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10.0
75506
10.0 |
God Is In The TV
The most complete and astonishing album that anyone has produced in years
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9.0
75479
9.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
It may just be music, but it feels like a great big hug
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8.5
75282
8.5 |
The Quietus
While not quite the gang of four of old, they are all pulling in the same direction and, even for the most casual Blur fan, that is a glorious thing
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8.3
75484
8.3 |
Pretty Much Amazing
More than a nostalgic retread
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8.1
75566
8.1 |
Paste Magazine
Britpop’s giants are back, and they sound surprisingly the way we had hoped they would: melodic, contemplative and content as a single unit
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8.0
75612
8.0 |
NOW
Does the right amount of looking inward and outward, forward and backward
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8.0
75565
8.0 |
Exclaim
Leaves listeners hoping that it won't be another 12 years before Blur make another record that sounds this fine
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8.0
75960
8.0 |
Time Out
Some of us have come a long way with this great, perhaps even quintessential London band. Against the odds, ‘The Magic Whip’ shows there’s more distance left to run
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8.0
75508
8.0 |
Sputnik Music (staff)
As The Magic Whip proves, that legacy is a malleable entity, and the band remains concerned only with stretching it in ways they’ve never considered before
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8.0
75505
8.0 |
Digital Spy
Twelve years after their last record, 16 after the last one as a quartet, Blur sound as vital and innovative as they ever did
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8.0
75551
8.0 |
All Music
Casually confident and so assured in its attack it feels like a continuation, not a comeback
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8.0
75556
8.0 |
Rolling Stone
Blur have returned with inspiration to spare
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8.0
75560
8.0 |
Spin
Worthy company to any of the band’s classic LPs
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8.0
75485
8.0 |
The Arts Desk
What really shines out is just how strong Blur's identity really was and how good it feels for the band to have settled back into it
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8.0
75279
8.0 |
NME
This is a reunited band making music to rival their very best
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8.0
75280
8.0 |
Beardfood
They’re a band still able to find new emotional triggers their contemporaries have yet to discover. Their magic remains as strong as ever
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8.0
75281
8.0 |
The List
The Magic Whip hasn’t been studied or pored-over, and that something alchemical and very natural has been allowed to work together once more
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8.0
75451
8.0 |
The Observer
Dystopian tunes brought on by sprawling neon cities are hardly a new thing in pop. But at best, this incarnation of Blur have a knack for making this bewildering world seem small, and our troubles universal
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8.0
75283
8.0 |
Q
This might turn out to be one of the most accomplished records of the year. Print edition only
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8.0
75284
8.0 |
Mojo
For a collection with an eye on the setting sun and the slow decline, it’s a fine late flowering
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8.0
75285
8.0 |
Uncut
At its best The Magic Whip thrums with ideas and possibilities. Print edition only
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8.0
75289
8.0 |
musicOMH
The Magic Whip succeeds splendidly in coming across as a comeback album that hasn’t been overthought
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8.0
75293
8.0 |
State
If this is the last we hear of Blur, it is a strong, dignified final bow
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8.0
75300
8.0 |
The Music
While they make it look so deceptively simple, you wonder why they ever stopped
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8.0
75324
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
13 sounded like the end of a band. Think Tank sounded like the end of a band. The Magic Whip does not sound like the end of a band
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8.0
75357
8.0 |
The Guardian
Musically, they don’t sound like a band taking a final curtain call. They sound like a band filled with ideas and potential new directions, who have plenty left to do together, if they choose
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8.0
75408
8.0 |
FasterLouder
Up there with Blur’s best albums, and a reminder of just how well the band reconcile their divergent ideas
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8.0
75411
8.0 |
Earbuddy
It just sounds like an ordinary Blur record. And an ordinary Blur record? That sounds good to me
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7.0
75478
7.0 |
PopMatters
All The Magic Whip tries to be is nothing more than the band in their purest form, deprived of all commercial considerations so that their eccentricities are all that remains
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7.0
75499
7.0 |
Pitchfork
In the moments when The Magic Whip is most interested in sounding like a Blur album, it is perhaps too interested
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7.0
75503
7.0 |
Slant Magazine
The Magic Whip isn't a triumphant return of a Britpop champion; instead, it's a mature, measured document from a band that's never rested on its laurels
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7.0
75974
7.0 |
No Ripcord
Even with its faults, The Magic Whip is remarkably cohesive; not a single track is superfluous, flippant, or jarring
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6.7
75510
6.7 |
A.V. Club
It’s a testament to the band’s intangible chemistry that The Magic Whip doesn’t feel like an Albarn (or a Coxon) solo effort; the album sounds like a Blur record
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6.5
76754
6.5 |
Crack
The Magic Whip isn’t perfect but it’s certainly a welcome return for a songwriting partnership that’s spent far too long in the dark
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6.5
75952
6.5 |
Under The Radar
It has to count as a success, because Blur sound like a band from 2015 rather than 1995
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6.0
75278
6.0 |
The Skinny
It's when the riffs seem plucked straight from the annals of 1997 that Blur seem to remember how to have fun
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6.0
75449
6.0 |
The FT
It doesn’t compare with their heyday: there are too many glued-on choruses and scribbled-down lyrics, testament to the songs’ origins in jamming. But the best tracks are engrossing
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5.8
75562
5.8 |
Consequence Of Sound
Everything on The Magic Whip sounds like the band put together every idea to warrant absolute comeback status
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4.0
75724
4.0 |
Spectrum Culture
Blur are still capable of writing truly great music; their 2012 single “Under the Westway” was one of the best things that they’ve ever done. But the new album fails to deliver on that promise
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