Line #39 Music/Blur


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blur_1_8547.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:280:From left to right: Graham Coxon, Alex James, [[Music/{{Gorillaz}} Damon Albarn]], and Dave Rowntree]]
3	->''"All the people,\
4	So many people,\
5	And they all go hand in hand,\
6	Hand in hand through their,\
7	Parklife.\
8	Know what I mean?"''
9	-->-- "'''Parklife'''"
10
11	[floatboxright:Influences:
12	+Music/TheKinks, Music/DavidBowie, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/TheSmallFaces, Music/TheStoneRoses, Music/TheJam, Music/TheWho, Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{Madness\|Band}}, Music/{{XTC}}, Music/{{Cardiacs}}, Music/{{Squeeze\|Band}}, Music/IanDuryAndTheBlockheads, Music/TheSpecials, Music/TheSmiths, Music/SonicYouth, Music/{{Pavement}}, Music/TheVelvetUnderground, Music/SydBarrett, Music/FelaKuti, Music/BeastieBoys]
13
14	Blur is an AlternativeRock band from Colchester, England (though more often associated with London), chiefly existing in The90s. Partial founders of the {{Britpop}} movement, the band consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James, and drummer Dave Rowntree.
15
16	The band debuted in 1989 on the {{Shoegazing}} and Madchester scenes as Seymour before signing to Food Records under the condition that they change their name to Blur (and, according to fan legend, that drummer Dave Rowntree stop wearing pyjama pants on stage). Soon after, they released their first album ''Leisure'' to moderate success, followed by the [[{{Britpop}} very British]] "[[TropeMakers Popscene]]" single and a tour of America, [[AmericansHateTingle to predictable results]].
17
18	They achieved great success with ''Music/{{Parklife}}'' a few years later, then switched to noisy, experimental AlternativeRock for their next several albums until eventually dissolving after ''[[TheBandMinusTheFace Think Tank]]'' sometime around 2004. The original lineup, with Graham Coxon in tow, reunited in 2009 to much anticipation and released a new song, "Fool's Day", in the spring of 2010. The band released two more new songs -- "Under the Westway" and "The Puritan" -- in July 2012, and performed at an [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames Olympics]] closing ceremony concert in Hyde Park that August alongside Music/NewOrder, Music/TheSpecials and Bombay Bicycle Club. After a bit of a TroubledProduction, they released their first album in 12 years, ''The Magic Whip'', in April 2015. Another hiatus followed until the release of their ninth album, ''The Ballad of Darren'', in 2023.
19
20	Not to be confused with [[VideoGame/{{Blur}} the video game]].
21
22	----
23	!!Discography
24	* ''Leisure'' (1991)
25	* ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' (1993)
26	* ''Music/{{Parklife}}'' (1994)
27	* ''The Great Escape'' (1995)
28	* ''Blur'' (1997)
29	* ''13'' (1999)
30	* ''Think Tank'' (2003)
31	* ''The Magic Whip'' (2015)
32	* ''The Ballad of Darren'' (2023)
33	----
34	!! Modern Tropes Are Rubbish:
35	* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: For instance, "Song 2"'s chorus (it has more lyrics than '''[[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein WOO-HOO]]''') goes "When I feel heavy meTAL / And I'm pins and needLES".
36	* AffectionateParody: The song "Song 2" parodies {{Grunge}}. It was intended to be an affectionate parody of Graham Coxon's favorite band at the time, Music/{{Pavement}}. The lyrics might be, the music certainly isn't.
37	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' in "For Tomorrow". ''Music/{{Parklife}}'' in... well "Parklife".
38	* AttractiveBentGender: Alex James in the "Parklife" video.
39	** And Damon Albarn [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2r2wtdKK61r7hkv3o1_500.jpg here]], mirroring Music/{{Blondie\|Band}}. Good Lord.
40	* AudienceParticipationSong:
41	** "The Universal". During live performances, the audience takes the place of the choir.
