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Aug 09, 2012 Web Exclusive By Dan Lucas

At the time of this writing, the 2012 London Olympics are just around the corner and, despite this release fairly coinciding with the announcement of the Team GB athletics squad, most of the talk on these shores still seems to center on how the opening and closing ceremonies will showcase the best of British culture. Blur will headline a closing ceremonies concert in London’s Hyde Park, and to celebrate, they continue to consolidate their status as the band that matured post-Britpop with a new single.

Lead single “Under the Westway” is indubitably a beautiful track, a sad piano ballad in which frontman Damon Albarn, who scorned London on “Parklife,” celebrates “watching comets, lonesome trails” whilst lamenting their distance from his smoky suburb. If it’s not quite in the Cool Britannia spirit, the strings and guitar afford the song a hopeful, nostalgic tone recalling the band that made the great, mournful 13 at the ash end of their decade.

“The Puritan,” on the other hand, couldn’t be more different; its dizzying electro beats are more akin to the Blur that put “Crazy Beat” on Think Tank. The Blackpool Pier synth means it lacks that album’s seriousness though, and the “na na na na” refrain recalls the silliness of “Charmless Man.”

(www.blur.co.uk)

Author rating: 7/10