 |
|
 |
| • Discography • Lyrics • History • Archive • Links • Damon • Graham • Alex • Dave • Media • Random page |
Back to: Archive · 1999 Give us our Dalai bread! Tibet Freedom Concert, 13th June 1999, Amsterdam RAI Park Hall From the NME, 26 June 1999. Review by Stephen Dalton. Edited to exclude the non-Blur reviews. Fortunately, headliners Blur are on hand to snatch victory from the jaws of a toothy Canadian [Alanis Morissette]. Damon's shaggy and bestubbled, a millionaire tramp who wants us to believe he's just got out of bed. Which is great, of course, and the closest thing to a proper star performance we've seen all day. 'Tender' is first and vital, especially now it seems to have acquired a zingy new country-rock spring in its lolloping step. 'Coffee And TV' more than justifies its tortuous choice as a single, all skimming waves of fuzzy-warm melancholy, Graham's faltering vocal sounding simultaneously light and deep. Clever. And '1992' is magnificent, stretched out to a ragged mantra as Damon's mournful melancholy unspools into echo-chamber abstraction. Less impressively, this set fields almost nothing from before '13' - all the more frustrating when you consider how deathlessly lame 'BLUREMI' still sounds, like a Hale & Pace punk pisstake. But 'No Distance Left To Run' is pure beauty and pain, and probably their finest yet. Here Blur finally prove they can balance weird'n'wonky with sad'n'soulful - not forgetting their ever-present dollop of arch'n'artful. Which is their saving grace, of course. If only Alanis or Shirl[ey Manson - Garbage] could be this contrived, they might manage to be this magnificent too. And maybe then - who knows? - pop music might save the world from oppression. |