Musical Style and Composition
13 sees the band moving further away from their Britpop past into more cerebral and denser musical territory. Some of the songs, however, are evocative of songs from their previous efforts, such as "Bugman", "Coffee & TV", "1992" and "Optigan 1". The album is in the style of a loose concept album, much like other Blur albums, in this case about life and relationships. Much of the album was inspired by Damon Albarn's breakup with Elastica singer Justine Frischmann. Two of the singles, "Tender" and "No Distance Left to Run", describe Albarn's love for Frischmann and his struggle to move on. It is named after the band's recording studio, as well as the number of tracks on the album (bar the hidden tracks)
The album features several short hidden tracks at the end of songs, stretching the playing time out; examples of this are "Coffee & TV", "B.L.U.R.E.M.I.", "Battle" and "Caramel", the latter of which features two hidden tracks.
Read more about this topic: 13 (Blur album)
Famous quotes containing the words musical, style and/or composition:
“Then, bringing me the joy we feel when wee see a work by our favorite painter which differs from any other that we know, or if we are led before a painting of which we have until then only seen a pencil sketch, if a musical piece heard only on the piano appears before us clothed in the colors of the orchestra, my grandfather called me the [hawthorn] hedge at Tansonville, saying, “You who are so fond of hawthorns, look at this pink thorn, isn’t it lovely?””
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)