作者: ismondo (elite) 看板: Blur 標題: AMG 評價此張 THINK TANK 時間: Sun May 4 22:04:08 As Blur commenced recording on Think Tank, their seventh album, things got a lit tle weird. Tensions between vocalist/songwriter Damon Albarn and guitarist Graha m Coxon reached a boiling point following Albarn's success with his dance-orient ed sideproject, Gorillaz, leading him to assert dominance over the band, all of which were at odds with a newly sober and somber Coxon, whose solo records were doggedly designed to appeal to small audiences. According to most press reports, the breaking point was Damon bringing Fatboy Slim in for production work in Moro cco (it's hard to write those words without believing them to be parody), leadin g toward Graham's acrimonious departure and the turgid mess that is Think Tank. Given the Gorillaz and Fatboy Slim (who, after all the brouhaha, only produced t wo tracks) connections, it's easy to assume that Albarn is pushing Blur toward a heavy, heavy dance album, which isn't strictly true, partially because the band always has traded in alternative dance. Still, there's been a shift in approach. Where they used to use disco and house beats as a foundation (see 専irls and Boy s" or 摂ntertain Me"), Blur now borrows modern dance's fondness, even reliance, on atmosphere over song and structure — which is kind of ironic, of couse, sinc e the group has always excelled at song and structure in the past. In the post-C oxon era, all that's tossed aside as Albarn turns his attention to electronic ar t-rock as thin as a dime. Make no mistake, even if bassist Alex James and Dave R owntree are along for the ride, this is the sound of Damon run amuck, a (perhaps inevitable) development that even voracious Blur supporters secretly feared coul d ruin the band — and it has. Why? Because Albarn's talents cry out for a colla borator. He has great ideas but he needs help not just in the execution, but sor ting out what ideas are good. The problem is, he's charismatic enough to coast b y on his book smarts and good looks, until somebody — Coxon, Stephen Street, Da n the Automator — calls him into check, and now that he's had enough success, h e's convinced he can do it on his own. So, Think Tank is the Damon Show, and it reveals that the emperor has no clothes or sense. Apart from the fine, deliberat e opening gambit of 声mbulance" and 繊ut of Time" — the first a perfectly arran ged, ominously lush mood piece; the other a hushed, melancholic elegy in the sam e vein as 荘o the End" and 荘ender," though not as good as either — Think Tank sounds for all the world exactly like Blur B-sides from Parklife to Blur, comple te with the hiccupping analog synths and meandering instrumentals, but without t he sense of songcraft and with less imaginative arrangements (remember, elastic codas with a noodling saxophone line do not equal experimental; it's lazy focus) .Those songs that do sound more substantial than B-sides are severely hurt by Co xon's absence: witness the pleasantly sweet 専ood Song," built on a Pro-Tools ac oustic guitar loop which drains the song of emotion, when Graham would have let the song breathe, or how the creepy crawl of 斉attery in Your Leg" winds up eati ng its own tail through its hermetically sealed arrangement. These problems all derive from one simple thing — since Albarn has nobody to challenge him, he' s unwittingly pawning off an album half-baked demos and unfinished B-sides. And th is isn't the result of a musical departure, unless you count the departure of so ngwriting — this is the sound of Blur without the hooks, smarts, tunes, or even the sense of adventure. Sure, it might be easier to accept if it was called a Da mon Albarn solo album, but that's splitting hairs. A lousy album is a lousy albu m, no matter who gets credit. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine --

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