The Blud the Magic Whip vinyl is a highly sought after collector's item for fans of the British band Blur. Released in 2015, Blud the Magic Whip is Blur's eighth studio album and their first in over a decade. The vinyl edition is cherished by fans due to its high audio quality and the visual appeal of the vinyl format. The Blud the Magic Whip vinyl comes in a standard LP size with a beautiful cover art. The cover showcases a vibrant cityscape, reflecting the album's themes of urban life and modernity. The vinyl itself is made of high-quality materials, ensuring a superior sound experience when played on a turntable.
The vinyl itself is made of high-quality materials, ensuring a superior sound experience when played on a turntable. The album features a diverse range of songs, each showcasing the band's ability to experiment with different musical styles and genres. From the catchy pop rock sound of "Lonesome Street" to the dreamy and atmospheric "Ghost Ship," Blud the Magic Whip offers a captivating listening experience from start to finish.
Blur: The Magic Whip review – friends reunited for a beautiful comeback
T here are two kinds of band re-formation. The first is so compellingly straightforward that the “classic” bands that haven’t done it now seem weirdly anomalous. You bury your differences, a process eased by the passing of time, the sagacity that comes with age and, frequently, the promise of a whopping cheque: if the past 10 years or so have told us anything about musicians, it’s that few things are as effective at resolving those bitter, decade-long feuds over guitar overdubs or backstage catering arrangements or the drummer’s taste in wives as the prospect of paying off one’s mortgage. Then you rehearse, book shows, and knock out the hits, knowing the crowd will be so overwhelmed by nostalgia they won’t complain even if your singer sounds like a man who’s clambered on stage at a karaoke night after six pints, wrested control of the microphone and started bellowing down it, the Stone Roses having apparently reunited specifically to prove this.
The second involves actually recording new material, and seems infinitely tricky, fraught with the issues: not clumsily besmirching your own legacy, making music that identifiably fits with your back catalogue without merely appearing to pastiche past glories. Indeed, it’s proved tricky enough to bring reunions to an end: Kim Deal left the Pixies; the Stone Roses and Pulp clearly decided it wasn’t worth the aggro, while Jerry Dammers recently noted that his desire to record new songs was among the reasons he swiftly exited the reconstituted Specials.
So you can’t really blame the reformed Blur for stepping rather gingerly around the issue of adding a new album to an oeuvre, which, if anything, feels more highly respected now than it did at the height of their success: once drowned out by the distracting sideshow of their “war” with Oasis, the subtlety and breadth of the music they made in the 90s is easier to appreciate. Since re-forming to rapturous response six years ago, Blur were reported to have made three attempts to record a new album, but released only three songs: Fool’s Day in 2010 and Under the Westway and The Puritan two years later. Until recently, Damon Albarn insisted that the most recent sessions, in Hong Kong in 2013, had been a failure. No wonder a lot of journalists present at the press conference to announce The Magic Whip – a new Blur album, carved out of the Hong Kong recordings late last year by guitarist Graham Coxon and producer Stephen Street, with Albarn subsequently adding lyrics and vocals – thought the singer looked a bit surprised to be there.
It’s certainly an odd way to make a comeback album. But perhaps its peculiar genesis – born out of jam sessions, moulded into shape by Blur’s other protagonist – is what prevents The Magic Whip from suffering the fate of 2002’s largely Coxonless Think Tank: an album that had plenty of great songs, but felt like a Albarn solo project struggling to pass itself off as a band effort. The Magic Whip doesn’t contain anything obviously resembling a big hit, a fact Blur seem to have addressed by heralding the album’s release with the most tune-free thing on it – the feedback-and-amplifier-hum-drenched Go Out – there are plenty of moments that sound comfortingly familiar. Go Out could have hailed from the sessions for 13, the zippy I Broadcast would comfortably slot into the tracklisting of Parklife, opener Lonesome Street does a lot of things Blur were famous for when Adidas Gazelles were compulsory footwear for young men with guitars. It variously drop its aitches, mentions commuters on “the 5:14 to East Grinstead”, pays homage to Syd Barrett – there’s a hint of Pink Floyd’s legendary unreleased 1967 single Vegetable Man about Coxon’s vocal interjections – and has a go at consumer culture “mass produced in somewhere hot”: if it doesn’t feature someone shouting “Oi!”, it does feature some perky whistling.