42	** During the Hyde Park performance, the audience singing along to "Coffee and TV" and "Girls and Boys" was actually louder than the band at times.
43	** "Tender" is probably Blur's ultimate example of this. When performed live, it becomes a massive ten-minute audience-participation epic. Also, during Graham Coxon's hiatus from the band, the audience sang his lines "oh my baby/oh my baby/oh why/oh my", and these lines have been used to call the band back onto the stage for an encore.
44	** The audience supplies the "TRAY-CEE JAAAAACKS" shouts on "Tracy Jacks".
45	** The audience often provides the "Woo-hoos" on "Song 2", though it's also common for the audience to sing along with the whole song.
46	* BadassBoast: "I'm the original" in "Me, White Noise".
47	* BaitAndSwitch: Done in the first verse of the alternate version of ''Think Tank's'' "Me, White Noise."
48	--> ''Being English isn't about hate...\
49	It's about disgust!\
50	We're all disgusting''
51	* TheBandMinusTheFace: Fans of Coxon saw ''Think Tank'' as this.
52	* BilingualBonus:
53	** "To the End" has Music/{{Stereolab}} singer Lætitia Sadier speaking French between the lines of the verses. The "French version" from the "Parklife" single renders all of the lyrics in French instead (thus making the song hilarious because of Damon's terrible pronunciation), and the "La Comédie" version from the "Country House" single replaces Sadier with Françoise Hardy, but has her and Albarn forming a VocalTagTeam with Albarn singing in English.
54	** "Yuko and Hiro" features backing vocals in Japanese, which the band wisely decided to hire Cathy Gillat to sing instead of attempting it themselves.
55	** "Girls and Boys" has a bit of GratuitousGerman.
56	** Also, a b-side to "Girls and Boys" called "People in Europe" contains lyrics in French, German, Spanish, Italian and Swedish, all with some embarrassingly, comically bad pronunciation.
57	** The cover of ''The Magic Whip'' features the band's name and title of the album in Cantonese.
58	* BohemianParody: The music video for "Country House" has the band appear in kaleidoscope during the bridge, as Music/{{Queen}} did in the original video.
59	* BritainIsOnlyLondon: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gghFPavXE7Q For Tomorrow]] video is like this, but it makes sense since London is referenced several times during the film.
60	** Conversely, on their first American tour, the [=DJs=] assumed any band coming over was from Manchester, something that irked them. In fairness, the band was riding the popularity of several Manchester bands such as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays at the time.
61	* {{Britpop}}: Well, ''duh''. Their albums ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'', ''Music/{{Parklife}}'' and ''The Great Escape'' form a loose Britpop trilogy about the lives of the Working, Middle and Upper classes in Britain, respectively.
62	* BreakupSong: Most of ''13'' is about Damon Albarn's split from his long-term girlfriend Justine Frischmann, the singer for the band Elastica.
63	** "No Distance Left to Run" is pretty much ''the'' breakup song.
64	* BSide: A 22 CD set was released in 1999: 22 singles with all their original b-sides, a 127 track total. They were also collected, with additional rarities, on the ''blur 21'' boxset.
65	* CallAndResponseSong: "Parklife", with the spoken lines done by [[Film/{{Quadrophenia}} Phil]] [[Series/EastEnders Daniels]].
66	* CallBack: "Song 2" gets its number from the fact that the group had already released a b-side called "A Song" the previous year (although, they are musically unrelated).
67	** "M.O.R." contains the line "here comes a low", a potential reference to the earlier song "This Is a Low".
68	** The song "1992" on 13 was a re-recorded outtake from the "Modern Life Is Rubbish" era. To long-term listeners, the song is obviously very similar to a number of downbeat songs of the time (compare 'Miss America' and 'Peach', for instance), but to hammer the fact home, Graham Coxon reuses guitar effects that he used specifically in that year, most notably on "Into Another", a song that was going to be on Blur's 1992 album, but ended up being a B-Side instead.
69	* CampStraight: Most obvious on "Mr. Robinson's Quango".
