Long considered a staple addition to the Britpop pantheon, Blur lead guitarist Graham Coxon has moved to clarify the band’s position within the ever-popular movement, by claiming that the group consciously tried to distance themselves from the genre with their self-titled 1997 album. The record, becoming a huge hit for the band, features songs “Beetlebum” and “Song 2.”
Conceived as a result of Coxon’s desire to embrace his more underground musical tastes and singer Damon Albarn’s willingness to change the sonic direction of Blur, the self-titled effort ultimately proved a resounding success for the band, particularly in the American market, where the band finally found mainstream success. The band’s fifth studio album, Blur featured a more aggressive sound, being compared to and taking inspiration from, American indie bands such as Pavement.
Coxon, in an interview with Mojo, explained that the sound and direction on the album was a very deliberate stepping back from the pop sound that made the band a leading force in Britpop and that Albarn agreed to the guitarist’s wishes to tap into preferences that he had harboured for some time.
Recalling the period and writing the album, Coxon said, “I decided to write a letter to Damon because I wasn’t confident enough to broach conversations about my needs. It was something like: ‘I’d like to start scaring people again, because at the start, we were into unease, songs like ‘Oily Water’ and ‘Resigned’. Let’s make a bloody row, and have fun.’ I didn’t get much of a reaction, but Damon did give me the steering wheel a little more. I think he was sympathetic, and keen, for everyone to express themselves, and for me to have moments to mess around with noise. I wanted to see what the guitar could do without much intervention from me.”
Speaking about how he felt Blur were painted into a Britpop corner, Coxon added, “we felt forced into this strange Britpop thing, which we had nothing to do with, but I suppose we tried to kill any stink of Britpop from our clothes and move away from our beloved Kinks – though there was still Bowie, because of Damon and [producer] Stephen Street. I think we found our own heavy psychedelia, rather than staying with Toad-of-Toad-Hall psychedelia.”
Despite initial fears by both the band and their label EMI, that the album would alienate their strong fanbase, Blur climbed the UK charts to reach top spot. The album was one of the band’s most successful in their catalogue and remains one of the band’s personal favourites.
