90s Jams #47: Blur "Coffee + TV" (1999)

While Blur's 1994 masterpiece Parklife is probably the best Britpop album period, as there are hardly any other Britpop albums where where all 16 songs kick THAT much ass, I still am unable to place it in higher regard than 13, their much darker and weirder LP released in the Spring of 1999. That summer, "Coffee + TV" premiered on 120 Minutes and a few days later 3 or 4 of my friends were telling me all about it. By 1999, MTV was barely past the point of placing any importance on Buzz Clips or Breakthrough Videos, so unless you lived in one of those cable areas that actually broadcast MTV2, 120 Minutes was the only way to catch the video. Needless to say, it should've been a much bigger video and song stateside.

Most of 13 foreshadows the more experimental material that Damon Albarn would later contribute to Gorillaz, which can be heard in tracks like "1992," "Trailerpark," "Bugman," "Battle," and in the various other mini-instrumentals often appearing before and after the real songs. Despite popular belief that Graham Coxon had written the song alone, the music in "Coffee + TV" was Damon's, and only the lyrics were Graham's, mostly dealing with addiction and depression. Graham also contributes one of the all time great "anti-guitar-solos," very much in line with the noisy and experimental nature heard throughout the remainder of 13.

I'm not usually a huge fan of live Blur, but this one works because Damon doesn't sing it...