Blur - "Lonesome Street"

Yes, I’m reviewing a single without any B-sides, but this is 2015. Even stranger is that Liam Gallagher, in between verbally barracking his brother, names a Blur tune as ‘song of the year’, though you suspect some proper Britpop might be right up his alley.

Of course, Blur have generally moved on from Britpop. It’s probably fair to say they had done with their self-titled album in 1998, and new album The Magic Whip certainly breaks out of the shadow of their early years (but more on that another time). Still, this Stephen Street-produced number oozes familiarity with a catchy riff, some cheeky-chappy singing from Damon Albarn and a couple of references to public transport in London. 

The line “step inside the tarmac ride” is, according to Graham Coxon, a reference to Hong Kong, where the band was stranded while they began working on the album. The chaos and denseness of the city is a prominent theme on the rest of the record, but it’s not the clear focus of this song. Lonesome Street could easily be in any city in the world; which is why this was a terrific choice for a single.