Think Tank (Blur Album) - Musical Style

Musical Style

"Blur have reinvented themselves as boldly postcolonial popsters. Think Tank's songs aren't merely multicultural, they're multilateral, recorded partly in Morocco and sung in a musical polyglot Hoovered up from stray corners of the empire: aspects of Afrobeat, bits of bhangra, images of Islam. With guitarist Graham Coxon missing in action, the rhythm section of Alex James and Dave Rowntree steps up, and the album shuffles and grooves like Fela Kuti sloshed on gin and tonics."

Despite Albarn stating that he originally wanted to return to their more commercial sound, Think Tank continues the jam-based studio constructions of previous album 13. The album expanded on the use of sampled rhythm loops and brooding, heavy electronic sounds. Almost entirely written by Albarn, Think Tank placed more emphasis on lush backing vocals, simple acoustic guitar, drums, bass guitar, and a variety of other instruments.

Like many of Blur's previous albums, Think Tank is a loose concept album. Albarn has stated that it is an album about "love and politics", stating that “ forces people to value what they’ve got. And that, hopefully, will pay dividends and help change the world to a better place. Hopefully. Touch wood.” Albarn also stated that the album is about "what are you supposed to do as an artist other than express what is going on around you."Some of the songs are concerned with a sense of paranoia and alienation in British club culture. Damon also cited Punk Rock music, particularly The Clash, as an inspiration.

The albums opening track, "Ambulance", starts off with a complex drum beat. Sam Bloch of Stylus magazine praised the songs intro, describing the beat as "an offbeat rhythmic synapse that nearly collapses into itself Heavy electronic drums. A flash. A kick. At first, it’s really hard to believe that this is a song, functioning on its own. The beat needs crutches to stand upright." Devon Powers of Pop Matters wrote that "the first bars are stricken with throbbing beats that sound simultaneously futuristic and primitive." Bloch went on to write: "as a low, thunderous bass enters speakers, the whole thing slowly grows. Distinctive African percussion is leisurely incorporated into the bass overtone—it’s the darkness in a thunderstorm, the pure, simple fury that comes before a glorious lightning streak."

At 0:52 albarn's vocals lead vocals come in, repeating the lyrics "I ain’t got nothin’ to be scared of" in a "gauzy" falsetto. This is accompanied by a "languid" bass groove and backing vocals described by Bloch as "gospel-twinged," as well as a baritone sax line described by Powers as " underneath the back up singers, at an angle—so quirky it feels like Morphine could have played it." As Albarn delivers the next line ("‘cause I love you"), a synthesizer kicks in, described by stylus as "illustrious", "otherworldly" and "flooding the song’s deathly stomp. But within this death there is love. Albarn makes this clear in the structure of this song." In Albarn's next vocal lines, he drops out of falsetto into "his low swinging monotone" Powers stated that he "croons, carelessly, almost as if he’s freestyling. Things change again. They keep changing." Powers speculated that the song was about love but said "it’s also a fitting introduction to a record that’s such an extreme departure from their past work, and so drastically left field from the garage and post-punk and easily accessible poprock currently drenching the airwaves".

In an XFM radio interview, Albarn spoke on the composition of the track, stating, “I try to do a lot of stuff once I’ve got the melody and the chord structure. I try to just sing it in one go without thinking about it too much. It comes out a sort of partially formed song and sometimes you’re lucky and it comes out almost kind of sort of perfect and sometimes it’s just a mess.” He stated that this was a case of the former. James revealed that "Ambulance" was "the first song that I thought, right this is Blur again. Like I’m in the right place again. I suppose the lyrics have something to do with that, you know, having nothing to be scared of anymore.”

Greenwald claimed that "Out of Time" was "the album's highlight". Describing the song as "failure-soaked" and "heart-stoppingly lovely", Greenwald went on to say that it "perfectly captures the jumble of beauty and dread that defines life under orange alert. "Are we out of time?" Albarn asks, desperate for one last peace march or one last snog." Powers described the song as "a much more straightforward, apace ballad . Dominant in the track are Albarn’s unadulterated vocals and steady, simplistic drums, but beyond that are ethereal, hard-to-identify noises. In the middle of the track, an Andalucian string group rears its head, as does a tambourine."

