Blur: Tender

Continuing my focus on the music of 1999, today’s selection is from the album 13 by Blur. Whenever you make a top 10 list, there are always albums that don’t make the cut even though you love them. This is that kind of album. It is the followup to the band’s American breakthrough album, Blur, which included their world-wide smash “Song 2.” While Oasis were more popular in the states, Blur were just as popular in their UK homeland, laid the original blueprint for the reinvention of Britpop, and were a better, more consistent, and more talented band. The reality, however, is that the band was already past their prime by the time America started to pay serious attention. 13 is an album that could have only been made by a band who had moved past their raw, innovative youth and landed in a mature creative space. While nothing on the record is as immediately impactful as “Song 2” or as full of youthful punk rock exuberance as the tracks on their earlier albums Modern Life Is Rubbish and Parklife, this is an album that many fans consider one of their best. Within two years, guitarist Graham Coxon would leave the band and frontman Damon Albarn would form the band Gorillaz. There was one more Blur album released before their official breakup (they would reunite later), but 13 still stands as the original band’s swansong and is a perfect bookend to the career of one of the most important bands of the ’90s.

To learn more about Blur, check out their Wikipedia page.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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