This sounds like an automatic disaster waiting to happen. It's unfortunate that a favourite band wishes to commit music suicide so readily. And another solo project from Damon? Wasn't "Mali Music" evident enough that he shouldn't go in that direction again? Yeesh!

Another from NME:

Blur reveal new album plans
And there's a change of direction in store

Blur are to record their "basic" new album as a three piece after Graham Coxon decided to continue as a solo artist.

Singer Damon Albarn has revealed that with no sign of Coxon rejoining his old band, Blur will record the follow-up to 'Think Tank' without an additional guitarist. As a result, the sound will be completely different.

"There is a Blur record at the moment but it's very basic," explained Albarn of the album, which could be out next year. "The reason why it's so basic is we decided that if we're going to make another record it's just got to be the three of us and I've got to play guitar. And because I'm such a rudimentary guitarist it has to be really stupid and basic punk rock."

However Blur and Gorillaz are not Albarn's only projects as he confirmed he is currently working on his first solo album - and like his previous side project 'Mali Music' it will have a global element.

"I'm halfway through a record that I started in Nigeria last year," said the Blur frontman. "I suppose will end up being my first solo record, although I hate the term 'solo record'."

Speaking to Hong Kong radio station RTHK3 shortly after Gorillaz completed their War Child track in the city, Albarn added that although Gorillaz are about to reveal their human forms with their five night November residency in Manchester, becoming an animation was been a good career move.

"We wouldn't be as successful as we are in America if we weren't a cartoon band," he declared. "You can't be white and from London and produce hip hop - it's illegal actually, in America."

I'd be extremely curious to hear this, although I'm not sure how they can continue to be a cohesive Blur with GC.

it'll be as embarrasing as Gorillaz and Think Tank.

Think Tank & 1st Gorillaz album > yo mama

sorry Borg, but they're dreadful.

I agree with the title of this thread wholeheartedly.
Which is sad, because they are one of my favorite bnands of the last 10 years or so.

for what it's worth, i didn't think "think tank" was terrible. it was more enjoyable than not, despite being far from an ideal blur album. i trust that they'll make the most of a bad situation. hopefully with less electronic elements.

and the first gorillaz album was great in all its weirdness, which was kind of endearing. i haven't heard that much of the new one. i kind of passed it off after the first listen but it really isn't as bad as i made it out to be. i enjoy the new single and the rather odd video containing the bloated frankenstein head of shaun ryder.

You leave unanswered the charge that your mother is not as wonderful as dreadful Blur/Albarn projects, though.

Do you hate your mom?

I must be one of the few who really enjoys the hell out of (most of) Think Tank. Could do without "Crazy Beat" and some other song I can't think of. If I listen to Blur, it's most likely TT.

i actually thought think tank was quite good. i also think that this could turn out quite well too. they dont have any other direction to go imo anyway. its either get more weird or get less weird, and i think they made the right choice.

I didn't mind Think Tank that much, it had it's moments. Albeit, it strayed quite far from their original incarnation.

As long as they never, ever do anything as patently fucking awful as 'Tender', I'll continue to listen. I might not always like it, but I'll listen.

Think Tank would be down the list of great Blur albums but I mean, come on, it wasn't that bad.

In fact it was a lot better than many of the 'bright new things' that get touted around here.

well, my mom is dead, but she was quite wonderful, if not more than Blur.

Oops. Now the joke isn't funnay anymore.



My love for Think Tank must be somehow related to my love for Machina. I seem to love albums that are considered the worst in a band's discography.

THINK TANK = MY FAVORITE BLUR ALBUM

Adore was my least favourite Smashpups album. I loved Machina...

Think Tank has got to be one of the worst albums period. Awful. So I have no faith in the new one.

i like a few songs of think tank.....battery in your leg comes to mind (w/ coxon) and out of time.

i like both gorillaz.

i don't understand the hate for the new gorillaz. i thinks it's class.

i'll wait to hear the new one before passing judgement.

"Dare" is a great song

Think Tank is fantastic. It was way better than that shitty Radiohead album that came out right around the same time.

And they don't need Coxon anymore anyway. Have you heard Graham Coxon's solo albums? Complete garbage, all six or seven of them.



Okay, Happiness in Magazines is decent.

Graham Coxon's "Happiness in Magazines" was a top 10 of 2004 for me.
In fact, it bests many group's discs from that year -- and that was a very good year.

Blur could release a new EP this year, according to reports.

Last month singer Damon Albarn revealed that Blur will record the follow-up to 'Think Tank' without an additional guitarist, and hope to release a new album next year.

Now, he's said that an "aggressively laid back" EP could be released in 2005.

He told XFM: "I think we're gonna do an EP first, sometime by the end of this year. But you probably won't know about it. It'll just 'come out'. It'll be so, sort of, underplayed. It'll come out but you won't know it's us as it'll be so, well, not us. We've got the songs but we're gonna record them in a few hours and just be very laid back about it. But not musically laid back. It'll be aggressive. Aggressively laid back. It's the total opposite of Gorillaz."

He continued: "I can't really make another Blur record that's a big landscape sort of thing, due to my very basic guitar ability. I want to sing and play so it has to be three chords. I can only do three chords and not look at the guitar."

Blur are also planning to play "a couple of pubs" around Christmas, according to the singer.

I don't have much faith in a Blur without Coxon. Never gave Think Tank much of a listen, doubt I will with this next one.

He's obviously not heard of Goldie Lookin Chain.
NOT from London, but from the U.K....practically the same thing.