“In the Nineties, Oasis won the major Brit-pop battles: worldwide album sales, U.K. Number One singles and gossip-column yardage. But their archrivals, Blur, soundly beat them in exploration and legacy. Oasis wanted to be as big as the Beatles and the Who combined; Blur embodied those bands' impatient forward march. At their studio peak – the five albums from 1993's Modern Life Is Rubbish to 1999's”
“Britpop heavyweights Blur make an enjoyable and varied return with The Magic Whip.”
“The Magic Whip is the first Blur album since 2003’s Think Tank, the first with guitarist Graham Coxon onboard since 1999’s 13 (Coxon was booted from the Think Tank sessions a week in and summarily quit), and the first with producer Stephen Street since 1997’s Blur. Like Albarn's recent solo work, it explores the distant traveler’s conflicting sense of wonder and alienation.”
