Blur: Blur

The new self-titled album of American-music-friendly tunes from Blur presents a pretty drastic shift from the Brit-pop glory of the decidedly English band's past few albums. But while it takes a couple of listens to absorb the shock, it's a shift that generally works. Singer Damon Albarn has mostly abandoned his persona as an insular, world-weary wit about town, while the rest of the band, citing the experimental styles of Beck and Pavement, has similarly followed suit. What no one has forgotten—and what prevents the album from being the disaster it could have been—is that Blur is the sort of pop band that stands or falls on its ability to produce hooks that stay in listeners' heads long after the CD has stopped. And tracks such as "Beetlebum," "Look Inside America" and "On Your Own" do provide the pop goods; most of the experimental tracks are listenable in their own right; and you can always shut it off before you get to the poetry reading that closes the album. Always too quick to try to sound like the future of music, Blur has somehow managed to sound like a fusion of the best of the present: Both punk and electronica influences can be found on the new album. And that's not a bad thing at all.