70	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Albarn delves into this in specific tracks:
71	** The last lines of "Swamp Song":
72	---> ''STICK IT IN MY VEINS''!
73	** A sudden one when "Crazy Beat" enters its last third:
74	---> BREAK OUT! ''IT'S A BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE- voice crackles in deliberate distortion -EEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT''
75	** This bit in "Me, White Noise", complete with sudden heavy vocal distortion.
76	---> furthermore... ''YOU'RE BORING!''
77	** Happens again at the very end, but without vocal distortion:
78	---> It's me, white noise. [[BrokenRecord ME WHITE NOISE ME WHITE NOISE ME WHITE NOISE ME WHITE NOISE]], UNDERSTAND!?
79	* ConceptAlbum: The band's no stranger to the idea.
80	** ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'', ''Parklife'' and ''The Great Escape'' form a trilogy where the band comments on life in England, starting from the working class, then proceeding to the middle class and finishing with the upper class.
81	** Most of the songs on ''The Great Escape'' are linked by a similar theme — loneliness and detachment.
82	** ''Blur'' is an album largely about problems in Damon and his girlfriend Justine's relationship; ''13'' is about their subsequent breakup.
83	** ''Think Tank'' is a very loose concept album revolving around war and love.
84	** ''The Magic Whip'' is inspired by the band's trip to Hong Kong and China and is themed as such in both song and music videos.
85	* CoverVersion: The band recorded a handful of cover versions for b-sides and tribute albums, notably "Oliver's Army" by Music/ElvisCostello, "Maggie May" by Music/RodStewart (which Alex refused to play on), "Substitute" by Music/TheWho (which Damon disliked) and most infamously, two British music hall standards, "Daisy Bell" and "Let's All Go Down The Strand" (which Graham disliked).
86	* DarkerAndEdgier: Their first few albums were bright and bubbly, but their albums gradually got darker and melancholic as their sound progressed, with the subject matter of ''13'' mainly being that of Damon's split from his girlfriend, and most of the album having a very eerie and somber feel to it.
87	* ADayInTheLimelight:
88	** The songs penned by Coxon, "You're So Great" and "Coffee & TV" where he gets to sing the vocals. (He also sang the "Rednecks" B-side in a FakeAmerican accent.)
89	** Alex sings lead vocals on "Far Out" and "Alex' Song". The latter through pitch-shifting effects a demo released on the Blur 21 box set does not feature these effects.
90	* DrowningMySorrows:
91	** "Yuko and Hiro".
92	-->''I drink in the evenings''\
93	''It helps with relaxing''\
94	''I can't sleep without drinking''\
95	''We drink together''
96	** The band's first American tour was such a miserable experience that they coped by getting drunk.
97	* DrugsAreBad: "Beetlebum" is about negative drug experiences that Damon Albarn had with Justine Frischmann.
98	* EarlyBirdCameo:
99	** "Death of a Party" was originally recorded in 1992 as an acoustic demo, but not released. The band forgot about it until they rediscovered it in 1996 and released it on CD as that year's fan club release. They liked it so much they decided to rerecord it for their 1997 album ''Blur''. Remixes were commissioned, but it didn't make a full single.
100	** The same is true of the song "1992" which was written and home-demoed in the year it's named after, but was deemed [[DarkerAndEdgier too dark and depressing]]. That is, until 1999, when Blur made their actually dark and depressing album ''13'' on which it fit perfectly. The demo of "1992" has never been released. What is interesting about the 1999 version is that guitar effects are used which Blur hadn't used since their unreleased 1992 album (compare about 3:40 in "1992" to those at the end of "Into Another"), with its guitar beat even being similar to "Sing" from that album.
101	** "I Got Law" is an early demo version of the Gorillaz song "Tomorrow Comes Today" - so early the only recognisable element is Damon's vocal melody, and the incredibly lo-fi drum machine and outdated synths make it sound like something recorded by [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner The Cheat]]. "I Got Law" is so obscure (it only appears as a bonus track to the Japanese version of ''13'') that it isn't known whether Damon actually wanted to release it.
