Blur – High Cool / Bad Day Review

A softer release from Blur around the time of their debut has been washed away by their first single, She’s So High. Understandable this may be, the love for High Cool / Bad Day does not appear to be kicking around anymore. A shame, but the easy-listening mix of High Cool and the leisurely mix of Bad Day are neat treats. Groovy pieces of guitar work from Graham Coxon lean into the Madchester scene nicely but Blur was bound with better tools than this. Damon Albarn soon filters through the light fluff of High Cool, a track which was left behind by the band and understandably so. Leisure is a strange beginning for Blur, far away from what the band would soon find themselves exploring sonically. Once they rejected the British Summer Time values it all clicked into place.  

These are the light and fun flourishes of a band that had not hit it big. The recurrent “la, la, la” procedure in High Cool is a bit of a simpler notion but is eradicated by confident guitar work from Coxon. He is leading the charge, as he does for much of the album hits like There’s No Other Way and She’s So High. They are the songs we remember and it is because they are the most removed from the notions of Madchester. And yet, High Cool and Bad Day were picked as singles. Hindsight is a beauty, and we can look at the decision as a fascinating one. It was certainly a welcome song, one which marks Blur as a band who are as cheery as they are charming. Step on into the double bill of easy listening.  

Move on then to the leisurely mix of Bad Day. Neither High Cool / Bad Day are remembered but well regarded enough to find themselves being early flagbearers for Blur. Bad Day sounds like the dregs of an Oasis write-off, but so does Oasis. Warped vocals and a tambourine battered in the background like a cat with a yarn. Nothing cutesy about this one and the wilder flourishes of Coxon’s guitar work. It is the guitarist who keeps these early days of Blur both inviting and interesting. Without him, there is a chance of slipping into a generality which obscures The Charlatans as a band. Blinkered their releases may be, but this does not happen for Blur. Albarn was too twee a singer at the time to drown in the pools of Madchester. 

No, Blur and their sound would rise up and out of the dying genre which was still peddling the best works of Happy Mondays at the time of Leisure. Adaptation is a process and Blur, seeing their chances of success were not in High Cool or Bad Day, leave the songs behind. Despite their release as singles, as ample as these versions are, there is a fascinating lack of detail to them. A tremendous forgettability washes over it. Nice riffs and a decent vocal performance, yet it does not amount to much else for the band at this time, nor did it ever. Their truest hits can be found in this album but their choice of singles here is a bit slapdash and leans into a genre they never matched.