FEATURE:
Second Spin
Blur – Leisure
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IT is amazing that Blur’s debut album…
IN THIS PHOTO: Blur in 1991
turns thirty later this year. Released in August 1991 on the Food label, Leisure is considered one of the band’s weaker efforts. There have been some articles since the release that have defended the album and cast it in a new light. Maybe it was not overly-celebrated when it was released but, in the years since, it has aged well - and people have highlighted definite positives. I think a lot of people focus on bigger tracks like There’s No Other Way and She’s So High; they almost discount the rest of the album. I really love the sound of Leisure and, whilst there are a couple of weaker tracks and Blur definitely created better albums, I really like what they did on the debut. It is a compelling and confident effort. I guess one can label a lot of the songs Shoegaze or Pop. The band would evolve and develop their sound on future albums; Leisure remains a fine debut that has not received the plaudits it deserves. In their review, this is what AllMusic had to offer:
"She's So High" and "There's No Other Way" were auspicious debut singles, alternately trancy and melodic, suggesting how shoegazing and baggy beats could be incorporated into pop song structures. Both songs suggested that Blur was capable of a striking debut album, but Leisure wasn't it. Mired by directionless soundscapes and incomplete songwriting, Leisure was nevertheless full of promise. Whenever the group tread close to the warped psychedelia of Syd Barrett, their compositions sprang to life, and "Sing" was an eerie, entrancing minor-key drone reminiscent of the Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs." Those moments, however, were few and far between on Leisure, since much of the record was devoted to either naïve pop like "Bang" or washes of feedback and effects. From Leisure, it appeared that Blur was only capable of a pair of fine singles, which is what made the complete reinvention of Modern Life Is Rubbish such a surprise. [For the American release of Leisure, SBK Records lopped off one of the album's best songs, "Sing," and shuffled the running order for no apparent reason other than having "She's So High" and "There's No Other Way" appear first.]”.
I am going to bring in a couple of reviews that are more positive or, at the very least, remark how Leisure has grown in strength since its release in 1991. Bad Day, Fool and Come Together are great tracks. I think the album is balanced in terms of where it puts its biggest songs. Maybe the final couple of tracks are not the strongest though, on balance, Leisure is an album that people should seek out ahead of its thirtieth anniversary later in the year. In their assessment (they reviewed the 21 reissue in 2012), this is what Drowned in Sound remarked:
“While the three singles off Leisure attained varying degrees of success. 'She's So High', possibly the missing link between the psychedelic haze of shoegaze and baggy's post-rave comedown, may have only hit the modest heights of number 48 on release but follow-up 'There's No Other Way' scored Blur their first top ten hit, providing the band with what remained their signature tune until the hedonistic 'Girls & Boys' arrived some three years later. 'Bang', the third and final single off Leisure could quite easily be filed under the title 'Blur's great lost 45' were it not for 1992's 'Popscene' pipping it to the post nine months on. Again, not a million miles apart from a lot of the indie/dance crossover acts of the day except for its lyrical savvy ("Bang goes another day, where it went I could not say, now I'll have to wait another week") and incessant pop hook, it's become something of a classic over the years, significantly improving with age.
It's on the less immediate parts of Leisure that a selection of real hidden gems lie in wait. 'Slow Down' takes the fast/slow/quiet/loud formula employed by Dinosaur Jr (later to be tourmates alongside The Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine in 1992) et al for a Home Counties makeover, its riff re-appearing a couple of years later on Modern Life Is Rubbish-45 'Chemical World'. Meanwhile 'Repetition' is arguably the first composition to bear the hallmarks of Graham Coxon's soon-to-become customary guitar sound. The maudlin 'Birthday' and three-songs-in-one 'Come Together' also pour short shrift over those still dismissive of Blur's first long player, 'Fool' too demonstrating Damon Albarn's knack for being able to write a hefty chorus, even back then. Leisure's real highlight comes at its exact midpoint in the shape of 'Sing'. Perhaps best remembered for its inclusion in the soundtrack to Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting' and originally only a b-side on the 'She's So High' twelve-inch, even now those simple piano notes causing hairs to stand upright for the song's entire six-minute duration.
While not perfect, Leisure far outweighs the 'clumsy' and 'unfocused' tags it found itself saddled with upon release, and indeed has actually stood the test of time better than some of Blur's most celebrated works, Parklife included. Now, if only someone could tell me whatever happened to The Keatons..?”.
I am going to tie things up soon. I will bring in an NME review snippet soon but, if you are new to Blur or have not listened to them in a while, then start with Leisure. I think Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree fused Madchester and Shoegaze on their debut to superb effect. They would grow as performers and songwriters and they underwent a stylistic change after Leisure – bringing in elements of The Kinks and The Beatles. NME reassessed Leisure and had this to say:
“‘Bang’ is a sweet suburban shuffle that open’s Albarn’s net curtain-twitching account, providing the foundations for his best Britpop era observations, while ‘Bad Day’‘s melodica and Albarn’s curiously detached delivery raise it above the early 90s ‘indie dance’ beats is built upon.
while ‘Birthday’ floats by on a cloud of lightning strike guitars and blissed out vocals.
It’s also worth saying a word about ‘I Know’, the double AA side of first single ‘She’s So High’, which replaced ‘Sing’ on the rearranged US tracklisting of ‘Leisure’. It’s not going to win any prizes for its lyrics, but it’s hard to see why the band are apparently ashamed of this neat groove, and it would have been no bad thing if it had sat alongside ‘Sing’ on both sides of the Atlantic (as it did in Japan)”.
I am a massive Blur fan and I do think that Leisure deserves some retrospective acclaim and reinspection. The band would find their sound and feet more on albums such as Leisure’s 1993 follow-up, Modern Life Is Rubbish, and the awesome, ‘90s-defining, Parklife (1994). That said, there are plenty of sparks and brilliant songs on their debut that you should all..
SPEND some time with.