Blur – Out of Time Review Ewan Gleadow By Ewan Gleadow February 13, 2025 https://cultfollowing.co.uk/2025/02/13/blur-out-of-time-review/ Those garbled screams at the beginning of Out of Time give almost too much awa y. It only comes through after hundreds of repeat listens, when you know the s ong beat for beat and get as much from hearing it as you did the first time, b ut there is a strangled sense of emotional misery at play. The final album of Blur’s first run, Out of Time is a remarkable high on an album overstuffed wi th shortcomings made by a lack of Graham Coxon influence. He had steered them one way and the other, both successes with their self-titled effort and 13 to follow. But his step back from Blur, the sense he was not welcome in the studi o, is at play for Out of Time and the wider Think Tank project. That so-litera l title is played out well through this one, though. Damon Albarn never uses it as a hint of conclusion to Blur, but it does weigh on the mind now the band has been tucked away, perhaps for the last time after The Ballad of Darren. We are coming up to a year without the band having perf ormed live, and yet Out of Time is still featured on the setlist. How could it not? It is as defining a song for Blur as Song 2 or Parklife, yet it takes a far slower tone, a moderate tempo struck by a lack of formidable guitar effort s from an absent Coxon. That is the game-changer here, and while Out of Time i s a masterful recording from Blur, the success is not because of a lack of one member or another. It comes from the sincerity heard within, a song operating as a flicker of reflection on Coxon leaving the band, but more as a message o f environmental and cultural decline. Perhaps that is why Out of Time remains relevant and exciting. Those declines are still ongoing. What works so well for it is how straightforward it is, how it navigates through those opportune moments for an emotional blast or instru mental hook, but staves it off. It is a forgiving and refreshingly stripped-ba ck track, particularly after the excess exorcisms provided by Coffee and TV an d Tender. After that is where it becomes a problem. Those B-Sides tied into th e release of Out of Time, where the band tries to be a bit brighter, experimen tal, and has the wheels come off. Money Makes Me Crazy is a bit of a dull effo rt, but nothing nasty. Fellow forgotten rip, Tune 2, feels like a light knock at Song 2. Not just in the title alone but in its complete contrast to the har sh instrumental edge their self-titled rip has. Out of Time and the wider Think Tank project remains thoroughly moved by Albar n and the Gorillaz experience. It was starting to seep into the Blur side of t hings. No wonder the band called time here. Out of Time remains one of their b est songs, on its own, that is. With the rest of these releases, it feels like a bit of an excess single. Don’t Be is an interesting brass invention which falls short of anything brilliant, but at least it has some vocal work from Al barn to elevate it that little bit further. Considering the length of The Outs ider, it is a shame nothing too remarkable comes, but Think Tank always had th e feeling of decluttering the archives. Everything and anything feels like it was released on this album, and that is no bad feeling, it just means the like s of Out of Time are saddled with some slightly underwhelming material. Ewan Gleadow https://cultfollowing.co.uk/ Editor in Chief at Cult Following | News and culture journalist at The Mirror, The Mirror US, Daily Record | -- 轉眼之間已經快22年了！ 這張專輯確實是少了一大部分熟悉的吉他 （大門彈起來手感完全不一樣 聽起來也完全不一樣 不得不說這類異國風 大門的北非節奏 或是綠洲.披頭四的印度風西塔琴 讓人好放鬆哪～用現代話來講就是chill 有時聽太多太吵的就會放這片來聽 專輯最後面有在垂暮沙漠中 看著逐漸明顯的星星月亮 的感覺 應該可以知道我講的是哪首 太喜歡了～ 完全在我腦海中自動播放 即使22年後還是一樣 -- 話說上次買的連帽衣還蠻好穿的 版型很讚很修飾喔！ --

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