Title: Blur – New World Towers
Release Date: 2016
Genre: Documentary, Music
Director: Sam Wrench
Artist: Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, Dave Rowntree
Production/Label: Parlophone Records/Eleven Management/Blink TV
Duration: 01:33:14
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: AVC
Audio codec: DTS
Video: MPEG-4 AVC 16997 kbps / 1920*1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 48 kHz / 4116 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles: Japanese
Size: 16.61 GB
The film charts the iconic British band’s sprawling journey over the last few years – from an unexpected break in Hong Kong which sowed the seeds for their first album as a four piece in 16 years, to a glorious home coming show in London and, finally, an emotional reunion with their Hong Kong audience. New World Towers cuts between scenes from the band’s impassioned performance at this summer’s Hyde Park show in front of 60,000 fans and the stirring concert in Hong Kong, but also offers a raw, candid glimpse into the interior life of the band as well, with personal documentary footage and band interviews showing just how an opportune recording session unexpectedly gave birth to a new album, while also raising questions about the future of Blur. New World Towers reveals fascinating insights into the group dynamic and especially the relationship between singer Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon. Ultimately, their enduring friendship prevailed – allowing Coxon to bring [The Magic Whip] to completion nearly 18 months later.
Read moreBlur – The Ballad of Darren (Deluxe) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:29 minutes | 538 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
One of the most successful British bands of the last 3 decades, blur are back on 21st July with their first new album in over 8 years: The Ballad of Darren. Preceded by first single The Narcissist on 18th May, the album was produced by James Ford and recorded in Studio 13, London and Devon, and is the sound of a band at the very top of their game.
Produced by James Ford and recorded at Studio 13, London and Devon, The Ballad of Darren is the band’s ninth studio album, their first since the chart-topping The Magic Whip in 2015, with artwork featuring an image by British photographer Martin Parr.
Read moreBlur – The Ballad of Darren (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 36:03 minutes | 423 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
“The Ballad of Darren is the first legit [Blur] album since 13,” Blur vocalist Damon Albarn recently told Consequence of Sound. Putting aside Think Tank (2003), which saw guitarist Graham Coxon’s exit, and 2015’s The Magic Whip (which was reportedly pieced together by Coxon after Albarn threw in the towel), that’s 24 years. The world has changed… a lot. The band has changed… a lot. (Check out now-sober Coxon’s entertaining memoir Verse, Chorus, Monster! for more on that.) But listening to “St. Charles Square,” it’s like Blur picked right back up from 1999. Coxon’s woozy guitar is all over the place, a stumblebum determined to lead the way to fun. Albarn opens up the song by declaring “I fucked up” and unleashes fright-show screams and haunted-house howls. It could have been right at home on 13, and it’s a delight. “Barbaric” sounds crisp and sunny—maybe the sunniest song Blur has ever done, versus the blinding camp of, say, “Girls & Boys”—even as the lyrics devastate: “And I would like if you’ve got the time/ To talk to you about what this breakup has done to me/ I have lost the feeling that I thought I’d never lose.”
Read moreBlur – Live At The Budokan (1996/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:36:38 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
Blur’s 1995 show at iconic Tokyo venue The Nippon Budokan is now available in digital formats. The band visited Japan almost 20 years ago on The Great Escape Tour, performing to 20,000 fans at the Budokan on 8th November 1995. The audio received a Japanese physical release the following year, going on to become a much sought after and hugely popular import around the world. Now, with audio remastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios, the legendary show is finally be available everywhere for the first time!
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Blur – The Magic Whip (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 51:42 minutes | 602 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
The Magic Whip is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Blur. It was released by Parlophone on 27 April 2015. It is the band’s first studio album since Think Tank (2003), marking the longest gap between two studio albums in their career.
The video for “Go Out” was uploaded to YouTube on 19 February 2015. Videos for “There Are Too Many of Us” and “Lonesome Street” followed on 20 March and 2 April 2015 respectively. The official audios for “My Terracotta Heart”, “I Broadcast”, and “Ong Ong” were made available shortly before the album’s release.
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Blur – The Great Escape (1995/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:56 minutes | 1,25 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
The Great Escape is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Blur, released on 11 September 1995 on Food and Virgin Records. The album received glowing reviews and was a big seller on its initial release, reaching number one in the United Kingdom album chart (outselling the rest of the Top 10 put together) and was their first to crack the US charts reaching number 150. Less than a year after the album was released, it was certified triple platinum in the UK.
The album continued the band’s run of hit singles, with “Country House”, “The Universal”, “Stereotypes” and “Charmless Man”. “Country House” was Blur’s first single to chart at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, beating Oasis’ “Roll with It”, in a chart battle dubbed “The Battle of Britpop”.
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Blur – Parklife (1994/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:50 minutes | 1,16 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
Parklife is the third studio album by the English rock band Blur, released in April 1994 on Food Records. After disappointing sales for their previous album Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife returned Blur to prominence in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: “Girls & Boys”, “End of a Century”, “Parklife” and “To the End”. Certified four times platinum in the United Kingdom, in the year following its release the album came to define the emerging Britpop scene, along with the album Definitely Maybe by rivals Oasis. Britpop in turn would form the backbone of the broader Cool Britannia movement. Parklife therefore attained a cultural significance above and beyond its considerable sales and critical acclaim, cementing its status as a landmark in British rock music.
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Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:59 minutes | 1,32 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
Modern Life Is Rubbish is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Blur, released in May 1993. Although their debut album Leisure (1991) had been commercially successful, Blur faced a severe media backlash soon after its release, and fell out of public favour. After the group returned from an unsuccessful tour of the United States, poorly received live performances and the rising popularity of rival band Suede further diminished Blur’s status in the UK.
Under threat of being dropped by Food Records, for their next album Blur underwent an image makeover championed by frontman Damon Albarn. The band incorporated influences from traditional British guitar pop groups such as the Kinks and the Small Faces, and the resulting sound was melodic and lushly produced, featuring brass, woodwind and backing vocalists. Albarn’s lyrics on Modern Life Is Rubbish use “poignant humour and Ray Davies characterisation to investigate the dreams, traditions and prejudices of suburban England”, according to writer David Cavanagh.
Modern Life Is Rubbish was a moderate chart success in the UK; the album peaked at number 15, while the singles taken from the album charted in the Top 30. Applauded by the music press, the album’s Anglocentric rhetoric rejuvenated the group’s fortunes after their post-Leisure slump. Modern Life Is Rubbish is regarded as one of the defining releases of the Britpop scene, and its chart-topping follow-ups—Parklife and The Great Escape—saw Blur emerge as one of Britain’s leading pop acts.
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Blur – Blur (1997/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:59 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Parlophone UK
1997 saw Blur abandon English character song and look towards left-field American rock for inspiration. Recorded partly in Iceland, Britpop is shunned in favor of abstract experimentalism, abrasive guitars, held together with Damon Albarn’s instinctive knack for writing memorable tunes. The album features the band’s second UK number 1 single, “Beetlebum” and the casually anthemic “Song 2”, the latter finally acquiring Blur transatlantic success.
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