Blur's self titled record has Graham Coxon's influence all over it, more than perhaps any other record they've done with the original line up. Graham wanted to quit Blur after the whole Britpop thing got a little too big and crazy for him. He wanted less cleverness and more guitars, something more chill and broken in than the squeaky clean Great Escape. I mean, have you looked at the back cover of that record? They're all so smug and precice and professional and business like, as if they could spit out a neat little song on the demand of the almighty pound. Incidentally Alex had to get his chin airbrushed since he got wasted the night before and had some swelling. Anyway, if you have a gander at the cover art for Blur, you'll notice that it's, well...blurry.
Now, it's on Blur's album, but it's all Graham's doing, the songwriting, singing, guitarwork, everything except production. And it's so rough, and warm and sweet, he talks about tea and coffee, and the sky so mud and grey. In this song you can see the direction his solo work would eventually take. Rough and sweet, and a little random. It would still be a great song if someone covered it, or if when Graham did it live, (did he?), or even if he re recorded it with the band, but it gets it's a good percent of that warmth and charm from the muddy production. It would have been a travesty to record this song with the shiny production values of The Great Escape. It's not even imaginable. And it's not even certain that Graham would have the courage to attempt such a thing in that environment. Graham's voice isn't quite so developed here as it is later on in his solo career, but in this song he manages to turn this weakness into a plus.
I've written on this song before, somewhere, and I can't exactly remember but each time I've done it I end up saying something different than what I said before. Some of it requires context a once crazed Blur fan would know about, but I think a lot of the song's appeal for me is that it's simply fucking awesome. It makes me happy. I'm done rambling on now.
