Oasis or Blur

I saw John Harris presents The Britpop Story: It Really, Really, Really Could Happen the other day on BBC. As the title suggests, it dealt with the phenomena of Britpop, but from the point of view of the people who were a part of it. A's opinion about B, etc etc. Somewhere during the episode, inevitably, the Oasis v Blur thing came up.

That reminded me of Antickpix, who in one of his posts said that he checks to see if nobody is watching when he is listening to Oasis. I don't have to play that game. I have stopped listening to Oasis altogether (if not for the superb Morning Glory & Definitely Maybe, I would have even forgotten if there exists an entity of such name). Their albums after MG have been plain mediocre, to say the most. Failed attempts at furthering a sound which had already peaked out.

It is under these circumstances of complete redundancy of a particular sound, that one gets to know the real quality of a musical outfit associated with it. The quality to reinvents itself without altering its innate sound. And by reinvention I do not mean they start selling million again (Bon Jovi, Santana... you get my point). Take Pearl Jam for instance. These guys had probably sensed the forthcoming demise of grunge. Hence, the shift in Vitalogy itself, albeit subtle. And as they grew and matured so did their sound (that is why Yield remains my favourite Pearl Jam album along with Vitalogy. I guess they are happy with their low profile and sound these days). A similar resolve has been displayed by Blur too. And if we look back upon the decade (1993-2003) in entirety (because Blur as an outfit, it seems, is breathing its last), we can very easily conclude that Blur is (and always was) a better (and intelligent) outfit than Oasis. Release of Think Tank (2003) and Don't Believe the Truth(2005) by Blur and Oasis, respectively, in the last couple of years, has established the fact like never before.

With Graham Coxon gone and Damon Albarn (an absolute genius) busy with Gorillaz, I really wasn't expecting much from Think Tank. But, to my utter delight, Think Tank turned out to be right UP there with Blur's best (conclusion after being thorough with their catalogue. Is there really a bad Blur album?). You won't find the Blur of Parklife or Blur (and gladly so). But you won't feel you are not listening to Blur either. Think Tank is a mixture of Middle Eastern, Punk, Britpop and Electronica. Put it simply it is one heck of an album. I am not very good at analysing songs. So, I won't even attempt it. But I can figure out which is a good song and which one is bad. And Think Tank hardly has any of the latter.

By the way, there is absolutely no point talking about Don't Believe The Truth. It just doesn't match up to Think Tank. In spite of it being pronounced as their best effort since MG.

P.S: However, my favourite britpop album still remains Morning Glory, leaving behind Parklife & Blur by a whisker.