NEW BLUR ALBUM - The Ballad Of Darren

[thespider]

So close to 13 million. Now that the album has been out for a month the viewership will begin to drop.

I remember seeing their Spotify stats at just under 6 million, so that's a huge rise. Lovely.

[bugman]

Sticks and stones on streamings

[loveinthe90s]

Auto-generated notes on Youtube say (about Sticks and Stones):

Bass: Alex James
Keyboards, Piano: Damon Albarn
Drums: Dave Rowntree
Mixer: David Wrench
Engineer: Giacomo Vianello
Engineer: Grace Banks
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals: Graham Coxon
Additional Production: Graham Coxon
Keyboards: James Ford
Producer: James Ford
Masterer: Matt Colton
Engineer: Samuel Egglenton
Additional Production: Samuel Egglenton
Writer: A. James
Writer: D. Albarn
Writer: D. Rowntree
Writer: G.Coxon

They are consistent with the liner notes on the booklet of the Japanese version so looks like they are reliable.

[Redneck]

Huh, I probably should have looks at that booklet. Didn't know that was there.

[Sledge Hammer]

The Dakota Hotel - Leeds??? they made some of the album there?

[northernmonkey]

Auto-generated notes on Youtube say (about Sticks and Stones):

Bass: Alex James
Keyboards, Piano: Damon Albarn
Drums: Dave Rowntree
Mixer: David Wrench
Engineer: Giacomo Vianello
Engineer: Grace Banks
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals: Graham Coxon
Additional Production: Graham Coxon
Keyboards: James Ford
Producer: James Ford
Masterer: Matt Colton
Engineer: Samuel Egglenton
Additional Production: Samuel Egglenton
Writer: A. James
Writer: D. Albarn
Writer: D. Rowntree
Writer: G.Coxon

Not reliable. That’s just the credits for the album as metadata.

The Japanese album has who is credited for this song in its booklet and reads as above.

[Neal Zeal]

Stupid question alert but ...
when Graham sings a Blur song, does it normally mean that he's written it, too?
Or at least written more of it than he would for most of their songs?

[idreamofpikas]

Stupid question alert but ...
when Graham sings a Blur song, does it normally mean that he's written it, too?
Or at least written more of it than he would for most of their songs?

Either he's written the lyrics or the song completely. Coffee and TV is a Blur song that Graham wrote the lyrics to. You're So Great may be a Blur song Graham wrote completely. As may Sticks and Stones. Y'All Doomed is pure speculation that it's a Graham written song. Given the nature of the Magic Whip coming largely from Blur jam sessions while on tour I was under the impression that it's a Blur written song.

My disagreement was with the idea that Y'All Doomed was written and recorded just by Graham with no other Blur member participating, and that Sticks and Stones was the same.

[vitekm]

The Dakota Hotel - Leeds??? they made some of the album there?

He played in Leeds with The Waeve in March. So maybe he recorded a bit of the song there.

[Neal Zeal]

Stupid question alert but ...
when Graham sings a Blur song, does it normally mean that he's written it, too?
Or at least written more of it than he would for most of their songs?

Either he's written the lyrics or the song completely. Coffee and TV is a Blur song that Graham wrote the lyrics to. You're So Great may be a Blur song Graham wrote completely. As may Sticks and Stones. Y'All Doomed is pure speculation that it's a Graham written song. Given the nature of the Magic Whip coming largely from Blur jam sessions while on tour I was under the impression that it's a Blur written song.

My disagreement was with the idea that Y'All Doomed was written and recorded just by Graham with no other Blur member participating, and that Sticks and Stones was the same.

Thanks - interesting to know.
'Sticks...' seems a bit so-so to me but only listened to it two or three times (on YouTube) so far.

[stephen]

Those piano keys in Sticks and Stones have to be Damon surely? feel like it's pretty obvious but might be wrong

[mizzuzjoja]

A month in now, and this album still doesn't really do it for me.

But combine the best of The Ballad of Darren -- The Ballad, St. Charles Square, Barbaric -- with about half of The Magic Whip -- Lonesome Street, Go Out, Thought I Was A Spaceman, I Broadcast, Ghost Ship, Pyongyang, Mirrorball -- and you've got a pretty solid late-career Blur album.

Right??

[Rubi]

A month in now, and this album still doesn't really do it for me.

But combine the best of The Ballad of Darren -- The Ballad, St. Charles Square, Barbaric -- with about half of The Magic Whip -- Lonesome Street, Go Out, Thought I Was A Spaceman, I Broadcast, Ghost Ship, Pyongyang, Mirrorball -- and you've got a pretty solid late-career Blur album.

Right??

The albums are 8 years apart, and are so different to each other. Doesn't really make sense to mix them together.

[Rubi]

Sticks and stones on streamings

Yay!

[Mallard No. 22]

Seem to have two conversations going on here...but I believe modern life is rubbish had so many good bsides because they are the ditched tracks from the 92 album that never came out?

From Select’s song-by-song rundown in 1995:

“All the songs for their second album had now been demoed at Matrix. Optimistically, they imagined a spring 1992 release. The tracklisting included ‘Oily Water’, ‘Mace’, ‘Badgeman Brown’, ‘Popscene’, ‘Resigned’, ‘Garden Central’, ‘Hanging Over’, ‘Into Another’ (aka ‘Headist’), ‘Peach’, ‘Bone Bag’, ‘Never Clever’, ‘Coping’, ‘My Ark’ and ‘Pressure on Julian’.”

You can tell the tracks from MLIR which had the plodding, shoegazy feel of 1991-92, but less prevalent by a year or so later.

Had this album been released in 1992, I wonder what the singles would have been, beyond 'Popscene'?