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The Most Memorable Albums of 1999 (Part 1)

PopMatters is 20 this year -- until October when we are 21 -- and a 2009 special section celebrates the popular music that defined the year of our birth. Today we kick things off with albums from January through March, highlighted by Eminem's debut and stellar pop from XTC and Blur.

                                      
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PopMatters is moving to WordPress. We will publish a few essays daily while we develop the new site. We hope the beta will be up sometime late next week.

PopMatters is 20 this year -- until October when we are 21 -- and a 2009 special section celebrates the popular music that defined the year of our birth. Today we kick things off with albums from January through March, highlighted by Eminem's debut and stellar pop from XTC and Blur.

Blur's Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett created the cyberworld Gorillaz as a critique and subversion of manufactured music. Does it succeed in its intentions?

Blur's bi-coastal arena shows beckoned fans far and wide as the band performed songs from The Magic Whip and lots of other hits and rarities. Their documentary New World Towers is part of the DOC NYC festival this Sunday.

Britpop was alive and well at the start of May as Blur took to Brooklyn for the first time in 16 years. Now, you can watch the whole concert right here on PopMatters.

Blur brought plenty of tracks new and old -- in addition to massive squalls of feedback -- to their recent gig at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg.

At their recent Brooklyn gig, Blur performed several classics alongside the material from their new record, including Parklife's "Trouble in the Messenger Centre".

Blur performed to a packed and enthusiastic crowd last week at Brooklyn's Music Hall of Williamsburg; these performances of two Magic Whip tracks document the fun.

After a 16-year hiatus from New York City stages, Blur came back to Brooklyn with a new album in tow, the much-acclaimed The Magic Whip.

The successors to Radiohead and The Bends are a generation who liked how the film started, but lost the script halfway through.

The attacks of 9/11 may have caused a noticeable shift in the lyrical content of musicians and even sonic changes in the short term, but, in the end, normalcy finds a way to settle in.

Even if you think that Damon Albarn has done it all by this point in time, Everyday Robots is a new gold standard in contemporary pop songwriting.

Damon Albarn's got a new album arriving in a few days, and his band's most popular album commemorates its 20th birthday. What better time to pay tribute to the period when Blur put the "pop" in Britpop?

Blur's biggest, most triumphant concert ever -- playing at Hyde Park as part of the 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremonies -- is given a large, multi-disc treatment.

Parklive may have a lame title, but that's the only thing lacking here.

The long-running Now series has a go at crafting a selection of contemporary British pop's leading lights for an American audience. And then it sticks Radiohead's "Creep" near the front of it.

The most compelling reason to opt for the CD version of the Blur 21 box set is the inclusion of four rarities discs covering the span of the revived Britpop group’s history.

If you needed any confirmation that Blur took the gold in the 1990s Britpop battle royale, the band's headlining performance capping the London Olympics should close the case.

Oh goodness yes, another box set from another highly-regarded band, but before you hit your cultural snooze alarm, take a look closer: this actually has everything fans could want, and more, especially when we hear it direct from the horse's mouth.

Blur is back with two new tunes...

The record release schedule usually cools off as summer heats up, but this July offers its fair share of highly anticipated albums from across the musical spectrum.

This debut showing from the team-up of Damon Albarn, Flea, and Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen is surprisingly unambitious but solid and fun.

The bespectacled Blur guitarist once again indulges his American indie rock fixation -- and it's a good thing he has.

Blur frontman Damon Albarn is flexing his artistic muscles, tackling perhaps the most difficult musical form to master... opera.

What puts Burnout ahead of other arcade racers like Split/Second and Blur is a single and perfectly implemented mechanic: the ability to ram cars.

Half the fun of lists like this is tearing them down immediately after they’ve been built up.

In a weekend where Gorillaz closed out Coachella and Blur released its first single in a decade, one man swoons over the force at the center of it all.

Parklife is like a dream date -- it's smart, it's funny, it rocks, it's tender, it gets your blood pumping, and when it's over, you can't wait to do it all over again.

Sure, Blur were at times all over the map, but this two-disc set actually accentuates the incongruities of their occasional diversity by odd selection choices, bizarre sequencing, and about as much focus as a shuffle button.

It's a thing of beauty to see one of the best guitarists in recorded history reach his creative peak after so many years of effort and doubt.

A musical, circus stage show based on a 16th century Chinese novel about a monkey who dreamed of being a god? Damon Albarn must have something to do with it. But stripped of the fancy visuals, the music is left wanting.