Blur
Live at Wembley Stadium
PARLOPHONE
Whatever shaky bonds keeping Blur together for so many decades were on full display for a Wembley Stadium crowd last August. The Britpop band’s frontman Damon Albarn dubbed this gargantuan 150,000-capacity football venue “a temple for the agnostic” as they played to this crowd like ’90s rock deities. Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree feel right at home at the iconic London venue, and the two-hour, 17-track setlist shows off their range.
The career high of headlining Wembley for two nights—an achievement that eluded Blur even during the group’s mid-’90s zenith—means this is something extra special for the foursome. The unassuming fifty-something rockstars kick the dust off with a somewhat chronological opening section that keeps the focus squarely on Blur’s early rise from indie to punk and highbrow conceptual rock and pop. Songs like “There’s No Other Way,” “Popscene,” and “Beetlebum” sound perfectly oversized for this stadium environment. Other late-discography highlights from their 2023 album The Ballad of Darren, such as “The Narcissist” and “St Charles Square,” also bookend the show, added to the setlist for the sake of the imminent release at the time.
Classic earworms such as “This Is a Low,” “Villa Rosie,” “Girls and Boys,” “Tender,” “Oily Water,” “Trimm Trabb,” and “Under the Westway” detonate on impact with this expectant crowd, but nothing can compare to the megaton pop bombs of “Parklife” and “Song 2.” The orchestral closer, “The Universal,” was a pitch-perfect choice, but there are still some surprises along the way—such as “Lot 105” being performed for the first time since 1994 (though it didn’t make the cut for this tracklist, there are videos on YouTube of the Wembley performance), and pulling “Under the Westway” out of the concert archives for the first time since 2014.
Overall, Live at Wembley Stadium is a steady and ready reunion meant for the fans (the vinyl for this double picture disc release is limited to 4,000 copies and hand-numbered to order for the diehards). It has a few surprises, but overall it delivers the Wembley energy and passion even if it arrived 30 years after it should’ve. Art and pop collide for two hours, and the blurring between the two is a beautiful thing to hear.