102	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
103	** Their first album, ''Leisure'', is mostly a {{Shoegazing}}-[[AlternativeDance Madchester]] fusion. The weirdness is lessened once their early {{Shoegazing}} references creep back to the surface on ''Blur'', ''13'' and ''Think Tank''. The alternative dance elements also return with a vengeance on ''Think Tank''.
104	** Pre-dating even ''Leisure'', their material as Seymour, which eventually surfaced on the B-sides of "Sunday Sunday" and the ''Blur 21'' boxset, was noisy, fast-paced PopPunk-y stuff. This was similarly nodded to with their recording of noisy, rapid rave-ups like "Bank Holiday", "B.L.U.R.E.M.I." and "We've Got a File on You".
105	** In their very early days Damon rocked a mop-top haircut and Alex had a chin length bob, as seen in the video for "There's No Other Way". They both cut their hair before their next video, "Bang", was recorded.
106	* EpicRocking:
107	** The studio version of "Tender" is seven minutes long, and ranges from nine to ten minutes long when performed live.
108	** "Tender's" b-side, "French Song", is ''eight'' minutes long.
109	** Also "Sing", "Essex Dogs", "Battle", "Caramel", "Bustin' and Dronin'" "Me, White Noise", "Garden Central", and "Jets". These guys ''know'' how to make a track run for a long time.
110	* EpilepticFlashingLights: Some of the shots (especially the last scene) from "There's No Other Way" has some strobe lights.
111	* EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench: "To the End", with an alternate version recorded entirely in French. As mentioned above the original featured French spoken word backing vocals by Lætitia Sadier of Music/{{Stereolab}}. The all-French "La Comedie" version features vocals from Françoise Hardy.
112	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Think Tank's'' "We've Got a File on You", which is barely a minute of Damon repeatedly chanting just that, set to very heavy guitar.
113	* FeverDreamEpisode: "Swamp Song" has a hallucinatory quality and the repeated line "Give me fever" in the verses, building up to some kind of delirium at the outro, with Albarn screaming "[[CarefulWithThatAxe STICK IT IN MY VEINS!]]"[[labelnote:Context]]The song is basically Albarn describing a heroin-induced trip[[/labelnote]]. It even ends with a very quiet voice saying "Sleep. Shh... sleep".
114	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Damon is choleric, Graham is melancholic, Alex is sanguine, Dave is phlegmatic.
115	* GenreRoulette:
116	** ''Modern Life is Rubbish'' features PunkRock ("Advert"), neo-psychedelia ("Chemical World"), baggy ("Oily Water") and vaudeville music-hall ("Sunday Sunday").
117	** ''Parklife'' feature the synthpop-influenced hit single "Girls & Boys", the instrumental waltz interlude of "The Debt Collector", the punk rock-influenced "Bank Holiday", the spacey, Music/SydBarrett-esque "Far Out", and the fairly new wave-influenced "Trouble in the Message Centre".
118	* GenreShift:
119	** From shoegazing-pop to Britpop to blatantly Music/{{Pavement}}ish to melancholic electronica to whatever the hell ''Think Tank'' was.
120	** Seemingly to make their abandonment of Britpop clear, the band even fled the UK itself and recorded most of ''Blur'' in [[UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}} Reykjavík]].
121	* GratuitousPanning: The drums and guitar in "Essex Dogs".
122	* GreatestHitsAlbum: Two: ''The Best of Blur'' (2000) and ''Midlife'' (2009), though ''Midlife'' wasn't much of a greatest-hits as a plain old retrospective, as it purposely excluded a few key singles like "There's No Other Way" and "Country House" (not because the band didn't like them but because [[ExecutiveMeddling their label]] wanted to market them as a Serious 90's Guitar Band) in favor of relatively obscure album tracks like "Blue Jeans" and "Strange News from Another Star".
123	* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Throughout the alternate version of "Me, White Noise," the first verse of which even has Damon snarkily extend the sentiment towards the entire country of England.
