13 is the 6th studio album by british heavyweights BLUR, released 1999. But is it good?
Really missed a trick by not reviewing this on week 13, huh? Anyway. This album followed up their 1997 self titled record, which housed the legendary "song 2" (the woohoo song) as well as a general departure from their previous britpop sound, to a more alternative, grungier style of rock, whilst still maintaining pop structures. 13, however, departs even further into experimentalism, as implied just on the cover.
The first track is "tender" and it sits at almost 8 minutes long, one of a few songs of that length on the album. It opens with this twangy guitar, and even on the second listen i was singing along to the vocal line it emulates from later in the song. Despite what I said about experimentalism, this track acts as a singalong anthem, with this anthemic chorus and choral vocals, and lines about love being the greatest. It does feel kind of redundant after a few repetitions, but I'm sure this song sounds great when you're stoned. Seeing the band play it live on youtube really show it's intent as a whole-crowd singalong anthem.
"Bugman" starts immediately with this super distorted guitar, it feels like song 2 on crack. Damon's lyrics are delivered with furious energy, the groove is absolutely undeniable. and the track literally tears itself apart at multiple points. It's so absurdly noisey to the point of almost being shoegaze- esque at points, with this vacuum like sound dominating the midsection of the track. The track breaks down almost entirely at the three minute mark before forcing itself back into existence, almost at the listener's spite. It's utterly unrelenting. Damon singing "space is the plaaaace" foreshadow gorillaz pretty heavily, I mean if you told me that was a 2D vocal line I'd believe you. But anyway, the track is an absolute rager thats packed with energy.
"coffee and TV" is next and has this great juxtaposition between dystopic lyrics and a britpop-y backing track. Graham Coxon sings "I've seen so much I'm going blind and I'm brain dead, virtually" in the chorus, and despite clocking in at 6 minutes it never feels like it's spinning it's wheels. It's another track that's grown on me alot, like tender, and has these passages of these neurotic guitar passages, and the song is capped off by a short lament on the organ. Another great track.
"Swamp song" kicks off the album proper with this slimey guitar part with Damon almost whining "Gimme good times, Gimme soul life, Give me fever, I'm a believer". The verses are separated by these shredded guitar parts. The track has this really demented energy to it, with the end being total anarchy, there's this maniacal laughter over looped "la la la"'s.
"1992", apparently from a recovered cassette from 1992, appears to detail the band's entry into the music industry. The instrumental at the start feels like it wants to settle but just floats around, and in the negative space of the lyrics these horrific guitar parts rise up and down, as well as electronic parts. It feels like there are these massive sonic titans fighting over the base of the track below, as if they're these huge ugly corporate entities fighting whilst the band is just trying to play music. You could also maybe interpret it as symbolic of Albarn and Coxon's growing divide, as the track hardly sounds like it orginally did by the end, the soundscape is utterly distopic, with noise ruling the last minute of the track.
"B.L.U.R.E.M.I." might be the silliest track here. It has this pounding beat heavy guitars, but the hook has these ridiculous vocal effects, and the track has more motifs that would later be seen in gorillaz songs. Despite this, the lyrics seem to detail the band's relationship with their label but it is just absurd to listen to. It's last minute is another instrumental lament, an incredibly gentle one, compared to the furious nature of the first 2 minutes.
"battle" might be the most progressive song on the album. The atmosphere is dystopic once again, with these pounding drums, unnerving bass and distant melody. The track has this utter mastery of layering instrumentals. Later it introduces this wall of guitar noise, but still maintains this weirdly serene feeling. The instruments and the effects on Damon's vocals make it hard to understand him at points, but I think that adds to the effect of the track.
The next track is called "mellow song" and is remarkably calmer, starting with just vocals and an acoustic guitar, but as you may have expected it isn't long before it's joined by a myriad of other instruments that take over the track. After that we get "trailerpark" which also has a very early gorillaz sound to it. Damon sings about losing his girl to the rolling stones and being a country boy, and ponders how the world is "growing old", and how he can't decide whether to sleep at night or not. It has some cool guitar tones towards the end too, and just as it starts to drag it shifts into a short grungy guitar bit, then ends.
"caramel" is another 7+ track and kind of doesn't justify it. The track has these real fucking annoying backing vocals singing "caramel" and they just don't fit in with the track. Despite a cool backing track and atmosphere, these vocal bits just annoy me too much to enjoy the track. It gets a bit more interesting around the 3 minute mark, but then just becomes annoying again. I don't usually advocate skipping tracks on albums but I think you could skip this one and not lose a whole lot. It has some cool bits of hidden track at the end but man, they are not worth sitting thru the rest of the track for.
Track 11 "trimm trabb" tries to buy some goodwill back with an acoustic guitar part and clangy drum sound, and I really good vocal line. It gets a bit stale before an electric guitar comes in and expands the track some more.
Penultimate track "No distance left to run" creates this smoky atmosphere immediately, that eventually evolves into hopelessness, and ends on "it's over". This is pretty well reinforced by the closer which probably represents a reflection on simpler and happier times, with it's old timey fairground feel.
Overall I think I liked the album quite alot. It has a lot of dystopian imagery and feel to it, It falls off a bit in the third act but maybe closer listens will reveal some details that change my mind. Definitely a challenging record at points and definitely not a great place to start with Blur, but for sure an album that rewards close attention and periodic revisitings.
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