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The Magic Whip

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Untitled

The Magic Whip is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Blur. It was recorded in Hong Kong and London, and released by Parlophone on 27 April 2015 and Warner Bros. Records on 28 April 2015. It is the band's first studio album since Think Tank (2003), marking the longest gap between two studio albums in Blur's career.[1]

Background

In May 2013, the group were set to play Japan's Tokyo Rocks Music festival. However, the entire festival was cancelled for unknown reasons, leaving the band stranded in Hong Kong for an extra 5 days. In an attempt to distract themselves, they worked on new material in Avon Studios, as announced by Damon Albarn during the gig at AsiaWorld–Expo, Chek Lap Kok. Albarn later stated he was unsure whether the resulting music would ever be released.

In July 2014 he commented, "There are about 15 songs...the annoying thing is, if I'd been able to write the lyrics there and then about being there, we'd have finished the record. But sometimes, if you can't do it all at once, it dissipates really and I don't know what I'd sing about now with that record. There's some great tunes on there, but it may just be one of those records that never comes out."[2]

In November 2014, Coxon began to look at the recordings and thought about making a new record out of them. He received Albarn's approval to work further on the recordings with producer Stephen Street, while Albarn was touring his solo album, Everyday Robots (2014). Coxon commented "I kept thinking about the recordings we had made in Hong Kong and remembering how good it felt. I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I hadn’t had another look".[1] Street had worked on Coxon's solo albums but not with Blur since their self titled 1997 release. Coxon would secretly invite James and Rowntree to further recording sessions in order to build upon the material. Once nearing completion, Coxon presented the music to Albarn to see if it was worthy of an album. On the way back from his tour of Australia in December, Albarn stopped in Hong Kong once more for lyrical inspiration. Vocals were completed towards the end of January 2015 and the album's mastering was finished on 18 February 2015.[3]

Artwork and title

The album cover artwork features the Traditional Chinese words of 模糊 魔鞭 (which literally means Blur Magic-whip) in neon-lit fashion. Art director Tony Hung, who also created the lyric video for "Go Out", the first track to be released from the album, met with frontman Damon Albarn in early 2015 to discuss the album artwork and was shown photos and ephemera from the singer's travels in Hong Kong. Albarn also explained how the album came into being and his thoughts around it. "The album title, The Magic Whip [Albarn] explained, was multifaceted," says Hung. "An ice cream in the UK, a firework in China and a 'whip' in a political sense. These extremes would reflect the different textures, breadth and depth of the album." Hung says that the band wanted a cover that touched on those themes and that also had a "rawer feel" to give a sense of how the record came together in Hong Kong (the band recorded quickly, in a small studio in the city).[4]

Promotion

The video for "Go Out" was uploaded to YouTube on 19 February 2015. Videos for "There Are Too Many of Us" and "Lonesome Street" followed on 20 March and 2 April 2015, respectively.[5][6][7] "My Terracotta Heart", "I Broadcast", and "Ong Ong" were made available shortly before the album's release as promotional singles, and their official audios were uploaded to YouTube on 18 April 2015, 21 April 2015, and 23 April 2015, respectively.[8][9] "Y'all Doomed", the bonus track on the Japanese edition, was released as a 7" single on 27 April 2015.[10]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic81/100[11]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]
The Daily Telegraph[13]
The Guardian[14]
New York Daily News[15]
NME8/10[16]
Pitchfork Media7.0/10[17]
Q[18]
Rolling Stone[19]
Slant Magazine[20]
Uncut[21]

The album has received universal acclaim from British and American music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 81, indicating "universal acclaim," based on 33 reviews.[11]

DIY magazine critic Stephen Ackroyd stated: "Their magic remains as strong as ever."[22] Helen Brown of The Telegraph stated that the album "turns out to be a triumphant comeback," and noted that "it retains the band's core identity while allowing ideas they'd fermented separately over the past decade to infuse their sound with mature and peculiar new flavour combinations."[13] Andy Gill of The Independent gave the album a positive review, calling it "a beautiful comeback."[23] Spin writer Andrew Unterberger gave the album an 8/10 rating and said, "Magic Whip is a fun album, nearly as much as any Gorillaz LPs," adding, "Magic Whip finds enough majesty and intrigue in the band's more meditative days to remain worthy company to any of the band's classic LPs."[24] Writing for the Rolling Stone magazine and giving the album four-out-of-five stars, David Fricke called the album "A dark, seductive set that cements a legacy", stating that "Blur have returned with inspiration to spare."[19]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, Dave Rowntree