124	--> ''Being English isn't about hate...\
125	[[BaitAndSwitch It's about disgust!]]''
126	-->''We're all disgusting''
127	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Damon and Graham.
128	* HiddenTrack:
129	** ''Modern Life is Rubbish'' has the unlisted instrumental "Intermission" following "Chemical World" and another hidden track, "Commercial Break", following "Resigned". The American version of the album features two more hidden tracks, the British B-sides "When the Cows Come Home" and "Peach", as unlisted tracks 68 and 69 following 49 indexed tracks that are nothing but a few seconds of silence each.
130	** ''13'' is a gold mine of those. It features a few instrumental tracks hidden after the end of "Coffee & TV", "B.L.U.R.E.M.I.", "Battle", "Trailerpark" and "Caramel", making those songs seem longer than they actually are.
131	*** The ones after "Coffee & TV" and "B.L.U.R.E.M.I." are short organ doodles (the latter being notable for being played on a synth organ that makes it sound like an ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}'' soundtrack outtake).
132	*** The one after "Battle" is Graham and Alex soloing over a keyboard drone.
133	*** The one after "Trailerpark" is Graham and Alex playing a chugging {{Krautrock}} riff over a Casio drum machine.
134	*** The one after "Caramel" starts with a spooky, lo-fi keyboard melody before transitioning into a distorted, funky groove.
135	*** There's a similar hidden track after "Bugman", sometimes referred to as "Bugman Exitlude": the song itself ends with overwhelming guitar noise and the sound of a motorbike starting up, before switching into an almost funky bassline played by Alex, Dave pounding the drums in unison with an electronic drumloop, Graham adding some fuzzed-out complementary licks, and Damon singing "space is the place" in falsetto.
136	** ''Think Tank'' hides "Me, White Noise" in the pregap before the first track in some editions.
137	** ''Blur'' hides "Interlude" in the length (as in ''inside'' rather than at the start or the end of the track) of the final track "Essex Dogs", making it look longer than it actually is. In the American release, the hidden track is added onto the end of "Dancehall" (a bonus track originally released as one of "Beetlebum"s b-sides) instead.
138	* {{Hypocrite}}: The narrator in "Parklife" who lambasts one person for being overweight and tells him to get some exercise, then later on mocks joggers.
139	* IndecipherableLyrics: With some regularity, especially when distorted vocals become their norm. "Theme from Retro" and "Bustin' and Dronin'" are probably the most notable examples of this.
140	* InTheStyleOf: Damon said that "Es Schmecht" was a "strange, Music/{{Can}}-influenced piece", with the bassline in particular being an attempt by Alex to emulate Can's bassist, Holger Czukay.
141	* {{Instrumentals}}: "Intermission" and "Commercial Break" from ''Modern Life is Rubbish'', "The Debt Collector" and "Lot 105" from ''Parklife'', the reprise of Ernold Same (included in Yuko and Hiro's length) from ''The Great Escape'', "Theme from Retro" and "Interlude" from ''Blur'', and "Optigan 1" from ''13''. There are also many instrumental b-sides.
142	* {{Irony}}:
143	** The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc0idORNd10 Chemical World]]" video is set in a forest area, a waterfall, and a large grassy field with many animals making an appearance, which is a stark contrast on a song with lyrics about adversities in urban life.
144	** They helped spearhead the Britpop movement in order to reclaim dominance from American music. ''Blur'' featured a whole new sound inspired by American bands like Music/{{Pavement}}.
145	* {{Keet}}: Damon Albarn on stage and in music videos is all over the place. This is especially noticeable in contrast to the rest of the band, who don't have a nearly as lively a stage presence as he has.
146	* LineOfSightName: In the Parklife era, Damon was partial to this for his lyrics. For example, "This Is A Low" borrows phrases from the shipping forecast, "Trouble in the Message Centre" takes several phrases from a phone and box of matches that were in his hotel room, and "Threadneedle Street" takes phrases from the Financial Times.
147	* LargeHam: "Mr. Robinson's Quango".
