Veikko's Blur Page

[TimL]

I've never been entirely convinced by interpretations of Into Another lyrics. Could someone suggest their own version, for the chorus at least.
Mine, based on others' versions and on dreams, is

Into another, you and me, am I dead in (or 'am I getting')
Sleepy (or 'sleep in') Harlow's bed?

Yours hopefully,
Tim.

[MrMagpie]

[dwban]

Hello there,

interesting views here on MLIR and some of the b sides. I got into blur after hearing parklife, liked great escape but after that got sidetracked into some other music. I was (and this is the sad truth) probably the only guy on planet earth who never actually heard song 2 until late 2001!!!! I heard MLIR for the first time that year and Oily Water did turn out to be one of my initial favorites. so there's my initial two cents on the topic.

cheers

[milo.m]

I've always thought 13 was the most underrated album from blur.

I should also point out my background, though. I've discovered blur in 2006-2007 and listened carefully to everything they recorded in order to better understand style changes, concluding their "experimental" era suits me best. It's true that i haven't seen them "in context" nor did i grow up in the UK to have a full understanding of what "brit" means which is probably why i tend to underrate country house or girls and boys.

I'd like to mention Trimm Trabb as underrated.
Also - is anyone else a big fan of the hypnotic early songs like Repetition, Resigned, Sing, Birthday?

[jmbrilley]

^sing is a top tune

[Veikko]

[kelldicott]

Re: Crazy Beat.

Well. I'll be honest. To me, it remains the only Blur single that sounds calculated and influenced by "market forces". It's high-energy without sounding at all dangerous. It's slick and produced without sounding interesting. The lyrics are on the vapid side, almost a throwback to "Leisure"-era lyrics. It has no salient bits, no edge, other than the stupid vocoder Donald Duck voice. It sounds like it was made for a video game. It has production that sounded dated within months. Also...and this is my biggest beef with it: it sounds Grahamless. It's one of the very, very obviously Grahamless songs on the album. On other songs, Blur got away with going Grahamless because there were so damn many non-guitar songs and non-rock songs. They went with other instruments much of the time. However, "Crazy Beat" and "We've Got A File On You" both suffered because Graham wasn't there and Damon is not a particularly skilled guitar player. So the guitar bits sound...flat. Uninspired. Basic. Adequate at best. I found myself saying: "Well...at least those guitar parts work." Which is the opposite of Graham.

"Crazy Beat" doesn't sound like Blur. It sounds like Damon trying too hard and doing his goddamnedest to have a "Song 2" level hit WITHOUT GRAHAM. Like it was almost intended to say "Look here, Graham, we can do it without you."

That's my take on it. Like all Blur songs, I like it. I "like" them all! But it's really not one of the good ones. Bit of a bellyflop, honestly.

[Veikko]

I don't think Crazy Beat was aimed to be the original and most complex tune - just a catchy mainstream hit single with average lyrics. It gels with Shynola's "ultra-cool" video and the whole production works as it was planned to be... a bit like a catastrophe movie 2012 or something: Brainless, but fun. People shouldn't regard it in any other light.