How can you really start a first impression review of a boxset comprising of songs from the late 80s and finishing off with a single released less than a month ago this year? Answer, who knows, but we’re gonna try.
A Journey through Music
Blur21 takes you through the journey of Blur, starting with the exclusive single ‘Superman’ which was the first song Blur performed together publicly as the 4 piece they are today, then under the name Seymour. Not only do you get that, as well as over 70 more exclusive never before heard songs and sessions, but each of the 7 Blur studio albums have been remastered to tip top quality. Now, don’t get us wrong, you probably can’t tell the difference of albums ‘Blur’, ’13’ and ‘Think Tank’ as they are too recent, but on ‘Leisure’ especially you really can hear some refreshing newness the album really needed, as it was recorded for Tape remember.
The songs really do take your mind back and after listening to the first 6 albums you really do feel taken aback to the 90s, even Think Tank has its own special effect now Graham is back in the band today. What makes the albums better is they also include the incredible b-sides on the second disc, songs which many have never heard before anyway, which include some real highlights in the bands career just their, songs such as ‘Young & Lovely’, ‘Tame’, ‘All Your Life’, ‘I Know’ (yes it was a double A-side but counted officially as a b-side) and more have become real fan favourites and are really worth the listen.
The Rarities
Personally I was disappointed by the collection of Rareties Blur offered in Blur 21, don’t get me wrong I wasn’t expecting a new album, its just I guess we were all expecting more than forgotten demo tapes and rejected album tracks. Having said that we love songs like ‘Saturday Morning (Demo)’, ‘1’, we also love the live session version of ‘Caravan’ from Think Tank as well, and they are more we’ll mention in the full review soon. We did get a tad confused by the title of ‘Sir Elton John’s C**k’, especially as they were no mention of the singer, or even any related vocals, but hey why not eh, the song itself is a bit of a miss! It was nice to see ‘Kissin Time’, which was taken from Marianne Faithfulls album of the same name, we’d forgot that Blur actually featured in that song. The Rareties also features the latest Blur singles ‘Fools Day’, but we were surprised to see ‘Under The Westway’, but nice to be their, even if there is the absence of The Puritan.
Video
Blur included some DVDs with Blur 21 too, as well as a few music (promo) videos for some of the singles, we love the It Could Be You one, we hadn’t seen that before. They also included live gigs at Showtime in 1994, The Singles Night at Wembley and a Rareties DVD featuring live performances of songs rarely played live, which makes it odd that Song 2 is in the list, but hey.
Summary
Blur21 still has a lot to be discovered and this is far from the final review, but we will be looking in to Blur21 in all depths and give you a full review soon, but are first impressions are most definitely positive, and for the money its incredibly worth it, I mean you’re getting Blur’s entire back catalogue (minus a few).
A stunning take on one of Britain’s best bands, yes we stole that from No Distance Left To Run reviews, but its true about Blur21 too, its even charted which is awesome. Full review coming soon, but we really can’t fault what you get for just £119.
