Product Description

13 marks Blur hitting the 10-year mark as a band. During their first decade, the band went from being lumped in with Manchester bands such as Happy Mondays to becoming Brit-pop foils to Oasis. Their self-titled 1997 release found them inhabiting the same lo-fi neighborhood as American indie rockerslike Pavement. On 13, the London based quartet joins forceswith techno-pop producer William Orbit on a record whose inclusiveness manages to find room for both the gorgeous, choir-adorned "Tender" and "B.L.U.R.E.M.I"., a song that sounds like the illegitimate offspring of Wire, Devo, and Rick Dees.
Blur's work with Orbit finds them plunging deep into a lake of space-rock overflowing with wondrous sounds such as the pinging, Floyd-like tinkling, and hypnotic rhythms of "Battle", and the sputtering transmissions and bristling distortion permeating "Bugman". In straddling the dissolving lines between genres in the late '90s, Blur manages to trod the same ground as Underworld on "Trailerpark" and subscribes tothe aforementioned jittery, lo-fi aesthetics on "Trimm Trabb". Despite all this experimentation, Blur still sneaks in perfect pop nuggets such as "Coffee & TV", where cheery harmonies share space with a squealing guitar.

Track Listing

1. Tender
2. Bugman
3. Coffee And TV
4. Swamp Song
5. 1992
6. BLUREMI
7. Battle
8. Mellow Song
9. Trailerpark
10. Caramel
11. Trimm Trabb
12. No Distance Left To Run
13. Optigan 1

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3983 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-15
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It all begins with a music-box noise, not entirely unlike the beginning of Trumpton (you know, the kids' programme with the curiously named firemen). Welcome to yet another new identity for Blur. Gone are the caricatures of bed-and-breakfast owners and bankers, the cockernee knees-ups, football and pub laddisms. 13 is the starkest, most personal Blur album ever, going further in the direction the previous self-titled album hinted at. Dealing, for the most part, with frontman Damon Albarn's broken relationship with Elastica's Justine Frischmann, it's as if Blur have ripped their heart out and left the bloody mess for all to see. "Tender", with its repetitive cycle of a tune and gorgeous gospel choir, must surely remind you of someone special, while "No Distance Left to Run" is pure, unashamed heartbreak. Relief comes in the form of the sweet, Graham Coxon-penned "Coffee and TV" and "B.L.U.R.E.M.I", which recalls their punkier days. Oh, and "Bugman" appears to have utilised the previously untapped musical properties of a vacuum cleaner. "Country House" this is not. --Emma Johnston

Customer Reviews

Differcult and intresting (perhaps their best)
Stripped down lyrically with walls of ambient sound you'd almost think 13 was inspired by Kid A but amazingly the Blurs had this idea first yet didn't get the recognition. Initially 13 throws down two of Blurs most notorious anthems Coffee and TV and Tender, their most fun thrashers Swamp song and Bugman and saves all the bizarre moments to the last 2/3's of the album. At first its difficult to know what to think of it as the final 40 minutes of the album seem to feature nothing that really classifies as a song in the Blur sense and you really need to listen hard to realise what is going on. 1992 brings us back to Sing (the b side) era Blur and it doesn't really go back. In the latter part of the album there's high experimentation, minimal percussion, stabbing guitar and pessimistic beauty in the line of Radiohead (Damon's vocal delivery in Battle being a definite highlight) Trimm Trabb makes a return to brit pop eske Blur if in a contrasending way `All those losers out on the piss again' only now behind layers of heavy echoey sound. No distance left to run is the finalie an under produced ballad that unabashedly showcases heart break. Its probably my favorate Blur album but its hardly the starting point for new fans like Parklife / The Great Escape or Blur. Approach with caution and make the effort and you will be rewarded.

Should've taken it back......
Having just recently sorted through my hundreds of CD's I came across '13'. I haven't played this for years. This is about the only CD I've ever bought that I came close to taking back to the shop from which I had bought. It couldn't have been that bad? Maybe after all these years I could listen to it with more mature ears? Alas, its still awful. Only three songs stand out. Tender, Coffee & TV and No Distance Left To Run.

Save your money and move on.

7/10. 'No More Distance Left to Run'
This album certainly marks the end of an era, whether it be Britpop, the 1990s or Blur in their original formation, before Graham Coxon left the band. Whereas the brilliant Think Tank could be said to be a Damon Albarn project in the vein of Mali Music, Gorillaz or The Good, The Bad & The Queen, this is the sound of a band at the end of the line - literally with No More Distance Left to Run. This sense is impounded by its sometimes dispiriting focus on the death of Albarn's relationship and the fact that it was followed by a summary (pre-Think Tank) Best Of compilation. Its a very odd album in retrospect, veering between blustery, ephemeral punk and expansive, even progressive tracks - historically uneasy bedfellows. William Orbit's sonic embellishments are conspicuous and not always successfully absorbed into Blur's 'sound', which by this point was in an ongoing transitional tailspin. It is interesting to note that Orbit's contributions are more heavy-handed than Fatboy Slim's involvement on Think Tank, a collaboration that is said to have been the root of Graham Coxon's departure.

The folksy gospel of 'Tender' remains more of an idea than a song; a stylised mood-piece but with highly personal lyrics, it is a song I admire more than I actually enjoy. Slightly overlong, it nevertheless reveals the broadening of Albarn's musical horizons that would be explored more fully on Think Tank and various side projects. 'Bugman', 'Swamp Song' and 'BLUREMI' are all throwaway punk that ape but lack the curveball shock of 'Song 2'. The single 'Coffee and TV' maybe there last pitch-perfect pop track, although it also goes on longer than necessary. 'Trim Trabb' and especially '1992' find Albarn sounding his most inert and dispirited, with the former track's depressing vision of "all those losers on the piss again". It sounds like Albarn has fallen out of love with England altogether; "That's just the way it is", he says, "... I sleep alone", as the song descends into chaos. 'Caramel' starts as a poignantly raw ballad but Orbit's sonic graffiti is more alienating than enlightening, while 'Trailerpark' is too contrived to take seriously. Part Underworld, part Death in Vegas, this track plunders its influences too literally. 'No Distance Left To Run' is undoubtably the album's masterpiece - providing some of the atmosphere of 'Tender' but with less style and more soul. One of the great modern break-up songs, it affrirms Albarn's (underrated) skill for writing ballads. Overall, its a mixed bag; the sound of a band unsure of their direction and most-likely pulling in different directions. Arguably Albarn reached his creative peak after this period, but it remains to be seen if Blur will continue to record or function as a real band.