Song of the Week delves into fresh songs we can’t get out of our heads. Find these tracks and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our New Sounds on Spotify playlist. This week, Blur showed no signs of rust on “The Narcissist.”
The last time we heard from the Britpop legends Blur in 2015. The band recently made their long-awaited comeback with The Magic Whip, their first record in 12 years, and featured a more thoughtful, wandering, distinctly weird vision of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and the artsy pop rock of Dave Rowntree. Now, after nearly a decade lost in time, the band once again returns, doubling down on the self-assured, meditative “The Narcissist.”
Gone is the tongue-in-cheek explosiveness of “Song 2” or the disco-rocking grooves of “Girls and Boys” that brought them to the top of the charts in the ’90s. Instead, “The Narcissist” neatly picks up where the previous two LPs left off – an impressive feat considering Think Tank celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this month.
The tune is an odyssey that builds but never explodes. Albarn guides the listener through a soundscape of indie guitars, harmonized backing vocals, and a mix of programmed and live drums, and every time you think they’re about to kick the fuzz and let it rip, they back off. , show maturity. that comes with decades of songwriting.
Time will tell if the rest of Blur’s upcoming record, The Ballad of Darren, will continue to adopt such restrained songwriting, or if “The Narcissist” was just a red herring. But for now, Blur have proven once again that no matter how much time they spend between releases, their songs don’t suffer in the slightest.
— Jonah Krueger
Honorable Mentions:
Sailor Honeymoon – “Cockroach”
Rough around, totally scuzzy, and endlessly fun, Sailor Honeymoon’s “Cockroach” is one of the most exciting, fully realized debut indie rock singles to come out in a good while. Just two minutes in and out, the song alternates between a fuzzed-out, melodic chorus and a sparse, tongue-in-cheek verse. The result is a tune worth repeating over and over until what the Korean rockers serve up next. — JK