On my mental list I really have Parklife and Village Green Preservation Society (which I've listened to twice in one go but didn't stick so I need to give it another listen). Also Nothing Great About Britain which is sonically more similar to Gorilaz even as mura masa was considered as a producer for Humanz, but its a great album and has some songs which deal with identity and time similarly I feel while not sonically the most similar.

I've still only listened to Leisure from Blur as a full album, but obviously Parklife comes to mind as well as the conflicting responses to the album and Cool Britannia in general. Which compared to Merrie Land is very interesting especially the idea of Merry Old England and pastoral living as well as the turn to industrialism, Blake and reference to that conflict in the album and the art in the music videos. Makes me think of people at the time as well as the modern figure who can both be seen as patriotic and welcoming or having rose tinted glasses on at some point.

I'm guessing people will say more Blur records on there too just mainly based on knowing a teeny amount about what the impetus for writing something lime Modern Life is Rubbish was.

Just wanted to pass by and share that i still listen to this band and i love it.

It feels empty seeing this sub inactive, and the band probably ending after Tony Allen's death, but everything comes to an end.

Thanks Tony, Damon, Paul and Simon for this beautiful music.

I easily could have thought this before and just don't remember, but I was just writing and got the "curtain twitcher" part of the song stuck in my head and wanted to know what song it was.

When I looked at the lyrics there are two mentions of birds (sparrows and starlings) and coming to rest (which I associate with birds landing / roosting as well as earlier in the song it to me is used more in a way that the decision of brexit has "come to rest" as well like it's settled on the country.

But, the name used for bird watchers here is "twitcher" as well as being used in the phrase "curtain twitcher" to basically mean someone whos looking out at people / being nosey without wanting to be seen or get involved with what's going on - I also think of the kind of "Karen" type mainly in this term like they want to "keep an eye on" people or their neighbourhood. Also, only two lines before this it's directly referring to everything being a "live stream" so probably also talking about Twitch and then perhaps even twitter to keep up the bird theme.

The line I think is "curtain twitchers cannot take out the sunscreen" which I think is a great line and took it as saying that they're too busy or distracted looking out and getting burnt but realising or wanting to look away. Related to Twitch it could then also be suggesting that people live in the world through live streams rather than going out and in this case perhaps dealing with some of the imagery used later in the song.

Edit: could be Twitter related, but the livestream line immediately before it I think it fits Twitch as well. Also to me makes me think of Plato' cave allegory with the sunscreen line, but that's something that I feel I just fits for me too much in some songs hard to explain.

I have been running one of the oldest Blur fansites out there since 2009 - www.blurballs.com

It's still updated with Blur, Damon Albarn and Gorillaz news, plus some fun articles like "How to Dress like Damon Albarn" and more that are coming out!

Hope you guys like it and hope you can subscribe to the RSS feed!

I personally still view it as an absolute masterpiece, just the same as the day it released. It’s aged like a fine wine and is easily one of Damon’s best works of the 2010s. Tracks like The Poison Tree, Lady Boston, Ribbons, and Gun To The Head would be very much so at home on a ‘Best Of Damon’ compilation. The whole crew is in peak form achieving a distinct and unique sound with Simon’s ghostly guitar, Paul’s dubby bass, and of course Tony’s unmatched drum patterns. It’s unlikely that anything will ever come close to sounding like this tight assortment of tracks.

So... does anybody have the 2 bonus tracks in WAV or FLAC? All I can find are very crappy MP3's.

Polls are fun, okay? Also hi am new.

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I want to have the two bonus tracks from that album in flac but I haven't found any download links

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if anyone would make a vinyl rip that would be pretty nice

Was just dozing off and remembered the lyrics to Poison Tree and Ribbons before some other songs.

Ribbons is about the 3 countries in Britain, Lady Boston is about Wales and there is a reference to the Lion (England) and Unicorn (Scotland) as well as Trident which may be the nuclear missiles in Scotland.

Except for explicit references to France in 1917, it is a very British album, as opposed to London or Northen or even English.

I think this would help the album remain pretty open to interpretation for other people not living through Brexit and the historical timeless narrative works quite well seeing the history of the countries.

Night lol

Absolutely gorgeous! You should hear it at least once!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u05bXzkqCOo

Damon said that Lowlands was their last gig. Well, you never really know if he's emphasizing on the last tour date or if the band is really over, but it doesn't sound really optimistic either... I just see them in Luxembourg last thursday, it was an amazing show, I'm glad I got that (last) chance!

https://www.nme.com/news/music/damon-albarn-the-good-the-bad-the-queen-played-last-gig-lowlands-festival-2539172

I think you might be interested as part of the set has been recorded by French Radio (unfortunately, with annoying french radio host comments). Here's the link.

By the way, if anyone would be kind enough to download this I would be grateful :)

They seem to have this regular song list that they play before the band goes on stage, I only know that there's the Third Man Theme by Mickey Baker...

Does anyone have access to the video or mp3 recording of the show that the band just had for Glastonbury? I’m in the states so I can’t stream it on the site.

I’ve wanted to see them since the first album was released.

I know I’ve made like 20 posts asking for this, but does ANYBODY have digital copies of the Merrie Land b-sides that aren’t YouTube rips?.... .... .... Please?

Just got a new library card and did a spring clean listening to the Fahrenheit 451 audiobook (oh, the irony).When it got to the poem I was more listening to the flow of the words than the actual poem. As soon as I finished the audiobook, I went back to see what poem it was and read it.

From it being written down, only thing that stood out was “...we/ Find also in the sound a thought”. I didn’t know what song it was, but it was the line in 80’s Life “And hope is found in a sound”.

It hardly was anything linking it at all, but reading the poem after the 80’s Life lyrics, I realise both talk about some similar topics and England in general.

These lines especially reminded me of the repetition of the pebbles and tragedy the poem talks about. The strong messages of war in this song being similar to a person changed after returning from war and knowing that it would not be the end.

Oh, Lord, can a stone

be ballast for an aching soul?

It also looks like one lyric had changed from the original.

The original lyrics is:

Just learning how to know your mind

my mind made up on the way back

But is online (and obvious in the song) as:

Just learning how to know your mind

No hiding out on the way back

The poem also talks about “the distant northern sea” which reminded me of Northern Whale which also happened tp be the next song on the album.

It does have a few more lines that I think link the tone, place and timelessness of the album overall, though. I’m no poetry buff and didn’t know how to structure this post w/o a wall of text ;)