12. ‘There's No Other Way’

Single. Also on ‘Leisure’. Produced by Stephen Street.

Blur's intended second single, ‘Bad Day’, had been shelved after an unhappy session which saw Graham play bass in place of Alex, at the behest of the producer Steve Power. Stoned, 'baggy' beats were in the ascendant, and the period's other main genre, 'shoegazing' (a term coined by Andy Ross), while commercially redundant compared to Madchester, was a cause celebre in the London-based music mafia, and at 'indie' establishments such as the Thursday-nights club Syndrome in Oxford Street.

To compete, Blur were pushed into an area midway between Madchester and shoegazing - where they could hear both trenches but see nothing - and encouraged to go easy on their art-school leanings, going instead for the floating voter with their upbeat 'indie dance' songs. ‘There's No Other Way’ was a single that would unite both dance and indie factions. Yet Blur were, in truth, aligned to neither.

The band's first recording session with ex-Smiths producer Stephen Street (still Blur's producer of choice) was at Maison Rouge Studios in Fulham in the first week of January 1991. The session also yielded ‘Come Together’, which they held over for the first album. ‘There's No Other Way’ had been written quickly by Damon and demoed by the band as a fairly throwaway, non-groovy prototype - until Street bolstered Dave Rowntree with a ‘Funky Drummer’-esqye loop.

Despite being a straightforward dance-pop number with meaningless lyrics, ‘There's No Other Way’ is enjoyably dumb. Vocally, it recalls Syd Barrett when he was still enjoying himself, circa ‘See Emily Play’, 1967. Like Barrett on that song, Damon and Graham's harmonized voice almost smile on the choruses, as if in a secret druggy joke. (The fascination of young bands with the 49-year-old, reclusive Roger 'Syd' Barrett is easily explained. Barrett - Pink Floyd's founder, singer-songwriter and guitarist - was an attractive genius who lost his mind in 1967, aged 21. He is thus a sexy, mildly dangerous role model for easy-going, artistic, well-educated, white, English males. Also, trippy. Barrett-like music is fun to write and play.)

As well as the arresting, funky intro, Graham contributes another backwards guitar solo, for added trippiness, and Damon adds a two-note organ part. Alex, contemptuous of the bassist's role of adhering to the root of hte relevant chord, soars out in counterpoint and has enourmous fun.

‘There's No Other Way’ reached number 8, but its life is now over. It will never be played live again by Blur. Damon's prosaic writing songwriting vocabulary, a key offender here, would be cruelly exposed later that yeat on the inner sleeve of 'Leisure'. In 12 songs, the word "you" appeared 82 times; he used "day"/"say"/"play" rhymes on a shameless 35 occasions. His hazy, lazy, nihilistic thoughts were delivered in a Syd-like twang or a souped-down, southernised Ian Brown whisper. As for their performances on ‘There's No Other Way’, while by no means disgracing themselves, Blur were about to marginalise themselves perilously on the 'baggy'/FX-pedals cusp. With their next single ‘Bang’, they would come to be perceived as shallow and limited. In reality they were anything but.