Blur's, The Magic Whip, album evaluation: A beautiful comeback

img, .hide-comment-**ons #singleCommentHeader .formContainer >.title, .cover-remark-**ons #login**onContainer screen: none /* Expandable MPU correct */ #side .x300 overflow: noticeable!important /* Collapsing Skyscraper fix */ .ad div.skyscraper height:auto!importantpadding:0px!essential .advert div#mpu.skyscraper peak:600px!significant Blur's, The Magic Whip, album assessment: A beautiful comeback - Characteristics - Audio - The Impartial Thursday 02 April 2015 Apps eBooks i Careers Dating Shop News Video People Voices Sport Tech Life Property Arts + Ents Artwork News Features Reviews Great Will work Pictures Architecture Music Information Features Reviews Classical News Features Reviews Films Information Oscars Features Reviews Tv set & Radio News Features Reviews Theatre & Dance News Features Reviews Comedy News Features Reviews Books News Features Reviews Puzzles and Games Travel Money IndyBest Student Offers Tidal #FreeThe** Rugby and Homo**ity George Osborne Greece Michael Gove Arts + Ents >Music >Features Blur's, The Magic Whip, album critique: A stunning comeback Andy Gill enjoys Damon Albarn's sophisticated impact on Blur's five-day jam in Hong Kong Andy Gill Andy Gill Andy Gill is The Independent's New music Critic. More content articles from this journalist Tuesday 31 March 2015 Print Your friend's e mail tackle Your e mail deal with Observe: We do not keep your electronic mail address(es) but your IP tackle will be logged to prevent abuse of this aspect. Make sure you browse our Authorized Conditions & Insurance policies A A A E-mail When the reunited Blur unexpectedly discovered by themselves with five times free of charge midway via an Asian tour, alternatively than chill out and go sightseeing, they opted to gap up in a small Hong Kong studio and jam, just to see what transpired. The speedy outcomes ended up seemingly not that promising Damon Albarn, for just one, doubted that a lot would appear of them. Then Graham Coxon took it upon himself to organise the jams into semblances of songs, and immediately after his and co-producer Stephen Street's tinkering, there was sufficient to spur Albarn's muse to add terms to the tunes - however not until he'd briefly returned to the Orient to reacquaint himself with the ambience in which the new music experienced been recorded. Accordingly, the lyrics on The Magic Whip reflect the wan moods of a lonely, wandering outsider, decoupled from the each day round and stranded in the weird: a "pale ghost", to use the neighborhood slang term for Westerner, haunting an alien area. There are references to "Kowloon emptiness" and "junk-boat phantoms", the latter looming from the dubby, echoing smudges of audio that drift like mist across a harbour by means of "Considered I Was a Spaceman", which finds Albarn metaphorically "digging out my coronary heart in some distant sand dune". The sense of apartness is a lot more pronounced in the evocative "Pyongyang", a desultory d