Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock
Titolo: blur OUT OF TIME

lort...@hotmail.com
Don't bomb  
http://utenti.lycos.it/alexjames
Non si può dire che il video di OUT OF TIME sia bello. Voglio dire ,
chi è il matto che farebbe un video sulla marina militare durante una
guerra? Solo Albarn.
Ormai è lui che dirige tutto purtroppo. Fino a quando c'era Graham la
situazione era equilibrata , ma ora Albarn esagera.
Alex , Dave ma cosa fate?
"Out of time" bass tab by Don't bomb
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----0---5-1---3--0-
ecc.....

guerra? Solo Albarn.
non ha fatto un video durante la guerra, punto uno;
punto due, il video, che è in sintonia con il testo della canzone,
penso ci faccia riflettere solamente su una serie di questioni
semplici semplici: siamo tutti quanti tirati in ballo dalla naturalità
delle cose e dei sentimenti, anche i militari in guerra.....

 Alex , Dave ma cosa fate?
AMG REVIEW: As Blur commenced recording on Think Tank, their seventh album,
things got a little weird. Tensions between vocalist/songwriter Damon Albarn
and guitarist Graham Coxon reached a boiling point following Albarn's
success with his dance-oriented sideproject, Gorillaz, leading him to assert
dominance over the band, all of which were at odds with a newly sober and
somber Coxon, whose solo records were doggedly designed to appeal to small
audiences. According to most press reports, the breaking point was Damon
bringing in Fatboy Slim in for production work in Morocco (it's hard to
write those words without believing them to be parody), leading toward
Graham's acrimonious departure and the turgid mess that is Think Tank. Given
the Gorillaz and Fatboy Slim (who, after all the brouhaha, only produced two
tracks) connections, it's easy to assume that Albarn is pushing Blur toward
heavy, heavy dance album, which isn't strictly true, partially because the
band always has traded in alternative dance. Still, there's been a shift in
approach. Where they used to use disco and house beats as a foundation (see
"Girls and Boys" or "Entertain Me"), Blur now borrows modern dance's
fondness, even a reliance, on atmosphere over song and structure - which is
kind of ironic, of couse, since the group has always excelled at song and
structure in the past. In the post-Coxon era, all that's tossed aside as
Albarn turns his attention to electronic art-rock as thin as a dime. Make no
mistake, even if bassist Alex James and Dave Rowntree are along for the
ride, this is the sound of Damon run amuck, a (perhaps inevitable)
development that even voracious Blur supporters secretly feared could ruin
the band, and it has. Why? Because Albarn's talents cry out for a
collaborator. He has great ideas but he needs help not just in the
execution, but sorting out what ideas are good. The problem is, he's
charismatic enough to coast by on his book smarts and good looks, until
somebody - Coxon, Stephen Street, Dan the Automator - calls him into check,
and now that he's had enough success, he's convinced he can do it on his
own. So, Think Tank is the Damon Show, and it reveals that the emperor has
no clothes or sense. Apart from the fine, deliberate opening gambit of
"Ambulance" and "Out of Time" - the first a perfectly arranged, ominously
lush mood piece; the other a hushed, melancholic elegy in the same vein as
"To the End" and "Tender," though not as good as either - Think Tank sounds
for all the world exactly like Blur B-sides from Parklife to Blur, complete
with the hiccupping analog synths and meandering instrumentals, but without
the sense of songcraft and with less imaginative arrangements (remember,
elastic codas with a noodling saxophone line do not equal experimental; it's
lazy focus). Those songs that do sound more substantial than B-sides are
severely hurt by Coxon's absence: witness the pleasantly sweet "Good Song,"
built on a Pro-Tools acoustic guitar loop which drains the song of emotion,
when Graham would have let the song breathe, or how the creepy crawl of
"Battery in Your Leg" winds up eating its own tail through its hermetically
sealed arrangement. These problems all derive from one simple thing - since
Albarn has nobody to challenge him, he' s unwittingly pawning off an album
half-baked demos and unfinished B-sides. And this isn't the result of a
musical departure, unless you count the departure of songwriting - this is
the sound of Blur without the hooks, smarts, tunes, or even the sense of
adventure. Sure, it might be easier to accept if it was called a Damon
Albarn solo album, but that's splitting hairs. A lousy album is a lousy
album, no matter who gets credit. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine