The 50 best albums of 2023, No 8 – Blur: The Ballad of Darren

Blur’s ninth album is a perfect mixture of middle-aged remorse with swooning pop, a strong profession summation

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Prior to the release of The Ballad of Darren, Damon Albarn described Blur’s ninth album as “a document that kind of delves into what it’s wish to be 55”. However it seems extra universal than that, drenched within the horror of realising that point has handed and continues to cross. There’s mourning for the years you’ve already lived and the emotions you’ve lengthy since felt, and nervousness for the years and emotions but to return. It appears to say that life is lengthy till it’s not, that love is protected till it’s not, that the world is straightforward to exist in till it’s not: realisations that dawn repeatedly even in your youthful years. Blur have all the time been capable of balancing tender introspection with lairy pop tunes and The Ballad of Darren, swooning and seasoned, is certainly one of their best.

In a yr peppered with guitar-heavy albums that deal in very actual mid-life grief – Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters – Blur’s is a much less particular, softer focus type of anguish. For much of the report Albarn sings in his decrease register like a washed-up lounge act, deep and simple and filled with beautiful remorse. It makes lyrics that seem like adolescent poetry on the page sound deeply profound: “I simply seemed out to the purpose / The place the phrases, they're hitting me / In a full-on assault,” he sings on opener The Ballad, a mirror ball-dappled, end-of-night lament. The peppy Barbaric is an train in denial – it reads like devastation and seems like a day on the seashore. Russian Strings is probably the most lovely track you’ll ever hear concerning the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Relationships finish, selves are reassessed, goodbyes are stated and the longer term is eyed warily.