Rated 8/10
I'd somehow never listened to a full Blur album until now, despite enjoying plenty of their songs and being a fan of Damon Albarn's output in general. Given that this album came before a lot of their more well-known hits, it has a slightly different feel to it than I'd come to associate with Blur, but it's a side of them that I enjoy all the same. I can see how people would consider it less unique and interesting than their later output, but this sort of guitar-driven, melody-focused sound is right up my alley.
Honestly, any album that just gives me lovely melodies to get lost in is going to get a good review from me. Maybe I'm just easily pleased. Miss America in particular, even though it's admittedly quite a sonic departure from the rest of the album, I thought was practically hypnotizing. I could listen to a lot of these tracks for hours.
The hooks are great, the lyrics are charming in their irreverence, and the instrumentation and production are immaculate. It's just a great album from almost start to finish (tracks 4-6 are a bit whatever, but I love the rest). I'm definitely going to check out the rest of their catalogue now.
Favourite tracks: Miss America, Oily Water, Colin Zeal