Blur – Song 2 Review

Woo hoo! Looking for a way out of the Britpop nightmare they had accidentally been collaborating on, Blur heads for the hills and finds the rotten horse that was grunge. They had successfully kept the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam from rising in popularity through the 1990s, and with the likes of Suede, St. Etienne and Pulp behind them, the blanket term for a swathe of wildly different British music was implicit in the halting of a genre which was already on the brink following the demise of Kurt Cobain. In stopping the surge of grunge there came a complacency – and Song 2, from the self-titled Blur album, a reactionary kick at the preceding The Great Escape, was an attempt to break America. 

But it did not work. For one reason or another, several, probably. Song 2 is an explosive and reactionary number, a short and wonderfully harsh spit at the twee charms of an album which spawned a chart-topping war with fellow Brit band Oasis. Where the second-place rock and roll stars would turn to overindulgence and lengthy horrors on Be Here Now, Blur maintained this self-titled record, the glitz and glam of their heyday smashed with the sledgehammer of dangerous decisions and a crumbling feeling underneath their feet. Revive the soul with a kick against expectations. What a rush. Get yourself thrown around to Song 2, whether it is in the pits of a Newcastle crush or the highest point of Wembley Stadium, the intention from Blur with this one is all the same and remains unchanged nearly thirty years on.  

Slap a few quality B-Sides on this, namely Get out of Cities and Polished Stone, and there you have it. Graham Coxon clunking away with a grunge aesthetic, more a pull of his desire to constantly experiment with what his six strings could do than anything else. Instead, the focus is on a constant and whirring, yet ultimately convincing and simple percussion and bass pair. Their rhythm holds firm for this trio of tracks. Environmentally conscious and claustrophobic tones of departing the hustle and bustle of big city living in exchange for smooth guitar riffs and natural environments are heard on Get Out of Cities. Rather on the nose in its title, and plain in the lyrics, but it’s good fun and ticks all the boxes of a B-Side.

Two minutes long, the second single to promote an album where Song 2 was the second song on Blur. What a mouthful. As is Polished Stone. Give those lyrics a readthrough and you would be forgiven for thinking Hozier had contributed to Blur two decades before he burst onto the scene. Either way, it may settle the discussion on Albarn as a gifted songwriter. Pulled by the bones and polished down, away from the buzz of the whirring chart powers and all the glitz and glam, Blur are just boys bashing away at their instruments. Polished Stone touches on this slowly, competently and carefully. Far more structure to it and a lack of leniency to where the song can explode – but featuring the same openness and raging tact which would propel Song 2 to the very peak of Blur’s popular movements.