The new Blur album, Think Tank, is extraordinary. It took me four or five listens to wrap my head around it, but now I think it might be as good as Parklife or their self-titled 1997 album. It's very different, but not as much as you might think it would be, having been ditched by their very distinctive guitarist, Graham Coxon, part-way through recording. It seems like a natural next step to me. And I dig it a lot. It was recorded during the build-up to military action in Iraq, and some say that the whole album is essentially about existing in a world that doesn't make a lot of sense and may be headed toward destruction. I think I can see it. My current favorite tracks are "Out of Time", "Crazy Beat", "Good Song", "Caravan", and "Sweet Song", and they all could be interpreted as the musings of someone with impending war on his mind. Problems: 1) The album tastefully features the "Parental Advisory -- Explicit Lyrics" stamp on the front. "Well, Damon must sing the fuck word a few times," you might be saying to yourself. Alas, no. In one song, he uses the words "cocaine", "crackwhore", "horny", and "acid". That's it. The song is about the arbitrary line between "bad" and "good" drugs. No Cop Killer, no 2 Live Crew nursery rhymes, no nothing. But because of that darn sticker, I had to call my parent to advise me before I purchased the album. 2) Most Americans only think of "Song 2" when they think of Blur, which is strange. In a way, "Song 2" was sort of an anti-Blur Blur song. For this reason (association with one rather non-representative song only), Think Tank is bound to do not as well as it deserves to in the U.S. It's also less poppy and more challenging than some of their more well-known stuff. Another drawback. (Oddly enough, these things will probably only help sales of the new Radiohead album. I don't understand Radiohead. They're not that interesting and the lead singer's voice is boring. Indie rock snobs -- those who hate any album that's sold over 200,000 copies -- love them, and they've sold millions of records. I don't get it. There's something here I'm missing. As far as I'm concerned, they're not even in the same class as a band like Blur. Consider the titles of their new albums: Think Tank versus Hail to the Thief, the latter, by all reports, directly referring to George W. Bush and the bizarre election that brought him to power. Which title is subtle, and which one is stupid and obtuse?)