Staying cool under pressure and delivering an effortlessly superb piece of work, Blur use the things that made them great in the past, combine them with the things they’ve learned since, and emerged revitalised to create something that feels familiar yet fresh.
The Magic Whip turns out to be a triumphant comeback that retains the band's core identity while allowing ideas they'd fermented separately over the past decade to infuse their sound with mature and peculiar new flavour combinations.
The Magic Whip is genuinely brilliant and a welcome edition to the bands growing back catalogue. I guess all that remains now is to formally welcome these London boys back to where they belong: The forefront of contemporary British music.
Like I said, don’t call it a comeback, abandon any knee-jerk sense of surprise, it’s Blur at the top of their game, as they had been, as they should have always been, as they deserve to be.
This is more than a nostalgic retread. The Magic Whip continues along the weird and winding path first trod by Blur’s two previous, and most complex, LPs.
At its best, The Magic Whip has all the charm of Blur at their most mysterious, and little of the laddish triumphalism of Blur in headline slot mode.
Blur's first album in 16 years to feature the original lineup does the right amount of looking inward and outward, forward and backward.
For a collection with an eye on the setting sun and the slow decline, it’s a fine late flowering. If they’ve made it, finally, to the end, there’s nothing to regret here.
The Magic Whip is a fascinating snapshot of a group coming to personal and professional crossroads in a strange city where modern living leads to bewilderment and alienation.
At its best, The Magic Whip thrums with ideas and possibilities.
Musically, they don’t sound like a band taking a final curtain call. They sound like a band filled with ideas and potential new directions, who have plenty left to do together, if they choose.
This sense of duty might go some way to explaining the less destructive and far more unifying approach to these songs; add in Stephen Street ... and you get the band’s most natural sounding album in over twenty years.
It’s up there with Blur’s best albums, and a reminder of just how well the band reconcile their divergent ideas.
Blur have returned with inspiration to spare.
The Magic Whip succeeds splendidly in coming across as a comeback album that hasn’t been overthought, flashing a nonchalant dare to any prospective Oasis reunion project.
There’s never been a Blur record that’s flowed as well as Magic Whip; you might have to go all the way back to Modern Life Is Rubbish to find one that even comes close.
No, they’ve not come back to rehash the hits. But on that ninth listen, with the lights off, they’re a band still able to find new emotional triggers their contemporaries have yet to discover. Their magic remains as strong as ever.
That they were able to put another six years of touring and botched recording sessions behind them and put out this long-gestating, bizarre little Blur album is a testament to the band’s separate creative energies, pooled back into one. The Magic Whip sounds like what these guys were always meant to do.
On The Magic Whip, it's clear that the band has benefitted from some time apart.
The Magic Whip isn't a triumphant return of a Britpop champion; instead, it's a mature, measured document from a band that's never rested on its laurels.
In the moments when The Magic Whip is most interested in sounding like a Blur album, it is perhaps too interested.
All The Magic Whip tries to be is nothing more than the band in their purest form, deprived of all commercial considerations so that their eccentricities are all that remains.
Britpop heavyweights Blur make an enjoyable and varied return with The Magic Whip.
Even with its faults, The Magic Whip is remarkably cohesive; not a single track is superfluous, flippant, or jarring. While Blur may not have the perceptible onerousness for each other that they did fifteen years ago, they certainly have the zeal.
The key to embracing Blur in 2015 is remembering it’s not the fresh-faced Britpop band with dreams of arch world domination, but a group who convene when they feel they have something to say and musical ideas worthy of sharing. In that respect, The Magic Whip is more successful than not.
The Magic Whip is far from perfect and it's far from the best album by a band whose greatest strength I've always considered to be their hits. It has to count as a success though, because Blur sound like a band from 2015 rather than 1995.
There is heart here, despite the often airless production, deliberately claustrophobic, like the city that inspired it. Repeated listens make the gems shine brighter ... Yet other moments weather less well, sounding exactly like what they are: raw material worked up in just five days.
When Blur gets restless, unspooling new tricks and tempos, The Magic Whip feels emphatic. If it rocks, it fits perfectly in a live setting, easy to place among their best-ofs. But when it slumps, it really crumbles.
Blur are still capable of writing truly great music; their 2012 single “Under the Westway” was one of the best things that they’ve ever done. But the new album fails to deliver on that promise, and I’m still scratching my head as to why they bothered.
I’d kill for ice cream rn holy shit
Blur’s comeback album, Magic Whip is a pretty solid return to the band’s sound. It kinda feels like they picked up right where they left off. Nothing crazy new for the band here, but it’s a decently consistent listen. There are really two main highlights for me, those being Thought I Was a Spaceman and Ghost Ship. The ladder is a groovy and catchy little tune, and the former has some cool sounds and melodies going on. The rest is ... read more
This album has some nostalgia for me because I saw them play at Madison Square Garden on this tour.
I dont mind this album as I do enjoy the more expiermental qualities of it. It reminds me of some of the more interesting moments on 13 and Self Titled but unfortunatly i feel like it lacks the youthful edge those albums got. It is a decent album but not one of my favorites.
Recently I started to really focus on this awesome band ; idk why, I never listened to any of their songs with a lot of attention. Blur is such a unique group, with unique texts, themes, melodies... "Terracotta Heart" and "Lonesome street" are my favs from this album : I love melancholic songs, and "The Magic Whip" mixes all the most melancholic songs of Blur... So I'm happy ! I'll soon make other reviews of this awesome band.
Re-review: I still think that half of the songs are mid.
FAVS: Ghost Ship, Lonesome Street, I Broadcast.
1 | Lonesome Street 4:22 | 82 |
2 | New World Towers 4:03 | 74 |
3 | Go Out 4:40 | 72 |
4 | Ice Cream Man 3:25 | 74 |
5 | Thought I Was a Spaceman 6:16 | 83 |
6 | I Broadcast 2:51 | 74 |
7 | My Terracotta Heart 4:05 | 82 |
8 | There Are Too Many of Us 4:25 | 76 |
9 | Ghost Ship 4:59 | 86 |
10 | Pyongyang 5:47 | 81 |
11 | Ong Ong 3:08 | 79 |
12 | Mirrorball 3:37 | 78 |
#4 | / | Q Magazine |
#8 | / | musicOMH |
#10 | / | Rolling Stone |
#11 | / | Diffuser |
#12 | / | FasterLouder |
#13 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#15 | / | Magnet |
#15 | / | NME |
#17 | / | Uncut |
#18 | / | MOJO |