Boy loves girl and girl loves boy until she meets new boy and loves him instead. If we wanted to get more specific than that we could cast Justine Frischmann in the role of the girl who leaves her beloved Brett Anderson for the eyes of Damon Albarn. The big love ends when another begins; Justine leaves Suede and establishes Elastica. The brit pop world is in shock and a track is released called “Charmless Man”, rumour has it that it was a veiled message from Damon to Brett.
The rumors and the gossip were never confirmed, no one cared to do so, but as for an official response from Blur’s front man regarding the 4th track of their “The Great Escape” album from 1996? Albarn states that were concerned at least. Gossip was one of the reasons you may have taken notice of the track’s video; the other would be Jean Marc Barr, of “Big Blue” fame – before being completely consumed by Lars Von Trier (he stars in most of his films). In the video Jean Marc Barr gets beaten up and chased down the street by the band. That’s as far as the song’s narrative is concerned, because Blur’s history is divided up in four periods: their first four years were spent experimenting with different sounds and names. A year down the line and having settled on a name they had their first hit («There’s no other way»), they then crossed into the golden era of Brit Pop and reinvented themselves after 1995 and the end of that era. It was during this period that they wrote «Charmless Man», before reaching their final period, which was epitomized by their split. New bands were born from their split with Damon putting together the Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad and the Queen, whilst Graham Coxon focused on solo projects, amidst frequent rumours of them reforming. That time has come but the question is whether they are able to reach the heights of their golden era and can guitar pop still sound charming today?
