ‘Badgeman Brown’, ‘Popscene’, ‘Resigned’, ‘Garden Central’, ‘Hanging Over’, ‘Into Another’, ‘Peach’, ‘Bone Bag’, ‘Never Clever’, ‘Coping’, ‘My Ark’ and ‘Pressure on Julian’. As a result of their commercially-satisfied label temporarily relaxing scrutiny, these new tracks were lugubriously introspective and psychedelic in tone, closer representing the sound Blur had wished to purvey on their debut.

Nevertheless, this proposed album never saw the light of day, due to two main factors. Firstly, when Food boss Dave Balfe finally heard the new recordings, he hated most of them, arguing that the band should be aiming to take over the world, not settle for middling indie status. Secondly, and perhaps more significant, was the failure of the April 1992 single ‘Popscene’. Stalling at 32 on the UK chart, it prompted Food to scrap plans for the follow-up single ‘Never Clever’, and instead ordered Blur back to the drawing board.

A difficult and troubling year ensued, with the band sacking manager Mike Collins for financial mishandling (Chris Morrison was subsequently hired, who they had originally rejected), and a miserable April-June US tour led the guys to the edge of their wits, and to blows with each other. They then returned home, only to learn that their domestic popularity had plummeted, with hot new band Suede (led by Elastica singer Justine Frischmann’s ex Brett Anderson) breaking through and lapping up all the UK press plaudits.

Meanwhile, new Blur recordings with XTC’s Andy Partridge at The Church Studios in Crouch End were deemed unsatisfactory by the band, despite it being very much their idea to hire him