★★★★☆
(Parlophone)
Unlike most of the other bands on the lucrative reunion treadmill, Blur always seemed more likely to look forward, not back, and produce an essential new album. The Magic Whip comes 16 years after their last as a quartet but sits in their wide-ranging catalogue without jarring. Fans of the band in their knees-up pomp will raise a pint to the jerky guitars of Lonesome Street and all-round rowdiness of I Broadcast, but there’s also plenty here that reveals its power more slowly. My Terracotta Heart explores Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon’s fractured and mended friendship over a meandering Alex James bassline. Pyongyang is dreamlike and elegiac, with loads going on around its edges. Electronic touches keep things contemporary but this is every bit as good as the Blur of old.
The Magic Whip (Parlophone) is released on Monday 27 April on CD, LP and digital download