148	* LastNoteNightmare: "Sing".
149	* ListSong: The lyrics of "Far Out" are a list of stars and moons visible at night.
150	* LoopedLyrics: "We've Got a File on You" is... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin well... just that.]] And nothing else. "Jets" as well.
151	* LyricalDissonance:
152	** "Country House" is a bright, shiny pop tune about a horribly depressed rich man dealing with the emptiness of his existence.
153	** "Clover Over Dover", a seemingly cheery tune on a song about suicide. Even cheerier on its demo.
154	** "Ice Cream Man", the main track from ''The Magic Whip''? The lyrics might look fun and based on some nursery rhyme, but the true undertone is shown under the moody, bleak tune: ''The lyrics are about the Tiananmen Square massacre''.
155	** Many, if not most of their songs have LyricalDissonance to some degree. They epitomize the very {{Britpop}} tendency of marrying rather melancholic lyrics to bouncy, bubbly pop songs.
156	* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Implied by the first verse of "Song 2".
157	-->''I got my head checked''\
158	''by a [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable jumbo jet]]''\
159	''It wasn't easy''\
160	''but nothing is, no''
161	* MetalScream: A rather impressive one at the end of "Swamp Song".
162	* MinisculeRocking: A handful of examples: "Commercial Break" (0:50), "Bank Holiday" (1:42), "The Debt Collector" (1:41), "Lot 105" (1:17), "Chinese Bombs" (1:24), and "We've Got a File On You" (1:03). Additionally, the band's biggest crossover hit, "Song 2", barely misses the 2-minute threshold, clocking in at a mere 2:02.
163	** For b-sides there's "I'm All Over", which barely lasts 2 minutes, "Anniversary Waltz" (1:22), "Got Yer!" (1:47), "Beard" (1:43), and "Woodpigeon Song" (1:43).
164	* MoodWhiplash: Most of their pre-S/T albums are guilty of this, but ''The Great Escape'' in particular has this in spades - for example, the bright and energetic "Mr Robinson's Quango" leads directly into the melancholic and psychedelic-sounding "He Thought Of Cars", which itself leads into "It Could Be You", the happiest song on the entire album.
165	* MoodWhiplash: 13 alternates between mellow and heavy for its first 6 tracks. The second half of the album is generally ambient, with the exception of Trimm Trabb, which is more of an indie song.
166	* MundaneMadeAwesome: "This Is a Low", a sweeping, gorgeous, emotional, epic track ''based off of a weather forecast''.
167	* MurderBallad: "I'm Just a Killer for Your Love", [[IndecipherableLyrics if you can understand it]].
168	* MusicalSquares: ''The Best Of'', their GreatestHitsAlbum. Damon Albarn in his pre-Music/{{Gorillaz}} days takes the bottom left square.
169	* MusicVideoOvershadowing: "Coffee and TV". That video with the walking milk box.
170	* NewSoundAlbum: At least half of them.
171	** ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' introduced the Britpop sound that the band became famous for after the alt-rock sound of ''Leisure'' failed to make many waves in a primarily grunge-dominated scene.
172	** ''Blur'' broke away from the band's Britpop sound and shifted more towards a lo-fi/indie sound inspired by bands like Music/{{Pavement}}.
173	** ''13'' ventured into experimental, psychedelic, and electronic music.
174	** ''Think Tank'' took inspiration from a slew of genres (dance music, hip hop, dub, jazz, African music), influenced by Damon Albarn's side-project Music/{{Gorillaz}}.
175	** ''The Ballad of Darren'' takes prominent influences from lounge, chamber music, and baroque pop.
176	* NonAppearingTitle: "Repetition", "High Cool", "Clover Over Dover", "Song 2", "Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club", "M.O.R." (which stands for 'middle of the road', which ''does'' appear in the song), "Essex Dogs", "Country Sad Ballad Man", ([[DownplayedTrope technically]] - it contains the all of the words in the title, just not together), "Trouble in the Message Centre", and the alternate extended version of "Me, White Noise" (the original hidden track version averts this.)
