#570 Blur - Modern Life is Rubbish

Blur's second album marked a turning point. After Leisure some things became clear: America didn't much like Blur, Blur didn't much like America, and Blur was decidedly out of step what even good old England was into. So this self-acknowledged Kinks-inspired proto-britpop album came along and changed everything, setting the stage for much of what Blur would do afterwards.

The Kinks and Bowie influences are obvious, the album kicking off with an aparent nod to 20th Century Man coming within the first line of the first song before trotting out a roster of character-driven minibalads (which would also would populate The Great Escape years later).

Unlike the comparatively homogenous Leisure, the beats, tempos and tones are varied across the album's running time, and the delivery escapes the depression with flashes of defiance and wit. Heck, there's even a hint of concept albumry in the instrumental interlude that ends track 7, cleaving the compact disc into two decidedly vinyl-era 'sides', and the freakout at the end of the last track is straight off of the meltdowns that helped define Blur's last few albums.

It's still a pale imitation of the band's best stuff, but a compelling piece of rock and roll that I've still got a need to explore. All the pieces are here, all the things you love no matter which era of Blur you love, the start of all those threads that would warp and woof together a decade of the most quietly clever British music around 4/5