This is all good fun, but The Magic Whip really comes into its own, in every sense, when it sounds least like music Blur fans will already own, when it most fits Coxon’s description of its contents as “sci-fi folk”. There’s a popular belief that one of the reasons Blur split up was that the band was incapable of containing Albarn’s increasingly eclectic musical interests, but The Magic Whip frequently suggests otherwise, finding a fascinating common ground between his and Coxon’s apparently divergent solo careers. Pyongyang finds the restlessly peripatetic singer boggling with horrified fascination at the North Korean capital over a weird, unsettling musical backdrop of tinny drum machine beats, vocal samples and organ; Coxon’s guitar sounds ghostly, it shivers and trembles, perfectly matching the lyric’s alienation. Mirrorball matches eastern-sounding strings to twanging, reverb-heavy guitar, while Thought I Was a Spaceman, the kind of delicate Bert Jansch-inspired fingerpicked guitar found on Coxon’s 2009 album The Spinning Top, rubs up against electronic noises and rhythms created on Albarn’s iPad, as they were on Gorillaz’s last album, The Fall.
Moreover, for music apparently jammed together during a few days’ downtime on tour, The Magic Whip is abundant in beautiful songs. Hazily lovely melodies wind through My Terracotta Heart, Ghost Ship and the peculiar stew of military drums, high-drama strings and vocodered vocals that makes up There Are Too Many of Us. New World Towers – more alienated boggling at foreign landscapes – is the kind of gorgeous, careworn ballad that’s quietly become Albarn’s signature style over the course of his solo work, a relative of everything from Hostiles on last year’s Everyday Robots to The Living Sea from his Monkey opera.
At least in part, The Magic Whip seems to owe its existence to Albarn’s dissatisfaction with Think Tank as the band’s final album-length statement: that sounded like the work of people at the end of their tether: “I’m here because I’ve got no fucking choice … Can we stop now, please?” Albarn sang on the track Me, White Noise. If The Magic Whip does turn out to be Blur’s final album, it’s certainly a nicer way of ending things, with its touching images of older, wiser men happily reconciled with each other and their past. There’s a lovely moment on Thought I Was a Spaceman, when Albarn dolefully remembers himself escaping to Africa, “digging out my heart, in some distant sand dune”. There’s a pause, then he mumbles “in Hyde Park” – the scene of one of Blur’s triumphant 2009 reunion shows – and the track suddenly lifts off, in a burst of euphoric synthesizer and woozy, My Bloody Valentineish guitar. And yet, for all its lyrical tying-up of loose ends, it’s hard not to hope The Magic Whip isn’t Blur’s last word. Musically, they don’t sound like a band taking a final curtain call. They sound like a band filled with ideas and potential new directions, who have plenty left to do together, if they choose.
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One of the standout tracks on the album is "Ong Ong," a melodic and upbeat song that encapsulates the energy and spirit of Blur's sound. The vinyl format enhances the listening experience, allowing fans to appreciate the intricate instrumentals and rich vocals in a way that digital formats might not capture. In addition to the stunning sound quality, the Blud the Magic Whip vinyl also includes a booklet with lyrics and artwork. This adds an extra layer of appreciation to the album, allowing fans to immerse themselves further into the world that Blur has created. Overall, the Blud the Magic Whip vinyl is a must-have for any Blur fan or vinyl collector. Its superior audio quality, visually appealing cover art, and additional booklet make it a valuable and cherished addition to any collection. Whether enjoyed as a nostalgic trip down memory lane or as an introduction to Blur's music, the Blud the Magic Whip vinyl is a true gem..
Reviews for "The Story Behind the Title: Blud the Magic Whip Vinyl"
- Emily - 2/5 stars - The "Blud the magic whip vinyl" was a big disappointment for me. The songs lack energy and there is a serious lack of memorable hooks or melodies. It feels like the band was just going through the motions, without any real passion or creativity. The production is also incredibly weak, with everything sounding muddy and flat. Overall, this album just didn't do anything for me and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for an exciting and engaging listening experience.
- John - 1/5 stars - I can't believe I actually wasted my money on the "Blud the magic whip vinyl". The songs are dull and repetitive, with no real standout tracks. The lyrics are uninspired and the vocal delivery is lackluster. The whole album just feels like a bunch of throwaway B-sides that never made the cut for any of their earlier albums. Plus, the vinyl itself is of poor quality, with lots of surface noise and pops. Save your money and skip this one.
- Sarah - 2/5 stars - As a longtime fan of the band, I was really disappointed with the "Blud the magic whip vinyl". The songs lack the energy and creativity that made me fall in love with Blur in the first place. It feels like they were trying to experiment with a new sound, but it just didn't work for me. The songwriting is weak and the melodies are forgettable. Overall, this album feels like a misstep in their discography and I hope they can redeem themselves with their next release.