177	* PacManFever: In "Jubilee", right after the lyric "So he just plays on his computer game" some beepy sound effects are played. {{Justified\|Trope}}, though, as the song was released in 1994 when arcades were still common enough for listeners to get the reference.
178	* PerishingAltRockVoice: Used in the shoegazing songs on Blur's first album, dropped for their Britpop albums (with a few exceptions), and then reappeared again from their self-titled album and onwards.
179	* PoesLaw: "Song 2" was written as a satire of {{grunge}}, but ended up being an archetype of the genre.
180	* PrecisionFStrike: In both the original and the alternative version of "Me, White Noise":
181	-->And you trip over yourself, and you think to yourself:\
182	'Why am I here?'\
183	I'm here because I've got no ''fucking'' choice
184	* ProtestSong: The rare single "Don't Bomb When You Are the Bomb" was written as a protest against the invasion of Iraq; most of its copies were handed out and destroyed at an anti-war rally.
185	* RearrangeTheSong: Several of the Leisure-era songs originally had hard drum beats (typical of the Seymour period), but they were changed to the groovier baggy beat at the insistence of their label. You can hear this particularly in comparing the Blur 21 demos of "I Love Her" and "I'm Fine" to the final versions, as well as numerous live shows from the period.
186	* RecycledLyrics: "Wear Me Down" and "Resigned" lift lyrics from the first two verses from "Mixed Up", one of the band's Seymour-era tracks.
187	* RedOniBlueOni: Blur themselves were the blue to Oasis's red oni during their rivalry. Within the band though, Damon and Alex are reds, while Graham and Dave are blues.
188	* {{Scatting}}: Very much! Let's see: "For Tomorrow", "Magic America", "Charmless Man", "It Could Be You", "Song 2", "Swamp Song", "B.L.U.R.E.M.I." and ''many'' more.
189	* SceneryGorn: [[https://preview.redd.it/5labrz0e71e41.jpg?auto=webp&s=74d845402ec55f2e238eeb2384f14f1fb0de83e4 The back cover of the self-titled album]].
190	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their fifth, which is when they abandoned {{Britpop}}.
191	* SelfBackingVocalist: Damon Albarn, frequently, with Graham Coxon doing additional back-up vocals as well.
192	* SelfReferentialTrackPlacement: "Song 2" is the second song on ''Blur'', lasts exactly two minutes and two seconds, was released as the second single from the album (after "Beetlebum") and peaked at #2 on the UK Charts. Almost as if they willed it.
193	* SensoryAbuse: The Seymour demo of "She's So High". The song was ''really beta'' by then and it's very clear it was made on some garage. What qualifies that demo into this trope, however, is that near the end of the ''eleven-minute repetition'', Albarn [[CarefulWithThatAxe starts screaming into the microphone]] and it ''[[HellIsThatNoise audibly distorts every time he raises his voice]]''. Yeah, we are indeed glad they reworked the song enough to become good material in ''Leisure''.
194	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: The premise of "Crazy Beat".
195	* SignificantAnagram: The title of "Dan Abnormal" is an anagram of "Damon Albarn". Albarn also made guest appearances on Elastica songs under anagram pseudonyms, once as Dan Abnormal and once as Norman Balda.
196	** The other bandmembers get this treatment in the "M.O.R." video, with Graham Coxon becoming "Morgan C. Hoax", Alex James becoming "Lee Jaxsam", and Dave Rowntree getting "Trevor Dewane".
197	* ShoutOut:
198	** "This is a Low" contains references to the BBC Shipping Forecast, which the band listened to while touring in America to alleviate their homesickness.
199	** The video for "Country House" has a couple of tributes to Creator/BennyHill - Matt Lucas' doctor chasing women around like in ''Series/TheBennyHillShow'' and Ernie's milk van is a nod to his novelty hit "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)".
200	** The video for "The Universal" is one to Creator/StanleyKubrick and ''Film/AClockworkOrange''.
