(Credits: Far Out / Reuben Bastienne Lewis)
Fri 9 January 2026 6:00, UK
The cultural idea of Britishness has never been celebrated quite like it was in the 1990s. Through the proud days of Britpop, music fans could unashamedly celebrate the idea of warm pints, pork pies and Umbro tracksuits in a way they hadn’t quite before.
It was a sentiment no better displayed than on Blur’s 1994 hit ‘Parklife’, where combining the day school voice of Damon Albarn with the town crier exclamations of mod hero Phil Daniels, we were able to enjoy a track that felt like all the best parts of the Great British night out.
But then, as all great scenes do, the reverence of Britpop fell away as the millennium beckoned and suddenly, what had just taken place felt like the source of satire rather than inspiration. While Oasis didn’t quite get the memo and tried to continue on in their Parkas, Blur and more specifically Albarn, allowed themselves to shift with the times.
One last record in Think Tank and a groundbreaking project in Gorillaz put Albarn in a uniquely influential position come the new era. It meant that by the time 2015 rolled around and Blur felt the rumblings of another record in the mix, there wasn’t an insistence on travelling back in musical time. On Magic Whip, they instead upped sticks and camped out in Hong Kong, where their newfound creativity was given space to flourish.
“When we were in Hong Kong. We were going to the studio every day with this kind of rush our mindset, going from the hotel through an incredibly weird glass shopping mall to dispute of the tiled subway area will would get on the train,” guitarist Graham Coxon explained. “And I guess Hong Kong was sticking to us along the way – we were seeing things, hearing things, and that somehow came out in music.”
The influence is heard best on the luscious track ‘Ghost Ship’, where Blur take textural influence from the likes of Steely Dan on a mid-tempo track that exhibits all of the best individual parts of the band. The horn flourishes allow your focus to be pulled into Coxon’s impeccable guitar work, while Alex James’ bass line never relents in providing the song a delightful groove. And on top of all of that, Albarn delivers one of his very best vocals for the band.
It’s perfectly transportative for a Blur song designed to shake off the dust of Britpop and instead allow them to be viewed as a band influenced by the sounds of the wider world.
“It’s a song that I would never have imagined being able to compose,” Albarn admitted. Adding, it “has a soul feeling and bluish as Hong Kong, an infinite city, made of a thousand layers.”
Every listen of this song reminds me of just how unfairly Blur have been treated through the lens of Britpop and more particularly, Oasis. Really, they had no right being compared to the band, let alone pitted against them, for they were on a completely different trajectory – one that eventually brought them to Hong Kong, writing a song that not many bands of their era could have.
Related Topics