Blur - 13

I guess it was a trend in the late 90’s for alt rock bands to explore new directions, and who can blame them - electronic music was taking off, and Britpop was fading from the mainstream, so what better way to reinvent your sound? This album shows, to me, a perfect example of a band doing just that - morphing their sound to fit the times - without losing their entire identity doing so. This isn’t a Radiohead transformation, a statement I mean as a positive, this is more like changing the way you season your chicken. Whether it’s covered in salt pepper and garlic, or you go with something different like Teriyaki sauce, it’s still the same meat underneath. Blur is some of my favorite British alt rock, and this album is still “them” despite the experimentation.

From the roundup (Some of) The Greatest Albums of 1999.