Blur – Music is My Radar Review

Music may be their radar, but Blur sound as though they still had a lot to prove. A lead single for their best-of recording, a post-high following the excesses which informed Blur and 13, Music is My Radar feels like an odd piece to promote a compilation. Such is the case for The Best of Blur…, an album which made use of the changing times. Piece the singles together, offer an exclusive track on top of it, and there you have it. Pulp did it with Hits a year or so later. Music is My Radar would stand as one of the last tracks to feature Graham Coxon in the initial Blur run. It was calm before the storm, then. A few years separated from Think Tank, with the Banksy-associated album having a few throwaway tracks far stronger than Music is My Radar.  

The song sounds fatigued, a tad aimless, but made to remind listeners of what Blur had done. But this desire to have a break makes it all the better, and because of it, Music is My Radar feels a tad janky. A transitional moment for Blur, who were caught by a well-needed, unexpected breather when compiling their works to date. Damon Albarn gives a great vocal performance, the “don’t stop me now” a contrast to the desire to break with Blur. His other projects, Gorillaz in particular, provided the break and the continuation, this need to continue while also having a break. Coxon is inevitably crucial on Music is My Radar, a sad shame to hear his guitar lost in the mix, though the change to wilder electronic momentum is wise. These moments of experimentation would inform Think Tank classics.  

Music is My Radar feels like a precursor to what the band would achieve on their criminally underrated Me, White Noise bonus track. Its additional release songs, Black Book and Headist / Into Another, are wonderful additions. A seemingly religious, motivated song comes through on Black Book. Tones of beholding, instrumental suggestions of where Alex James and Dave Rowntree could take the band. A tonal shift from Blur which would inform the Coxon-less Think Tank. That is not to say his importance on Black Book has been reduced, but he takes a step back to let those shimmers and shakes, the Nick Cave-like delivery from a baritone Albarn, take hold. Backing vocalists and the excesses of instrumental delight are on display for Black Book, a Blur deep cut worth seeking out.  

Blur often had B-sides and rarities which overshadowed the main release. This is the case for Black Book and its backing of Music is My Radar. Recipients of soul and favour on Black Book are an all-time great lyrical moment from Albarn, while Headist / Into Another proves strong, too. Let those deep cuts settle in and, over time, they’ll be right up there with Tender and Coffee & TV. Tense songs of death and desperation, suggestions of life beyond this one and what to do with it when you get there. It all compiles into some effective adaptations, suggestions of the band being ready to emerge from their shell once more. That much is a surprise, a delightful experience to hear out as Blur find themselves trying to back a compilation of their efforts across the years, a chance to reflect on the moments that made them.