Quotable Posters

Imaginary Record Sleeves : part 9 : A Cornucopia by the Best Band ever, BLUR!

"He Thought Of Cars" by Blur

1. The more i listen to it, the more i think of "He Thought Of Cars" as the deformed, misshapen twin of "End of A Century"

2. I say this because of several reasons: (1) Both concern the future, and (2) the future described in the song is not a very pleasant one.

3. However, in "End Of A CEntury", at least the protagonist is content, comfortably numb, as Roger Waters might say. Although the end of the century is 'nothing special', they still find comfort in the mundanity of their lives.

4. On the other hand, "He Thought Of CArs" depict a very bleak future indeed.

5. Images of endless queues, cocaine ("Columbia is in top gear"), a feeling of pure loneliness in a crowd ("He thought of planes/ and where to fly them/ and who to fly them with/ there is no one"), hopelessness ("the Evening News/ says he was confused"), and something improbable becoming grimly true ("The motor ways will all merge soon / lottery winner buys the moon")

6. The contrast also extend to the music. While "End of a Century" sounds polished and pristine, "He thought of Cars" seem wobbly and distorted. Every instrument seem 'hung over': the drums nondescript, the guitars backward-sounding.

7. Thankfully, cheese tycoon Alex James is there to supply his melodic bass lines through out.

8. It also possess a beautiful tune, something it has in common with "... Century".

9. It's on the "Great Escape" LP. Dont listen to the band, who all hate it (except Alex). If you take it out of the hype, it stands as one of the great albums of the '90's.

10. I'm not persuading you. I'm simply telling you.

"End of the Century" by Blur

Blur’s album “Parklife” was released in 1994, when I was in high school. I remember I used to listen to it all the time in the car in the morning on my way to school. I remember that since the journey only took about 20 minutes, the listening experience only lasted till the end of the title track or the middle bit of “The Debt Collector”. To my ears at least, “Parklife” is a great pop album, filled with hooks and catchy tunes. But to some other people (in this case, my erstwhile driver, Pak Akub) it’s just too annoyingly weird.
I listened to it for weeks (I still do, though less frequently nowadays), and by the second week, even Pak Akup’s resistance to anything weirder than Elvi Sukaesih and Bang Oma proved futile. He was tapping his fingers and nodding his head along to it, especially the third track, “End of The Century”.
Now this is undeniably a superb song, Damon said in interviews that it was his favorite Blur songs for a long while. Even his nemesis Noel Gallagher grudgingly admitted that it’s ace. The melodies are delicious, and Graham’s guitar playing is fantastic as always. But if you listen to it on headphones or a very high volume, you realize the subtler touches : the “ooooh-aaaaah” backing vocals (still spine-tingling after all these years), the choir-like bridge, and the horns at the end.
It’s quintessential Britpop Blur, a high watermark of what was called by Graham as the Blur Stomp, which in subsequent efforts can be taken to effortless highs (“Charmless Man”) or absurd lows (“Mr. Robinson’s Quango”. Ugh, awful awful song).
Weird fact : “End of A Century” only charted at a lowly number 19 on the UK singles chart, probably not helped by a live video filmed at Alexandra Palace that features an inferior live version of the track.