Blur: 13 (2LP, 180g, UK import) [FOOD]

Why you'll love it

This UK import spreads 13 across two 180g discs in a gatefold jacket. The album entered the UK chart at No. 1, went platinum and earned a Mercury Prize nomination, with "Tender" reaching No. 2 on the singles chart.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Booklet included

About the album

Having already walked away from Britpop on their previous album, Blur kept going. For 13 they swapped longtime producer Stephen Street for William Orbit, whose remix work had impressed them, and spent the second half of 1998 recording in London and Reykjavík. The result is looser, stranger and far more personal than anything they'd made before.

"Tender" opens the record as a gospel-flavoured singalong, with the London Community Gospel Choir lifting Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon's voices. Coxon takes the lead on "Coffee & TV," a gentle, wry pop song, while "Bugman" and "B.L.U.R.E.M.I." crash about in glorious noise. "Trimm Trabb" builds slowly, and "No Distance Left To Run" is one of the most quietly beautiful songs Albarn has written, drawn from the end of his relationship with Justine Frischmann.

It was the last Blur album with the original four for over a decade. The video for "Coffee & TV," starring a lost milk carton, remains the most moving thing ever achieved by dairy packaging.

Also at Kops: more Blur on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Food / Parlophone (cat# FOODLPX29), a reissue of the 1999 album.