Britpop stalwarts and perpetual middle-class underdogs Blur played a new song at a War Child benefit show in London over the weekend. It’s a slower song that owes more than a little debt to Elvis Costello’s “Almost Blue” and the first half of The Beatles’ “Carry That Weight,” with a piano refrain that sounds at the same time familiar yet wandering. It’s no “Song Two” but then again that song is almost sixteen years old now, reminding listeners that the band has been around for more than 20 years.
In a very weird (to the point of it not sounding like him at all and more like a reporter making up a story) interview with British tabloid The Sun, bass player Alex James talks about getting the band back together.
Pulling the band back together is like reassembling the A-Team for one last job. I’m a cheesemaker now. I did meet the chef James Martin at the Nantwich International Cheese Show this year but I have to say it wasn’t quite the same as sitting between Prince and Helena Christensen at the aftershow party in 1995. As much as we loved Blur, if you do anything day in, day out for 15 years, it becomes a job. We all needed to go our separate ways and do other things with our lives. Now when we play together, it’s for the joy of it, like in our early days. I’m so proud of what my bandmates have achieved.
Here’s the song below. What do you think? Are you looking forward to the new Blur album?
February 20, 2012 at 4:56 pm, Jacob Rumsey said:
Sounds good, excited to hear the new album!