Blur - The Magic Whip

IT is phenomenal really the impact that Britpop has had on the music scene.

Blur and Oasis's long-running feud may have been and gone about 20 years ago but you cannot say either band truly 'lost'.

While Oasis may have split up, Noel Gallagher's 'Chasing Yesterday' is so far the fastest-selling album of 2015.

And when Blur's 'The Magic Whip' was released it topped the charts and sold more than the other four records in the top five put together.

What makes 'The Magic Whip' – a reference to an ice cream rather than something out of Fifty Shades of Grey – special to fans is that it is the London band's first record in 12 years.

On top of that, it is Blur's first album with the original line-up in 16 years, marking the return of lead guitarist Graham Coxon.

For a studio reunion fans have been waiting years for and probably thought would never happen, how it came about is rather strange.

Proof that will and creativity is often all you need for a project to take off, Blur's eighth record was actually just thrown together during a five-day break in touring at a Hong Kong studio after a Japanese festival was cancelled.

The result is an album which seems to comprise Blur's diverse career in one package.

Single 'Lonesome Street' is the kind of pop song that might fit neatly on 'Leisure' or 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' while a lot of the band's later electro influences are in some of the songs too.

Tracks like There Are Too Many Of Us meanwhile show the band still lean towards the forlorn at times with the kind of song that you might find on '13'.

DAVID MORGAN