13

Blur | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 29, 2011)
• Original Release Date: March 23, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol Music
• ASIN: B00000I8T8
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (202 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,432 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #78 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > Britpop

Track Listings

1. Tender

2. Bugman

3. Coffee & TV

4. Swamp Song

5. 1992

6. B.L.U.R.E.M.I.

7. Battle

8. Mellow Song

9. Trailerpark

10. Caramel

11. Trimm Trabb

12. No Distance Left To Run

13. Optigan 1

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

One man's loss is our gain. On 13, lead singer Damon Albarn feeds his lyrics with the pain from his breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Elastica's Justine Frischmann. From the down-home hymnal "Tender" to the eerily psychedelic stagger of "Swamp Song," Blur, graced with the cohesive strength of William Orbit's production, take the high road, avoiding the woe-is-me drudgery of self-pity and presenting Albarn's varying shades of grief with a collection of melancholic, disturbed achievements. --Beth Massa

Product Description

13 by Blur

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars shooting stars in my left arm..., January 31, 2005

By 

medellia - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13 (Audio CD)

well. every cliché about blur being britpop to the bone aside: this album is truly a matserpiece, and one of the most underrated pop records of the nineties.

i dont feel like dwelling on the differences between blur, when blur is bloody english, and the blur that toss its guts right at the listener. this is simply something very different from what the band had ever done before, maybe except for tracks like 'sing' and 'essex dogs', though the intensity and the core of 13's tracklist is something quite astonishing.

its impossible for me to pinpoint certain tracks as better than the next one, as i think this is indeed an ALBUM, aching to be listened to as ONE piece. the atmosphere and despair in there is not to be written about, but listened to.

however, if you want to get the big picture before purchasing, you should probably listen to 'bugman', 'caramel' and 'battle', which would confuse the average blurhead a lot. simply go for the whole experience, and you wont regret a damn thing.

howl!!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Damon ends decade low but the band of the 90's end so high, July 10, 2000

By 

David Groves (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13 (Audio CD)

In 1998 Damon Albarn split from his girlfriend of 7 years Elastica's Justine Frischmann. As with any great songwriter, he let his songs express how he was feeling and this is the painstaking theme running through Blur's sixth album '13'. This was very much a studio album as Blur locked themselves in studio 13 for six months to produce this, their best album for 5 years. Britain at this time was coming down from the musical high of Brit-pop and artificial boybands were again polluting the charts. This album was needed to show that musical forms can still be moved on and that no-one can master it as well as Blur. Early criticism was inevitable from the cynical British press but for many of its listeners, this album grows and grows on you until you to can feel Damon's pain.

The gospel-filled opener 'Tender' bares Damon's emotions all too clearly, seducing you into their ever-growing wide musical spectrum. Graham Coxon's love of guitar distortion and experimentalism is apparent throughout the album giving it an edge like no other album that decade. 'Coffee and TV' (sung by Coxon), reaffirms your belief that Blur write the best melodic pop/rock songs today. '1992' includes typical Blur chord changes but as ever alters almost unrecognisably to an intriguing psychedilic/grunge format unlike anything else heard before.

'B.L.U.R.E.M.I' is the only song not worthy of being included as it unnecessarily re-introduces the 'Song 2', 'Chinese Burns' elements from their previous album 'Blur', but every song following it is near perfect emotional experimentalism.

'Battle', (with vocal styles reminiscent of underrated Welsh band Super Furry Animals that Damon is known to be a fan of) draws you in encompassing trip-hop, post-punk and grunge over such a sensitive backing that you can not understand how it works so well.

'Mellow Song' begins with Damon moving back to his acoustic roots while allowing his love for the dreamy organ sound not heard since thier debut album 'Leisure'.

'Trailerpark' allows Graham Coxon to show his underappreciated brilliance of lead guitar journeys and the drumming of Dave Rowntree throughout the album should not be underestimated. 'Caramel' is possibly the song of the album balancing mysery, pain, beauty and hurt in equal measures leaving you feel as close to music as is possible.

'Trimm Trabb' changes the mood once again with lyrics expressing how Damon ended up resigned to the fact the his relationship with Justine was over. Coxon excels on guitar once again and perhaps this song best represents the album and the adventurous production of William Orbit.

'No distance left to run' is pure beauty (Justine admitted that she cried through it the first time she heard it). It sees Damon lay all his feelings out on the table one last time.

'Optigan 1' cleverly ends the album and seems to sum up all the emotion that came before it using another of Damon's pet instruments.

In an era when commercialism and conformity is encouraged in music, it is good to know that a band can still surprise and delight. Remember to listen to all of Blur's albums starting with 'leisure' and then you realise how diverse they are.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blur's best, February 4, 2006

By 

Yakov, Smerd "Smerdyakov" (VA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 13 (Audio CD)

IMO, this is Blur's best. The band was unique in that each subsequent album was not only more "progressive," but also very different. Not many bands pull this off, but Blur did. It seems to me that 13 was the band's peak. The songs range from the choir-laden Tender to the Arabesque, hair-bandish Swamp Song. There's only one song I'm not fond of, Caramel, which just kind of drags on. All the rest are great. My favorites are Tender, Bugman, 1992 (Portishead-ish), Mellow Song (Radiohead-ish), and Trimm Trabb. Man, do I love Trimm Trabb! And I think the album's songs all fit together very nicely, a la Sgt. Peppers and American Idiot, where they all pretty much need to be there for it to make sense. After 13, I think Blur's Think Tank was disjointed and a bit indifferent - a few nice tunes, but no 13. You can hear Gorillaz being born in 13, I think. This is one of favorite albums.