Ten Great Albums From 2015, #2: Blur The Magic Whip (Parlophone)

Blur themselves seemed as surprised as we were when they dropped their eighth full-length out of the blue this year when a chance cancellation of the Tokyo Rocks Music festival resulted in the band doing some impromptu recording as they waited to leave Japan. The unplanned looseness shines through, and the air of not having any expectations somehow results in their best work to date. Seriously. This is the part of the review where drones like me say something like “…their best album since [insert acclaimed release]”, but The Magic Whip is a fully-realized universe that stands alone in the band’s catalog. There aren’t and oompah ooompah or woo-hoo songs, but there are 12 expertly constructed chapters that sound nothing like a band trying to revive some nostalgic Brit-Pop cash-grab, but rather mature artists darting headlong into the 2.0 phase of their career.

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