Dave Rowntree has reflected on Blur’s discography, and named the album he thinks is the band’s strongest “by quite a long way”.
During a new interview the drummer had with Super Deluxe Edition, the drummer looked back at the huge milestones the band have accumulated over the past year – including their two massive shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, and the release of their brand new documentary, Blur: To The End.
In the discussion, Rowntree elaborated on how the members took a similar approach to their reunion shows as they did on their latest album, 2023’s ‘The Ballad Of Darren’.
“There was a conscious decision to strip things back, both on the tour and ‘The Ballad Of Darren’. In the shows, we didn’t have a string section and we only had a choir on ‘Tender’,” he explained.
“We didn’t have brass or the other things that make a bigger sound and can artificially enhance everything. There’s nothing wrong with that and we’ve done it in the past, but we took the decision not to do that this time. We wanted to say those things in other ways, so there was lots more singing, trying to find other ways of filling out the sound to make it bigger.”
This – paired with a sense of “anxiety” about going into the studio for the first time since their 2015 album ‘The Magic Whip’ – helped make the project into what he sees as their best to date.
“I’m so disparaging when other musicians of a certain age say this of their recent work, but I think it’s the best thing we’ve ever done, and by quite a long way,” Rowntree continued.
“But I’m very well aware most middle-aged popstars think their latest album is their best work by far, and that most of them are deluding themselves. I’ll be guided by what other people think.”
He added: “There are certainly some great immediate songs on it. I heard Tom Robinson talk about being out of the spotlight for a long time and how his main anxiety in making a new record was still being able to write songs that people liked on the first listen. One of our selling points is that you can play one of our records and immediately go: ‘Oh, I like that a lot.’ Some bands lose that and they suffer as a result.”
Around the time of its release, NME gave ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ a glowing four-star review, and praised the band for not playing it safe in their approach. “Unlike many of their peers, there has never been a timelessness to a Blur album – that’s a good thing,” it read.
“When you listen to ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’ now, you can feel disdain for the culture that surrounded them, or the raw confusion of heartbreak on 1999’s ‘13’; they have a way of transporting you to a precise moment or emotion. It’s why ‘The Ballad of Darren’ is so memorable and touching: you can feel it, everything, in every line sung or note played.”
More recently, the To The End documentary was given a five-star review, with NME writing: “They bicker, they hug, they call each other c**ts, they get the job done. While Blur’s last doc and accompanying live movie No Distance Left To Run was a portrait of a band celebrating their legacy and giving a nostalgia-hungry world exactly what they craved, this spiritual sequel shows a band simply supporting each other.
“Whether they return again or not remains to be seen. But even if they don’t, this was one hell of a final fling.”
Similarly, NME also gave the Wembley shows a five-star nod, and praised them as an “eruption of pure, utter joy”.
“Albarn remains a top-tier frontman, making deadpan remarks and climbing into the audience while still allowing each of his bandmates their own moment in the spotlight,” it read. “This cheeky sense of humour made Blur stand out from other Britpop stars in the 90s, and Albarn’s childish grin as he performs the song – like he’s doing something naughty – remains the same after all these years.”
Last month, the director of To The End also spoke to NME about the emotional process of making the film – and discussed what the future might hold for the band.
“I found out that Blur were coming back in a slightly unconventional way, in that I’ve been doing projects with Damon and Graham over the last few years via my record label, Transgressive,” he said. I was actually at Damon’s 13 Studios to talk about a completely different project, when out of the blue he said, ‘Oh, do you want to hear the new Blur demos?’ I thought he was joking but he had that slightly cheeky glint in his eye that he’s known for.”
He added: “Around that time, we were tipped off that there was going to be a Wembley show – and at the time it was only intended to be one gig – and my company were asked to make this trailer for it in a short space of time. It was then I said to Damon, ‘If you want anyone to film and capture the concert then I would love to throw my hat in the ring’… As I got deeper, I realised it wasn’t just about a reunion – I realised it was about friendship, maturing, reconciliation and some splashes of mortality!”
The future of Blur at this point remains somewhat uncertain, with Albarn recently announcing that the band’s show at weekend two of Coachella 2024 would “probably [be] our last gig”. However, since then, Rowntree has thrown doubt on the comments, and suggested that there may still be more to come from the group.
“There’s still tons of stuff we could do… It’s about finding an offer that’s very hard to say no to,” he said. “When we first got back together in 2009, we were very happy to be the first people to play what has become the British Summer Time Festival at Hyde Park. Then we were asked to headline the party to end the 2012 Olympics, and you can’t say no to that.”
“So there’s absolutely no reason why we couldn’t consider another interesting idea, if we’re all available,” he added. “But there’s absolutely nothing in the diary for Blur at the moment.”
What is confirmed for now is that the band will soon be releasing a concert film of the Wembley gigs, titled Blur: Live at Wembley Stadium. It’ll arrive in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on September 6.
