Blur
Music Is My Radar
EMI

For their 10 year anniversary Blur let out a Best Of, and as a bonus they release a brand new song, which is also included on the hit compilation. So will this be the end of Blur? Period. Or will they return with more dazed and confused pop? Guitarist Graham Coxon has picked on an eccentric solo career (2 albums so far) and Blur-head Damon Albarn is doing music for films.

Music Is My Radar is a highly amusing and danceable song, catchy and quirky, bouncy and sneaky, and with Coxon's trademark guitar riffs. Like Beck at his most dancefloor-flash-o-ramatic. It's really OK to put this track among their other hits. You should see the video as well. Funny. There are three other songs on this single (of which two are live recordings for BBC's Radio One). Black Book is an unusual Blur song. Dark and dramatic. 7 Days (recorded for the Evening Show) is sort of a late 60's garage-pop song, like the Yardbirds meets the Troggs. She's So High (recorded for the Mark Goodier Show), which was Blur's first single (also included on their debut album Leisure), has also got some 60's in it, but you can also sense some late 80's vibes when the shoe gazing britpop took off.

Blur managed to jump out of the bag tagged brit-pop to expand their music and to take on other influences, like the US indie/alternative/college slackness. That's why they parked Oasis knee-deep in mud. Even if Blur too love the Beatles and the Kinks. Mogwai, you didn't get it right, Blur are not shite.

Copyright © 2000 Håvard Oppøyen