If the songs on The Great Escape were thematically linked by a feeling of loneliness, many of those on the bands’ fifth album, Blur, share a sense of lethargy. In fact, one only needs to look at the title or the booklet; the previous three had not only included the lyrics and nice artwork, but even the chords to close to all the songs. This time around, a couple of pictures of the band in the studio were deemed sufficient; no need for anything else.
At the heart of the album that was considered a huge break with the past is a song ironically written and demoed as early as 1992. In the context of Blur it sounds like they’re saying goodbye to the ”Britpop” party, but it had been written before said party had ever started.
The demo version was the first release for the song, as a fanclub single in 1996. It features slightly different lyrics, but the structure, melodies and a big part of the arrangements were already fully formed.
The weary, tired, and lazy attitude to much of Blur is perfectly expressed in this song’s chorus:
Another night, and I thought “well, well”.
The music complements the music perfectly, with a lazy sounding organ part, guitar noise and the simplest of riffs during the chorus, set to a heavy and slow groove that’s not too common among their songs. In fact, just listening to it as I write this is making me long for a little nap (as opposed to jumping around to the faster songs or wandering through the city or countryside for the sad ones).
The wonderful original was remixed about a billion times for Bustin’+ Dronin’ and the odd promo. Why did they bother?