No.TitleLength
1."Lonesome Street"4:23
2."New World Towers"4:03
3."Go Out"4:41
4."Ice Cream Man"3:25
5."Thought I Was a Spaceman"6:16
6."I Broadcast"2:51
7."My Terracotta Heart"4:05
8."There Are Too Many of Us"4:25
9."Ghost Ship"4:59
10."Pyongyang"5:47
11."Ong Ong"3:08
12."Mirrorball"3:39
Total length:51:42
Japanese bonus track[25]
No.TitleLength
13."Y'all Doomed"3:57

Personnel

Blur
  • Damon Albarn – vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, acoustic guitar, drum machine, percussion
  • Graham Coxon – electric guitar, keyboards, percussion, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "Lonesome Street", "Thought I Was a Spaceman", and "Y'all Doomed"
  • Alex James – bass guitar
  • Dave Rowntree – drums, percussion, "choir" vocals
Additional personnel

Charts and certifications

References

  1. ^ a b Thorpe, Vanessa (1 March 2015). "Graham Coxon on the Blur reunion: 'Pop doesn't have to be a fleeting thing'". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  2. ^ "Damon Albarn Interview – NME (29-07-14)". NME. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  3. ^ "Blur Interview – BBC Radio 6 Music, Steve Lamacq (19-02-2015)". YouTube. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  4. ^ Sinclair, Mark (17 March 2015). "The Magic Whip – the making of Blur's new album cover". Creative Review. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  5. ^ Krep, Daniel (20 March 2015). "Hear Blur's Majestic New Doom-and-Gloom Song "There Are Too Many of Us"". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  6. ^ Payne, Chris (2 April 2015). "Join a Magic Line Dancing Crew For Blur's New 'Lonesome Street' Video". Billboard. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  7. ^ Vincent, Alice. "Watch Blur's new video: Go Out". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  8. ^ Geslani, Michelle (18 April 2015). "Blur shares new song "My Terracotta Heart"". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  9. ^ Britton, Luke Morgan (20 April 2015). "Blur premiere new track 'Ong Ong' - listen". NME. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  10. ^ "'Y'all Doomed' 7" vinyl available at HMV UK". Blur.co.uk. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  11. ^ a b "The Magic Whip - Blur". Metacritic. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  12. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (28 April 2015). "The Magic Whip - Blur". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  13. ^ a b Brown, Helen (1 April 2015). "Blur, The Magic Whip, album review: 'a triumphant comeback'". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  14. ^ Petridis, Alexis (22 April 2015). "Blur: The Magic Whip – review". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  15. ^ Farber, Jim (27 April 2015). "Music review: Blur's new album 'The Magic Whip'". New York Daily News. Mortimer Zuckerman. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  16. ^ Beamount, Mark. "Blur - 'The Magic Whip'". NME. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  17. ^ Jenkins, Craig. "Blur: The Magic Whip". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  18. ^ Harris, John. "Blur - The Magic Whip". Q. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  19. ^ a b Fricke, David (28 April 2015). "Blur's New Album: The Magic Whip". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  20. ^ Rainis, James (27 April 2015). "Blur: The Magic Whip Album Review". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  21. ^ Bonner, Michael. "Blur - The Magic Whip". Uncut. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  22. ^ Ackroyd, Stephen. "Blur - The Magic Whip". DIY. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  23. ^ Gill, Andy (31 March 2015). "Blur, The Magic Whip, album review: 'A beautiful comeback'". The Independent. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  24. ^ Unterberger, Andrew (28 April 2015). "Blur, 'The Magic Whip' (Parlophone)". Spin. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  25. ^ "ブラー : ザ・マジック・ウィップ - 音楽" (in Japanese). Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  26. ^ "Australiancharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  27. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Blur – The Magic Whip" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  28. ^ "Ultratop.be – Blur – The Magic Whip" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  29. ^ "Ultratop.be – Blur – The Magic Whip" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  30. ^ "Blur Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  31. ^ "Danishcharts.dk – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  32. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Blur – The Magic Whip" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  33. ^ "Blur: The Magic Whip" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  34. ^ "Lescharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  35. ^ "Officialcharts.de – Blur – The Magic Whip". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  36. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2015. 18. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  37. ^ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 18, 2015". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  38. ^ "Italiancharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  39. ^ "Oricon Top 50 Albums: 2015-05-11" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  40. ^ "South Korea Circle International Album Chart". On the page, select "2015.04.26~2015.05.02" to obtain the corresponding chart. Circle Chart Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  41. ^ "Charts.nz – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  42. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  43. ^ "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  44. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  45. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  46. ^ "Spanishcharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  47. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  48. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Blur – The Magic Whip". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  49. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  50. ^ "Blur Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  51. ^ "British album certifications – Blur – The Magic Whip". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type The Magic Whip in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
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