Blur 'Beetlebum'

Chart Peak: 1 (1 week)

YouTube

'Beetlebum' marked a winning return to the chart for Blur when it entered at No. 1 in late January '97... The quartet are now into their 7th year of hit-making. 

I was slightly surprised to get as far as seven tracks into the second disc of an album from this era before I got to a single that I had a photographable physical copy of. For the record, I did buy 'Breathe' as a download, though obviously not at the time. No way I was going to miss out on the long-awaited comeback single from my then-favourite band, even though I'm not sure I'd heard it beforehand: in fact, I even went against my usual principles and bought one of the CD singles as well as the 7", although when I later conferred with my brother it turned out we'd both got the same CD. Darn.

You might have deduced from the above intro, and the fact that this song was widely perceived at the time as an attempt to jettison the kind of fans who'd
cheer when they get to the chorus on Top Of The Pops, that this was heading in the direction of me being disappointed. But no, not a bit of it. I loved this record from the moment I heard the intro. For all that it superficially seems to be the opposite of their other Number One, 'Country House', it's actually a very cleverly structured track: yes, the mood it achieves is very different but it does that through a much more subtle arrangement than is first apparent: listen out for the piano in the chorus and the synthesised trumpet in the verses.

Even the difference in tone seems to me at least partly a matter of choice. It's widely held - and no longer denied by Damon Albarn - that 'Beetlebum' is a song about heroin use, probably inspired by people very close to him indeed. So it's dark territory of course but then again a lot of their earlier songs had darker sides too, they just weren't played up as much. And even this track has a melodic base to it that makes it easier on the ear than if they'd worked as far into the free-jazz direction as they'd threatened to. That didn't stop it being one of the least successful Number One singles ever, but it should have.

Also appearing on: 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 37, 42, 43
Available on: Blur