release date: May 5, 2003
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Ben Hillier and Blur
label: Parlophone - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 0. "Me, White Noise" (4 / 5) - 1. "Ambulance" - 2. "Out of Time" (4 / 5) (alt. live version) - 3. "Crazy Beat" - 4. "Good Song" - 5. "On the Way to the Club" - 7. "Caravan" - 10. "Sweet Song" - 11. "Jets" - 12. "Gene by Gene" - *13. "Battery in Your Leg"
*this video ends with the opening hidden track as some cd-issues put it at the end after a 1:20 minutes silence
7th (and so far final) studio album by Blur follows four full years after 13 (1999) is with new co-producer Ben Hillier. Also electronic musicians Norman Cook [Fatboy Slim] and William Orbit are credited for co-producing tracks on the album. On previous albums, guitarist Graham Coxon had always been adversary to Albarn's more experimental direction - here Coxon is near absent and only plays guitar on #13, as he was "excused" due to his alcoholism. Keyboards, programming and sound effects fill out the role of the traditional guitar on an album, which in a way turns out much more as an(other) Albarn-lead project.
It's both electronic, alt. rock and art pop, but it really comes out as a huge conglomerate with influences from hip hop, dub, jazz, Jamaican and African music. In that way it really consolidates Albarn's interest for mixing styles and genres as it's the first Blur album to be released after Albarn's project debut under the moniker Gorillaz.
I didn't pay the album much attention in 2003, neither a decade on, and I must confess that it's far from bad. In fact, it's like the majority of albums with Damon Albarn's signature: highly original with a certain amount of... genius about it. In the end, this is really such a great album, which still amazes me in terms of ingenuity and musical quality, and despite Parklife being the band's near-signature album of classic britpop, this one is just much more - it's daringly experimental without stylistic bonds, and at the same time really very coherent. To me it's easily my favourite album by Blur.
What I really like about it is the sense of a strict style without being able to point to any tracks proving that 'cause they're not alike, yet they constitute a common signature "matrix." And in that way it's also difficult to direct one's attention to obvious hits - I think the whole album is more of a conceptual album, which in other ways foresees Albarn's future solo-projects. At the time of the release I primarily regarded Blur as one of the genuine britpop bands that you could compare with Pulp, Oasis, and the like, but Blur is so much more than that, and with Blur (1997), 13 (1999) and Think Tank the band confirms the fact that I should've known back then - that Blur is / was a musical project of many styles a genres, and that the band should be much more lauded for its alt. rock releases than those associated with the early 1990s.
During the recording sessions for the album guitarist Graham Coxon left the band reduced to a trio. Coxon would not rejoin Blur again until 2009, and the band would remain on a hiatus in terms of recording new studio material.
Think Tank is easily Blur's best effort - ever. Highly recommendable.
NB! All artwork and direction - including the front cover - is credited British artist officially known as Banksy.