"Crazy Beat" was compared to Song 2, off the bands self titled album. XFM described the song as "Fatboy Slim meets Middle Eastern Punk rock.” Powers "energetic, punked-out rocker. But as much as this song might appeal to the neo-DIY set—complete with its jumpy chorus and lively melody—Blur are anything but. If there’s one thing Blur are known for, it’s lots and lots and lots of production. Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim), builds this number with tons of sound, so there’s always another active level to uncover." Speaking about the track, Albarn revealed "It started off in such a different way. The nearest thing I could compare it to is a really bad version of Daft Punk. So, we got sick of it and then put in that descending guitar line over it to rough it up a bit." He also stated “It had this sort of mad vocoder ish vocal and the melody was over a real sort of skanky groove and just this almost descending semi tonal guitar. The melody worked over it and it was amazing coz it shouldn’t have worked, another little magic moment for us."

Powers claimed that "the best moments of this album are those when vintage Blur styles are evoked with new expertise. The meandering “Good Song” is a beautiful case in point. Acoustic guitar picking is matched with temperate drums and a sweet, steady bass countermelody. Albarn’s singing is mostly in his mid-range, falling out as easily as breath. Signature background vocal harmonies are there to brighten up the track, but their muted nature doesn’t descend into campiness. What’s also new is the expert use of electronic noises and drumbeats to fatten the sound." xfm "motown type" damon “Well that was originally called De La Soul on our huge list of songs, half finished ideas. It was called De La Soul you know, right until the end. And I just always thought it was a good song and just called it ‘Good Song’. I love that, I love the sort of intimacy of it and I just think everyone really played gently on it, the melodies. It was a good melody.”

"On the way to the club" was described by Albarn as “a hangover song which we sort of write from time to time." Albarn also said that "it’s definitely got a very individual sound. Someone said that it’s a sort of revived Screamadelica. Yeah it’s kind of the good intentions of which you participate in revelry and then actually the reality of it.”

"Brothers and Sisters" was one of the last additions to the album. "It was a kind of track that took quite a different direction for most of it’s life", Revealed Rowntree. "...and then right at the end we switched about and took it in a different direction it wasn’t quite so dark.” “It sounded more like the Velvet Underground when we started", claimed Albarn. "It was too overtly about one thing. It was too druggy, in a way which is a kind of weird thing, cause the song is all about drugs so I think we just pushed ourselves a bit more with it and gave it a lot more space - countered by the list and the list was kind of sort of inspired by the life of JFK and his need to have 28 Drugs everyday of his Presidency just to keep him functioning.”

Albarn described "Caravan" as “a kind of song that you could play anywhere. And I mean I remember we just finished it and when everyone left to go back to London, I went down to Mali for a couple of days cause Honest Jon's still working with musicians and stuff. I was sitting in a mango grove with a Wild Turkey and had a little CD player and I put it on there. It was just nice seeing everyone sitting around getting stoned to it. It was nice, cause the guitar is very, much inspired by Afel a great Malian tradition of blues guitar.” “I think this one’s about the sun going down for me", James claimed. "That was like a perfect studio moment, sitting on top of a strange barn in the Moroccan desert listening to Damon do a vocal and it a was a perfectly still time of day and the sun was perfectly red and there was just an immense sense of calm and this music.”

Albarn claimed that "Sweet Song" was inspired by Coxon. Explaining the habit of putting 'song' in the title, Albarn stated that it was “another African thing, that I’ve picked up. They do call things like ‘Tree Song’. You know what I mean; they give it something quite simple. It’s not, it doesn’t have an agenda so much, it’s offered out as a nice bit of music to everyone and that’s something that has changed massively in my life, I don’t see the ownership of things quite so strongly anymore.”

There is a hidden track, "Me, White Noise" in the pregap before track 1 on some CD copies. The song guest features Phil Daniels, who previously appeared on Parklife, on vocals. Japanese versions of the album feature the song at track 30, after silent tracks at index points 15–29. On the Blur 21 edition, the hidden track is assigned to track #14.

The case contains a Parental Advisory logo in some regions, because "Brothers and Sisters" contains many drug references. Also, the hidden track "Me, White Noise" is one of the few Blur songs to contain an expletive.