At first blush, Blur's first album is a pastiche of styles, full of lumbering shoegaze pacing and buzz, leftover Madchester twitch, and plenty of boom boom bum bumpidumpitdump bum skitters in place of legitimate energy. There's plenty of copping from the Beatles (esp Bad Day) and American proto-alternative (Fool) and a half dozen styles in between.
But looking closer, there's more to recommend here than you might think. For one, don't lose sight of the fact that while this sounds very 90's,this came out in 1991, preceding Nevermind by a month, Definitely Maybe by 3 years, and I Should Coco by 4. While it has little of the punch of the Britpop-era blur, the themes of disillusion and hopelessness are in place, as Albarn groans against the crush of his endless numbered days, occasionally reaching that woredown catharsis that later-era Blur minded into gold.
It's Blur's shoegaze era, almost entirely overlooked, unexciting and comparatively uninspired, but its no Pablo Honey (itself still two years away, while we're on the subject). Decidedly worth a listen if you have interest in how 90's rock took shape in England 3.5/5
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