Listen to two new Blur songs, ‘The Rabbi’ and ‘The Swan’

Blur have shared two new songs that are featured in the deluxe version of their latest LP ‘The Ballad Of Darren’. Listen to them below.

• READ MORE: Blur – ‘The Ballad of Darren’ review: their brilliance continues

The two new tracks, ‘The Rabbi’ and ‘The Swan’, both have that signature Blur sound with the latter being a mellow ballad and ‘The Rabbi’ being a bright, upbeat song. Both tracks follow the LP’s lead single ‘The Narcissist’.

‘The Ballad Of Darren’ arrived on Friday, July 21. In a four-star review of the album, NME shared: “There’s always a sense of unfinished business with Blur; they’ve never officially split, but each time they re-emerge it’s as if we’re rekindling a long-estranged affair. Two albums in 20 years since 2003’s ‘Think Tank’ – ‘The Ballad of Darren’ and 2015’s ‘The Magic Whip’ – would suggest they feel the same.”

It continued: “On ‘The Ballad…’ the band are muted and contemplative; there are moments of sheer heartbreak in these songs. Beyond the doom, there’s something resolute and life-affirming in the way this record plays out; you sense the whole momentum of the band moving as a unit, not just pieced together in separate takes like in ‘The Magic Whip’.”

Additionally, as well as performing two back-to-back nights at Wembley Stadium, the band also played an intimate BBC Radio Theatre show, which saw them debut new song ‘Barbaric’ and air classics for their 300-strong crowd.

Up next, the indie veterans will be performing ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ in full at a special livestreamed gig at London’s Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith tomorrow (July 25), before a run of European festival dates and appearances in Asia and South America. Visit here for tickets and more information.

The band’s bassist Alex James claimed that he found returning to Blur a lot more “relaxing” than parenting.

“Playing the bass in a rock band is the easiest thing, compared to parenting,” he shared. “It actually is relaxing going back into that Blur bubble.”

The post Listen to two new Blur songs, ‘The Rabbi’ and ‘The Swan’ appeared first on NME.