Current listening, and I think all I’m going to be listening to for the next week or so, is The Magic Whip, the new Blur album. A couple of immediate thoughts that sprung to mind upon second listen yesterday: Firstly, the full album is very different from the tracks released to promote it; “Lonesome Street” and “I Broadcast” in particular feel like attempts to reclaim past glories, and the album as a whole is something else (and something better) entirely. Secondly, of the new songs, a number of them feel immediately familiar, which is not only a neat trick, but something that makes me think if they’re ripping off (”homaging,” to be polite) something else that I can’t immediately put my finger on.

Nonetheless: It’s a strong album, but more in the “flawed as an album, but with lots of great songs on it” strain of Think Tank than the “sounds best when you listen to it from start to finish straight through” nature of Parklife or Blur.