Every time Blur has devotees convinced that they couldn’t possibly return with a new album again, the band rises from the so-called dead to bring us something both quite surprising and yet still totally on-brand (perhaps a polite euphemism for more of the same, but different). It would seem their ninth studio album, The Ballad of Darren, is going to deliver just that if the first single, “The Narcissist,” is any indication. And yes, the release of 2015’s The Magic Whip felt like something of a one-off. Almost as though to make up for 2003’s Think Tank being recorded without guitarist Graham Coxon. In fact, Coxon abandoned the recording sessions early on in 2002, stating glibly, “[The band] just recognized the feeling that we needed some time apart.” More like Coxon recognized it as a result of suddenly not “vibing” with the band anymore. After all, he had been in rehab during the initial November 2001 recording sessions, and upon coming in for the ’02 ones, he apparently didn’t fit into the permutation anymore. After the rest of Blur somewhat priggishly reported that the sessions weren’t going as seamlessly with Coxon present, the bespectacled guitarist would later state, “I had a breakthrough, I think my life just became calmer, I gave up drinking. My priorities changed as I had a young daughter. The group didn’t want me to record for the Think Tank album, so I took it as a sign to leave.”
Who knows what the subsequent sign to come back was for Coxon, but, to the delight of many fans, whatever it was prompted a full-fledged reunion when Blur announced they would play a show in Hyde Park on July 3, 2009—eventually called All The People: Blur Live at Hyde Park. With The Magic Whip six years later, the band would also “keep it classic” by going back to their longtime producer, Stephen Street, who was given the boot on Think Tank in favor of producers Ben Hillier, Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) and William Orbit (with the latter also producing the majority of 13). This trifecta being what gave that album such a “non-cohesive” sound amid the rest of their discography (granted, James Ford replaces Street on The Ballad of Darren’s production, so perhaps it, too, will stand apart). And yet, with Coxon’s absence, it was arguably the only time Blur was ever “free” enough to experiment in that “Gorillaz sort of way” Damon Albarn is so fond of. For it is Coxon who always seems to bring the band back down to Earth, to its roots in shoegaze malaise.
That’s the case, in many ways, with “The Narcissist.” And, as Albarn himself was content to remark, “I think also it has enough of the modern world in it to kind of be relatable to people younger as well.” For, what could be more relatable to “the kids” than narcissism? Not just because the word “narcissist” is so overused at this juncture (neck and neck with “gaslighting”), but because narcissism is simply the name of the game in this thing called post-social media existence. And yes, even Albarn’s newfound nemesis, Taylor Swift, found a way to use the word in one of her most recent hits, “Anti-Hero,” by singing, “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism/Like some kind of congressman?” Perhaps that’s what Blur is doing with their own “altruistic” decision to return to music. And yet, Albarn, who has been in the business for thirty-three years (counting it from the time Blur signed to Food Records), can admit, loosely, to his own penchant for narcissism, noting in an interview with Radio X, “I think the whole nature of being in a band… especially talking about yourself, having photographs taken… that’s all about yourself.” It sounds more eloquent when said aloud than it does in writing, but anyway, Albarn can cede to the fact that he is well-versed in succumbing to the type of narcissism that goes hand in hand with “The Fame Monster.”
By the same token, Albarn added, “There are deep practitioners of narcissism within the entertainment world, but it also applies to people like Putin… It’s one of those… troubling aspects of modern life.” That is to say, how politics and narcissism have bred a very dangerous “lovechild” in the present (see also: Donald Trump). And yes, as Blur announced long ago, “Modern life is rubbish.” And that sentiment has only intensified in the decades since the band first openly declared what everyone else knew to be true. Little did they know then…how much more batshit it would get now. Particularly with regard to sociopathy and narcissism—both of which are spurred and fortified by screens. What would have been Narcissus’ modern-day mirror. With regard to that well-known, well-worn story, Albarn makes an overt reference to Echo’s role in it in the opening verse: “Looked in the mirror/So many people standing there/I walked towards them/Into the floodlights/I heard no echo.” Among the potential meanings of the first two lines is the idea that when we see ourselves in the mirror, there are so many versions of who we are hiding behind that reflected façade. The one so carefully curated for the sake of avoiding rejection or generally being “othered.” Of course, one could take it more literally and assume Albarn is having some kind of The Twilight Zone and/or funhouse mirror experience. In both scenarios, being transfixed by “the self” is at play. A “trend,” as it were, embodied by Narcissus.
Unlike Narcissus, however, Albarn has the good sense to recognize his vanity (or so he says) by insisting, “I found my ego” (literally and probably Freud-wise, vis-à-vis the “reality principle”). Even going so far as to admit to the Echo of his life, “You were the Pierrot/I was the dark room.” Whether or not the “Echo” in his life is ultimately himself (how very narcissistic indeed) is left to one’s discretion as he sings in the chorus, “I’ll be shining light in your eyes/You’ll probably shine it back on me/But I won’t fall this time/With Godspeed I’ll heed the signs.” “The fall” Albarn refers to seems less about falling in love and more about falling into the trap of some unhealthy addiction. And yes, self-obsession is a drug. To boot, Albarn makes mention of more literal drugs as the song progresses, describing, “I took the acid [even though Kesha’s mom said not to]/Under the white horses [this meaning the chalk white horses long ago carved into English hillsides to celebrate the summer solstice, which Albarn also brings up]/My heart it quickened/I could not tear myself away/Became addiction/If you see darkness look away.” That darkness he alludes to further applies undeniably to the darkness in oneself, particularly when they have narcissistic tendencies (usually complete with an inability to experience empathy).
Some would say—though certainly never of male musicians (only female ones like Madonna)—that it’s pure narcissism to keep making art into one’s “old age.” But if that’s the case, then maybe there’s room for four more narcissists in Blur if they can keep creating songs such as these.
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