201	** The video for "To the End" is a shout out to ''Film/LastYearAtMarienbad''.
202	** The "Parklife" video is a homage to ''Film/TinMen''.
203	** Music/FelaKuti's drummer Tony Allen is given a shout-out in "Music Is My Radar", with the line ''"Tony Allen got me dancing"''.
204	* SoloSideProject:
205	** Graham Coxon wrote and released his own albums while the band was still together, and has continued his solo career post-breakup.
206	** Damon Albarn released both a couple of soundtrack albums and the first Music/{{Gorillaz}} album whilst the band was originally together. He went on to make Gorillaz full time after ''Think Tank''.
207	* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: Song 2 goes "WOO-HOO".
208	* SpellingSong: "Top Man" and "B.L.U.R.E.M.I."
209	* SpokenWordInMusic: Time and again the band does this.
210	** "Parklife", most notably, with the verses being spoken by Phil Daniels and the chorus sung by Albarn.
211	** The "...and the radio says" before each chorus of "This Is a Low".
212	** In "Ernold Same", as if a story is being told.
213	** "Essex Dogs" too, this time with Albarn speaking almost the entire lyrics in an almost silent voice tone.
214	** "Me, White Noise", also featuring Phil Daniels.
215	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Graham Coxon sings on three songs he wrote, "You're So Great", "Coffee and TV" and co-lead on "Tender" and the B-side "Red Necks," while bassist Alex James wrote and sang on "Far Out" and (in a Chipmunked vocal) the B-side "Alex's Song." Dave Rowntree's only vocal is on the ''Think Tank''-era demo "Avoid the Traffic."
216	* StylisticSuck: Whilst their first two albums had produced a wealth of good b-sides (largely because most of them were in contention for the album at some point), the ''Parklife'' era singles were composed either of joke songs, or songs with uninspired lyrics. These include "Supa Shoppa" (a parody of bossa nova), "Beard" (a parody of jazz), "Theme From An Imaginary Film" (a song Damon wrote for the soundtrack of the film ''Decadence'' that the producer thought was terrible), "Anniversary Waltz" and "Got Yer!" (both Hammond organ waltzes, the latter with Damon impersonating Creator/MichaelCaine) "Threadneedle Street" (a song where the lyrics come directly from ''The Financial Times''), "Magpie" (a song where the lyrics are taken directly from the Creator/WilliamBlake poem "The Poison Tree"), "People In Europe" (a song where Damon speaks several languages badly), "Peter Panic" (a blatant Music/SydBarrett copy), "Rednecks" (a Graham-sung track that is a parody of Music/JohnnyCash), and to top it all, "Alex's Song" (where a folk song by Alex was put through a pitchshifter to make him sound like a chipmunk). The band's timing for these b-sides couldn't have been worse, as Music/{{Oasis}}' b-sides at the time were often considered better than album tracks (and thus, the comparison fueled the rivalry).
217	* ThematicSeries: ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'', ''Parklife'', and ''The Great Escape'' form a loose trilogy about the lives of the Working, Middle, and Upper classes in Britain, respectively.
218	* {{Theremin}}: "Essex Dogs".
219	* TitleOnlyChorus: "I'm Just a Killer for Your Love".
220	* TogetherInDeath[=/=]WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath: Milky the Milk Carton (and his strawberry milk carton lover) at the end of the music video for "Coffee & TV".
221	* TropeMakers: "Popscene" is sometimes considered the first Britpop single.
222	* TruckDriversGearChange: "B.L.U.R.E.M.I." and "Eine Kleine Lift Musik"
223	* VocalDissonance: Damon Albarn's average [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDswiT87oo8 singing voice]] early on versus his much deeper [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH8tWzYVblU speaking voice]].
224	* WeAllDieSomeday: "On Your Own"
225	-->I'll eat parole, get gold card soul\
226	My joy of life is on a roll\
227	And we'll all be the same in the end\
228	'Cause then you're on your own
229	* WordSaladLyrics: "People in Europe", in ''multiple languages''.

Context Music / Blur