13

Blur, I love you. This trip away from Brit Pop-edy-pop made my heart soar when I first bought this album, all those years ago. This time, I'm looking after the CD so it doesn't skip all over the place. This is a truly great album. If I suddenly became famous and went ion Desert Island Discs, I would run to the studio with this safely stashed in my inside coat pocket. Forget the rest of my other music stuff; honestly, this album has something for us all. Coffee and TV is perhaps the perfect pop song. It is so good, I have listened to it at least (and I kid you not) 1000 times and I still end up back skipping to listen to it again.

13 has always been a personal favourite, i got this remaster on vinyl and i think the quality is great I'll be getting the other albums.

Blur's 6th studio album sees the band moving even further away from the 'radio-friendly' Britpop era which proved so popular in the mid 1990s with the emphasis on eerie electronic music with some gospel thrown into the mix for good measure. Personally, I found this a difficult package to enjoy in its entirety and, although there are some very clever ideas here, I would happily have seen 1 or 2 of the longer tracks either shortened (or left off the running order altogether) in order to reduce the fearsomely long 67 minute run time down towards the 50 minute mark.

Absolutely amazing, as you already knew...

I hadn't listened to this album since I was at university - it doesn't get a great deal of attention, but the songs Tender and Coffee & TV are 2 of the best they ever wrote. There's some "out there" material but it's also rather wonderful, on the whole.

Brilliant album. Run out of milk, anyone?

I guess there is little doubt that Blur, with the many single hits from the two success albums "Parklife" and "The Great Escape" from 1994 and 1995, was growing tired of all the rush and demand for new hits. This led the group to write radically different and more experimental music, which resulted the album "Blur" from 1997. Perhaps against anticipation, however, the commercial success continued unchanged with a first position on the UK album charts and big single hits with "Beetlebum", "Song", "On Your Own" and to a lesser extent "MOR". • At "13" from 1999, the group continues further out of the experimental path and there is no longer much room for dalliance and cattchy melodies - unfortunately. • However, there are a few exceptions that, for me, means that "13" is an album I would certainly not miss. Like the predecessor, the album was a great commercial success and I believe that the great single "Tender" is an important explanation for this. It is a fairly long and stil relatively simple number but with a fantastic structure, starting with a simple lo-fi guitar and a build up toward a full orchestral sound and gospel choir. Unsurprisingly, several great choirs around the world have taken this fine song to their repertoire. "Tender" deservedly was a big hit, but never reached the actual first position. The second single was the charming "Coffee and TV", which is both light and catchy; a song that could well have been picked up on e.g. "Parklife". The songs continued Blur’s success on the singles lists. Last single was "No Distance Left to Run" - no obvious single topic; a slightly quirky and quiet bluesy song. Only in The U.K. did the song manage a top 20 ranking. On the rest of the album, there are glimpses of fine parts; but as a whole, I feel it a disappointment. Perhaps the group was finally succeeding in their possible provokation. However, as a trio in 2003, the group did release the even more inert "Think Tank" before taking a long break and not being reunied on record till 2015 with the album "The Magic Whip"

Pleased a fan for their birthday.

Thirteen è il mio album preferito dei Blur. È una cosa a sé stante nella loro discografia, e di conseguenza rispetto ai dogmi del britpop, alla sua forma canonica e consacrata, al suo linguaggio immediato e easy e al suo target consueto. I Blur lo hanno praticamente inventato, il britpop, insieme agli Oasis con i quali duellavano furbescamente alla stregua dei politici, cioè prendendosi a capelli (ma in fondo chissà quanto) e lasciando che a insultarsi realmente e stupidamente fossero a conti fatti i loro fan. Insomma un trucco vecchio come il cucco. Non so nemmeno quanto i blur siano vicini ai kinks e quanto gli oasis ai beatles, ma la questione è secondaria perché entrambi hanno messo in piedi una cosa sicuramente nuova che, al di là dei gusti personali, serviva alla causa della musica. Perché serviva una sferzata anche nel pop, e serviva un bel po' di entusiasmo e di isteria collettiva, ma di qualità accettabile. Di certo i Blur sono più arty e vagamente glam, e si atteggiano a intellettualoidi anche se metà di loro veniva dal proletariato. E in questo humus culturale fatto di scuole alte e di sobborghi che si incontrano, azzerando il pedigree, sono nati e prosperati The Great Escape, Parklife, l'album omonimo e Modern Life is Rubbish. Thirteen, invece, si smarca da tutto questo assestando un colpo basso agli alfieri del britpop, come ad incarnare una svolta elettrica e salutando Oasis, Verve, Suede, Pulp e compagnia bella, nonché salutando per un momento se stessi. E il merito della svolta va a William Orbit, cresciuto a dance ed elettronica, che ha spinto gli scintillanti poppettari - ora belli come una copertina di mojo, ora fichi come uno schivo nerd della sei corde - verso una sperimentazione realmente audace, che dalla matrice generalista alternative si snoda agilmente nei sottogeneri peculiari della neopsichedelia, dello space rock o del trip-hop. C'è spazio anche per trasognate ballate mature e adulte, ma non nel senso di concepite per adulti né ad essi orientate: semplicemente, c'è spazio per grandi melodie da consegnare al futuro. Non saprei dire quanto Thirteen sia un disco fatto più per sé che per un ampio pubblico, e soprattutto per il proprio pubblico. Però questo fu il momento in cui i Blur sembrarono meno simili a se stessi, e forse è per questo che è il disco dei Blur che mi piace di più. Perché è un pò la massima contestazione possibile: rinnegare per un attimo ciò che aveva portato alla gloria, e provare a vedere se si è bravi lo stesso complicandosi la vita. Scommessa vinta.

Très bien

Blur nunca defrauda. Un Disco distinto y merece la pena

The Product arrived in great condition. The delivery was over punctual. Overall great!

1曲めのテンダーはとにかく好きな曲です。ライブでもテンダーはとても意味のある曲に位置付けられていたはずです。