Graham Coxon claims Blur “felt forced into this strange Britpop thing”
Blur guitarist Graham Coxon has discussed why the band “felt forced” into Britpop and how they managed to brush off the tag on their self-titled fifth album.
Coxon said the record was a “bit like us walking up a road and seeing what’s up ahead and wanting to try another route before we’d gone too far, a route that was more difficult and challenging, a more worthwhile route for us as musicians.”
He explained to Mojo how he penned a letter to Damon Albarn following their 1995 album The Great Escape telling him Blur needed to “start scaring people” with their music again. Although Albarn wasn’t particularly outwardly receptive, but did allow him to have more control on their next LP.
The guitarist continued: “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.”
Coxon elaborated: “I think we found our own heavy psychedelia, rather than staying with Toad-of-Toad-Hall psychedelia. But we also had a digital recording set-up that we could finally trust, making loops and stuff: hence Essex Dogs.”
Although the eponymous album saw Blur move into a new direction, helping bring the Britpop era to an end, Coxon says “it came from an authentic place”.
Meanwhile, Blur recently reunited this summer to release their new album The Ballad Of Darren and to play a series of huge dates, including two shows at Wembley Stadium.
Far Out’s official review of The Ballad of Darren reads: “It may not be the most heartwarming album of the year, but the fearlessness and unflinching emotion that fills up The Ballad of Darren is more than enough to place it proudly within the Blur canon.”
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