Blur Blur (2-LPs-180GV)

4 Stars (out of 5) - "...The scrupulous sonic contouring and porcelain finishes of Blur's last two albums have vanished. Blur's melodies, moreover, have abandoned much of their old Kinks-y fuss....What still makes them great is their deep grasp of style and genre..."
"Blur's highlights are consistently British-bred. 'Strange News From Another Star' is 'Space Oddity' -- suckled, glazed-eyeball pop psychedelia..."
7 (out of 10) - "...prefac[ing] the release of BLUR, Albarn...declared an allegiance with Pavement and Beck....But no amount of gratuitous distortion or mumbling could disguise the truth that...Blur have stumbled over the most accomplished record of their career..."
"...Up to now, Blur--Oasis' chief rival in the U.K.--have remained a nonentity in the States; this may be the album that finally brings them into focus." - Rating: B+
Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1997."
4 (out of five) - "...A whirl of weird esotericism, precious, precocious and impressively powerful, BLUR lurks in that grey area between work in progress, and progress is work..."
Ranked #14 on Melody Maker's list of 1997's "Albums Of The Year."
Recommended - "...BLUR is a statement if ever there was one. It's low-key, dirty, messy, minimal, a f***ing stampede from the pub jukebox into the garage....while slumming is repellent social behaviour, when it comes to making records it's a boon. That may or may not be why this is Blur's best album..."
Village Voice (2/24/98) - Ranked #38 in the Village Voice's 1997 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Ranked #50 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[T]heir imperial pop smarts benefit unexpectedly from being crushed and soiled, not just sonically, but emotionally."
Ranked #13 in NME's 1997 Critics' Poll.
7 (out of 10) - "...a giant step of reinvention....Old Blur was about strings finely plucked, about attention to detail, about rendering beautiful the substance of other people's lives. New Blur is about confusion, about what they feel and...about scuffed edges..."