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‎Blur on Apple Music

Blur announced the release of this record, now entitled The Magic Whip, for April of 2015. Originally called Seymour, the group was formed in London in 1989 by vocalist/keyboardist Albarn along with guitarist Graham Coxon and bassist Alex James, with drummer Dave Rowntree joining the lineup shortly afterward. After performing a handful of gigs and recording a demo tape, the band signed to Food Records, a subsidiary of EMI run by journalist Andy Ross and former Teardrop Explodes keyboardist Dave Balfe.

Blur completed their second album Modern Life Is Rubbish in December 1992, but Food Records said the album required more potential hit singles and asked them to return to the studio for a second time. The band complied and Albarn wrote "For Tomorrow", which became the album's lead single. The announcement of the album's release included a press photo which featured Blur, dressed in a mix of mod and skinhead attire, posing alongside a mastiff with the words "British Image 1" spraypainted behind them. At the time, such imagery was viewed as nationalistic and racially insensitive by the British music press; to quieten concerns, Blur released the "British Image 2" photo, which was "a camp restaging of a pre-war aristocratic tea party". Modern Life Is Rubbish peaked at number 15 on the British charts, but failed to break into the US Billboard 200, selling only 19,000 copies there.

Modern Life Is Rubbish was set for release in the spring of 1993 when SBK asked Blur to re-record the album with producer Butch Vig . The band refused and the record was released in May in Britain; it appeared in the United States that fall. Modern Life Is Rubbish received good reviews in Britain, peaking at number 15 on the charts, yet it failed to make much of an impression in the U.S. The NME concurred, saying Blur were sellbitz "a reunited band making music to rival their very best". It was also a commercial success, becoming the sixth consecutive Blur LP since Parklife to top the British charts. The Guardian also noted that at times during its first week of release, The Magic Whip sold "more than the rest of the top five combined".

Side projects including Albarn’s Gorillaz, Coxon’s solo records, James’ cheese-making, and Rowntree’s political career have slowed production, but 2015’s The Magic Whip was another lesson in subverting pop norms while writing killer melodies. Blur continued to play shows into 2013; one of these included a gig in Hong Kong that was cancelled. The band used the downtime to record a bunch of material that lay unused until Coxon started working with producer Stephen Street to turn them into completed tracks in November of 2014.

Entering the UK charts at number one, the album sold nearly half a million copies in its first month of sale. However, opinion quickly changed and Blur found themselves largely out of favour with the media once again. Following the worldwide success of Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

By the beginning of 1995, Parklife had gone triple platinum and blur had become superstars. The group spent the first half of 1995 recording its fourth album and playing various one-off concerts, including a sold-out stadium show. Blur released "Country House," the first single from their new album, in August amidst a flurry of media attention because Albarn had the single's release moved up a week to compete with the release of "Roll with It," a new single from Blur's chief rival, Oasis.