Blur in Focus

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If jumping up and down on an abandoned trailer in Morocco is what it takes for Blur front man Damon Albarn to find the right sound — so be it. One man's ranting antic is another's creative ritual, and this one turns up as the rhythmic squeaking on the track Gene by Gene from the band's just-released seventh album, Think Tank.

But it's also understandable that after 14 years, guitarist Graham Coxon finally decided he'd had enough of Albarn's calisthenics, and left the band in September last year, soon after work on the record began. The real reasons are unclear, although the band claims Coxon didn't show for a recording session. He claims he was sacked. To most four-piece rock bands, losing the guitarist would be tragic, a career-ending divorce. For Blur it was just another challenge: how can a guitar-based rock band make a record without a guitarist?

No one ever accused Albarn of backing down from a challenge. He has always been ready to struggle to get his own way, starting with the public potshots he exchanged with Oasis in the mid-'90s, during the media-fueled battle — mods vs. rockers redux — for the Britpop crown. "It was definitely cathartic," says Albarn on Blur's rivalry with Oasis. "For us it was more of a diversion than an impetus. It has always seemed a ridiculous coupling." He has a point: where Oasis was lager louts, Blur was college boys. And these days, with the Gallagher brothers still playing to the Britpop nostalgia crowd — churning out new records stuck in Oasis' mid-'90s towering guitar rut — Blur has been quietly growing, developing its sound and self-confidence. And with Think Tank, the band has produced its most mature and accomplished album to date — with or without its resident guitar slinger.

Despite the new breakthrough, Albarn says, "I don't mind if I'm still called Britpop. We are British and we are popular. It's actually quite an apt description." The band had recently pursued side-projects, notably Albarn's virtual dub band Gorillaz, which sold 5 million albums and allowed him to collaborate with an international mix of musicians. Some influences naturally stuck. "You can't help but move on from whatever point you last made music," says Albarn. "It maybe came out more than it would have done if Graham hadn't been absent. I was left to do the guitars and the only experience I've had was in West Africa on Gorillaz."

We had a sort of band reunion ... and we're all getting on just fine, so I wouldn't ever discount a return to the original four members at some point — DAMON ALBARN

The result is nothing like Coxon: discreet, primitive plucking, a change that's part of the charm of the album. Recorded in and around a converted barn near Marrakesh — Albarn did all his vocals outside — there is a languid warmth to this record; the tracks feel like they were laid down in the midday sun. "Inevitably it seeps into the sound of the vocals," says Albarn. "It is a very elemental record, it is informed by the weather and environment it was made in." But Think Tank is more than a grown-up-rocker-discovers-Afropop indulgence. The production involvement of Norman Cook (Fat Boy Slim) and remix-master William Orbit was an inspired stroke, but their hand is light, quelling fears that this would be Blur's dance album.

The opening track, Ambulance — which would sit easily on David Bowie's Low — begins with a declaration: "I ain't got nothing to be scared of." And Albarn does seem musically fearless. Think Tank is often experimental but never jarring, mixing synth and acoustic picking. You can hear bassist Alex James enjoying the new-found space in the mix; unidentified "world" instruments are used sparingly and add to the melodic ease of a band that no longer feels compelled to fill the air with distortion.

At least until the Cook-produced Crazy Beat and the one-minute punk-stomp We've Got a File on You do just that. Punctuating the mood like an ice bucket over the head, they remind us that this is the band that wrote Song 2. The most satisfying tracks are those that borrow from the Clash, such as Gene by Gene, though with Albarn's jumping-on-the-trailer thing. The final track, Battery in Your Leg — the only one which features Coxon — is a plaintive ode to the past. Sings Albarn, "This is a ballad for the good times," and Coxon's spacey guitar loops tell you just what he means.

Could this song foretell the future? "We had a sort of band reunion at Alex's wedding," says Albarn, "and we're all getting on just fine, so I wouldn't ever discount a return to the original four members at some point." So maybe instead of a divorce, Think Tank is a musical souvenir of a much-needed trial separation.