Blur’s eighth studio album opens with a ballad… titled The Ballad. Pretty, by the way, but one wonders: where is the rest of the group? This could have been on any other Damon Albarn project. Then comes St.Charles Squareand there, we recognize Blur: it’s unmistakably Graham Coxon on the guitar, this rough raw sound plowing a rock on which Albarn sings with his characteristic detachment — this one, just like the memorable rock-pop ritornello Barbaricwould not have been too safe Parklife (1994). At the end of the thirty-six minutes that lasts Tea Ballad of Darren (the shortest of the discography of Brit-pop heroes), we are reassured: this disc, certainly softer than expected, is not just an excuse to go on tour to play again GirlsBoys, Song 2 And On Your Own. There is heart, inspired reflections and some famous songs in there, including a sumptuous ballad composed in Montreal the last time Albarn visited us, last October, with Gorillaz, titled The Everglades (For Leonard). Cohen, of course.
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