The Magic Whip

by Blur

Overview

Blur dissolved slowly so it follows that their reunion was protracted -- a halting reconvening that produced understated singles and excellent concerts spread out over a period of six years. Finding a headlining appearance at Japan's Tokyo Rocks festival canceled in the summer of 2013, the band holed up in a Hong Kong studio for five days, producing several reels of jams they abandoned until guitarist Graham Coxon decided to shape them into songs with the assistance of producer Stephen Street, the collaborator behind their greatest albums of the '90s. It's an unwieldy history for The Magic Whip, a record that's casually confident and so assured in its attack it feels like a continuation, not a comeback. Certainly, its moody meditations are of piece with Damon Albarn's 2014 Everyday Robots and his noir 2007 project The Good, The Bad & The Queen, but those albums, along with 2005's Demon Days, put into sharp relief that The Magic Whip belongs not to Damon, but to Blur. Often, the rhythm section of bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree announces itself through a churning undertow -- James' loping interjections on "Go Out" call attention to themselves in a manner not dissimilar to "Girls & Boys" -- but Coxon claims this record, easing the band (and listeners) into familiar territory via the bright "Lonesome Street," an evocation of Brit-pop that soon curdles into the gnarly squall of 1997's Blur and then settles into a steady thrum that's reminiscent of 13 but stripped of despair. While it retains trace elements of melancholy, The Magic Whip jettisons the internal turmoil that fueled the turn-of-the-millennium Blur albums -- 13, the record Albarn wrote in the wake of his split with Justine Frischmann, and Think Tank, the album they recorded while the band broke up -- and it also sees the world outside south London, with Albarn skewing all his observations through the prism of Hong Kong, capturing the digital isolation through the pulsating neon rush of mainland Asia. There are hooks, there are songs -- songs that sink their hooks in slowly and fully, registering in the subconscious without notice -- but it's Blur claiming their status as an art-pop band, favoring texture and mood over wit and flash. Like Everyday Robots, there's an existential loneliness thrumming throughout The Magic Whip, but there's also camaraderie, a sense that companionship can pull you through, and that's especially true of Albarn and Coxon, who prove once again to be the other's ideal collaborator, refining, expanding, and sharpening their ideas, turning a potential throwaway to something quietly resonant. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	07/07/2023
Label:	Parlophone
UPC:	5054197554681
Rank:	37239

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Blur   Primary Artist
The Demon Strings   Primary Artist,Strings
Stephen Street   Saxophone,Percussion,Tambourine,Co-Producer,Synthesizer,Synthesizer Saxophone
Stella Page   Strings
Antonia Pagulatos   Strings
Damon Albarn   Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards,Co-Producer,Guitar (Acoustic)
Dave Rowntree   Drums,Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Graham Coxon   Guitar,Co-Producer,Vocals (Background)
Isabelle Dunn   Strings
Alex James   Guitar (Bass)
Kotono Sato   Strings

Technical Credits

Stephen Street   Mixing,Engineer,Producer,Recording,Mixing Engineer,Drum Programming,Percussion Programming,Synthesizer Programming
Damon Albarn   Composer,Producer
Dave Rowntree   Composer
James Dring   Drum Programming
Graham Coxon   Composer,Producer
Alex James   Composer
Stephen Sedgwick   Mixing,Engineer,Recording,Mixing Engineer
John Davis   Mastering,Mastering Engineer
John Davies   Mastering
Tony Hung   Design,Cover Art,Art Direction
Drew Smith   Assistant,Studio Assistant
Jasper Dent   Assistant,Studio Assistant
Amic Tang   Assistant,Studio Assistant
Lee Wai Ming   Assistant,Studio Assistant