12 YIL SONRA BLUR: THE MAGİC WHİP – Blur Announce ‘The Magic Whip,’ First New Album in 12 Years

Londra çıkışlı, yılların eskitemediği müzik grubu Blur, 27 Nisan 2015′te tam 12 yıl aradan sonra yepyeni albümü ‘The Magic Whip’ ile geri dönüyor. The Magic Whip, gitarist Graham Coxon’ın da kadroya dâhil olduğu 16 yıl sonra gelen bir albüm aynı zamanda. Albüm Parlaphone etiketiyle yayınlanıyor.

2015′e adım attığımızda, birileri çıkıp bize Blur yeni albüm ile geri dönüyor deseydi, ‘Evet, güzel olur’ der ama pek de inanmazdık. Zira 2009′da bir dizi konser vermek üzere yeniden bir araya gelen topluluk, canlı performanslar serisine geçtiğimiz yıllar içerisinde aralıklarla devam etse de, yeni bir albüm yayınlayacaklarını hiçbir zaman teyit eden bir yaklaşımda olmamıştı. Şimdi, ne bekleyeceğimizi tam olarak bilemediğimiz yılın en önemli müzik haberlerinden biriyle karşı karşıyayız. En son 2003 tarihli ‘Think Tank’ albümüyle Blur adıyla albüm yayınlayan grup, ‘The Magic Whip’i Mayıs 2013′te Tokyo Rocks Müzik Festivali için bulunduğu coğrafyada, festivalin iptali sonrası yaklaşık 1 hafta kadar Hong Kong’da kaldığı dönemde kaydetti. Avon Stüdyoları’nda kaydedilen çalışma, pek de hesapta olmayan bir albüm özelliğini taşıyor. Bu bir yanıyla güzel, çünkü tatlı kazalar bazen umulmadık sürprizlere neden olabilir; ama bir yanıyla da çok da uğraşılmamış kimi iyi kimi vasat doğaçlama fikirler toplaması ile de bizi baş başa bırakabilir. Bunu biraz daha açacak olursak, Blur’ü ‘Parklife’, ‘The Great Escape’ ve ‘Blur (1997)’ albümleriyle sevenler önemli ölçüde hayal kırıklığına uğrayabilirler. Stephen Street’in prodüktörlük koltuğuna oturması bizi mutlu etse de, söz yazarlığı anlamında da aceleye gelmiş bir çalışma ile buluşacak olmak da risklerden bir tanesi. Her şey bir yana, eğer büyük bir grupsanız ve 12 yıl aradan sonra albüm yapmaya kalkıyorsanız, bu tereddütlerin olması kaçınılmaz.

12 şarkıdan oluşacak albümden ilk single olarak paylaşılan ‘Go Out’ yüzümüzü gülümsetse de, bir Blur single’ları toplamasında en kolay unutulabilecek parçalardan biriymiş izlenimini veriyor. Geriye kalan parçalarda bizlere yeni bir ‘Tender’ armağan edecek birçok seslilik, yeni bir ‘Out Of Time’ armağan edecek bir olgunluk ne kadar su yüzüne çıkar hepimiz merakla bekliyoruz. Gelin isterseniz bu sesli düşüncelerimizi bir kenara bırakalım ve bu yazıyı okuduğunuzda size eşlik edecek bir favori Blur listemizi sizlerle paylaşalım. Bu vesileyle, ne desek spekülasyon olacak ‘The Magic Whip’in gelişini de en güzel şekliyle kutlamış ve Blur’ü bir kez daha gülümseyerek hatırlamış olalım. Albüm yayınlanır yayınlanmaz burada Malum Çevreler’de ilk izlenimlerimizi de paylaşmak sözümüz olsun.

İşte ‘The Magic Whip’e yol yapan ışıl ışıl Blur listemiz:
Sunday Sunday
Chemical World
End Of A Century
Stereotypes
The Universal
On Your Own
Tender
Out Of Time
To The End
Crazy Beat

Blur Announce ‘The Magic Whip,’ First New Album in 12 Years

lur continued to fine-tune what they had worked on over the course of their few gigs together before briefly abandoning the project. Last November, Coxon revisited what they had worked on with producer Stephen Street, who had previously worked with Blur on 1993’s Modern Life Is Rubbish, the 1994 classic Parklife and the band’s 1997 self-titled LP.

“I was sitting on the sofa; other people were making music and getting on the radio and I hate sitting there not doing much when other people are making music and being told they’re great,” Coxon said. “I thought it would be great to go back — now that it’s fermented a while — and have a look. For want of a better word, there was some jamming; there was some sonic landscaping. I liken it to someone’s notes and we needed someone to organize them.”

After fleshing out the music, Albarn added his lyrics to the songs, resulting in The Magic Whip. “Graham came to me and said, ‘We’ve got something here,’ Albarn said. “I was really busy doing my own thing but they came back and played me what they’d done and I was like, ‘Oh no, this is really good.’ There were very mixed emotions for me. I really felt at the end of the last gigs we did, that that was it; that was the end. Not for any heavy reason, [but] it had run its course. There’s no way we could do another gig without a new record.”

The band noted that the secrecy surrounding the project allowed them to work without the pressure usually attached to “a new Blur record,” especially one with 12 years of anticipation.”It was really accidental. It was completely natural and spontaneous.” Albarn said. “I was just singing lyrically what was coming in my head.”

The group added that Hong Kong heavily inspired the album, including the LP’s artwork, which features the words “Blur” and “The Magic Whip” written out in Chinese characters. The new album announcement also arrived on Chinese New Year. Albarn’s lyrics were inspired by his experiences in Hong Kong and China, both with Blur and Gorillaz. “I’ve got a strong emotional connection to China,” he said. “I made sure everything was about that and us and how we felt when we were there and our relationship with each other, so it proved to be an interesting subject matter.

“There’s something about the studio we recorded it in, it was really different,” Albarn added. “I’ve recorded in a lot of places around the world and every place has its own spirit, so it was really interesting to make that decision it was going to be about Hong Kong. There’s points on the record where I think it really sounds like the stuff that David Bowie did in Berlin. There’s nothing pastoral about it. It’s very much an urban record.”

The news of a secret Blur album is especially surprising considering the ever-prolific Albarn’s own statements about his immediate plans musically. While the singer revealed that he planned on reanimating Gorillaz in 2016 and penning a follow-up to his The Good, The Bad and the Queen project, he told the Sydney Morning Herald last October, “I would imagine there’s some kind of future, but at the moment there’s no time for the future – only the present. Who knows? I’m reluctant to say anything [about Blur], because if I do, it just gets taken out of context and then I’m accused of being a wind-up.” More recently, Jamie Hewlett confirmed plans for a new Gorillaz album by revealing new sketches of the cartoon band members.

After disbanding following the release of Think Tank and then reuniting in 2008, Albarn, Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree recorded a pair of new songs, “The Puritan” and “Under the Westway,” rekindling hopes that the band would eventually make another studio album together. In addition to the new LP announcement, Blur also shared that they will headline London’s British Summer Time Hyde Park festival on June 20th.

When Rolling Stone asked about the possibility of a U.S. tour, Albarn slyly responded, “Maybe. It depends on whether anyone’s interested. If they are, then we’ll probably go. There are ways for them to let us know; very simple traditional ways.”

The Magic Whip track list

1. Lonesome Street
2. New World Towers
3. Go Out
4. Ice Cream Man
5. Thought I Was a Space Man
6. I Broadcast
7. My Terracotta Heart
8. There Are Too Many of Us
9. Ghost Ship
10. Pyongyang
11. Ong Ong
12. Mirror Ball