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Amazon.co.uk Review
Oft remembered as a false start before Blur's eventual ascension to the position of Britpop spokesmen, 1991's Leisure belongs to a very different age. Much of it is fairly lightweight: a naive dance-rock hybrid, and not a million miles away from EMF. Leisure certainly has its moments, though, and when they come, they're quietly stunning: "Sing" (later revived for the Trainspotting soundtrack) is a crystalline clatter, guided through huge psychedelic rain clouds by Alex James' wandering bass; even today, it sounds one of Blur's most beautiful moments. "There's No Other Way" is equally deserving of note; powered by a titanic baggy beat, it stands as one of the greatest indie disco floor-fillers of the 1990s. Despite its faults, Leisure is an occasionally great album; it's questionable, though, that many of Blur's "Song 2" converts would even recognise it as the same band. --Louis Pattison
Review
Recorded at the point when all roads more or less still led to the baggy Madchester scene, Leisure is infused with a dancey gloss and big recursive chunks of funky drumming favoured by the big-league luminaries such as The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, and Happy Mondays. “Bad Day” is particularly indebted to the scene, as are the pulverising dynamics of “Slow Down,” though “There’s No Other Way” suggests that the melody of REM’s “Stand” (from the album, Green) had also percolated through their collective consciousness.
Graham Coxon’s churning atmospherics add an echoing depth to “Sing”, beautifully offsetting its bruising metronomic chug. He’s cautious about indulging in too many guitar heroics, opting instead to clown around with some dopey fuzzbox on “Repetition,” or give it some choppy Pete Townshend chords on “Come Together.” Vocally, Damon Albarn is less expressive, operating somewhere between a knowing perma-smirk delivery, or a kind of gormless intoning (as on “Fool” and the shoe-gazing alienation anthem of “Birthday”). There’s not a lot of range there but it fits the bill.
Though generally reckoned to be the poorer cousin to their following albums, there’s a charming innocence to the music – a quality that wasn’t able to survive the transition from simple pop band to the an unstoppable Brit award-winning machine. The spacey jangle of “She’s So High” encapsulates the relaxed appeal of sunshine-drenched choruses, eagerly repeated simply because it sounded good rather than what it all might mean.
The record honestly captures the band at the point where they didn’t have to worry about being spokesmen for a generation, solve third world debt or be cultural commentators with something to say. All they had to do was play as well as they could and look as pretty as the video director would allow. In this sense, Blur had nothing to say but said it very well, an accurate enough reflection of the matey hedonism of the day. --Sid Smith
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
One thing i would like to make clear from the outset. This album is from the tail end of the baggy era. Four years before the Britpop explosion some reviewers have lumped it in. Containing three great baggy anthems and some great shoe-gazed tinged pop Blur seemed to be in the right place at the right time with this album. The album also shows glimpses of their darker songwriting style that would return with more prominence several albums down the line. This is a stronger album than many people credit it for. No classic...but good.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
While it may be fashionable to dismiss this album, and the band themselves may wish to distance themselves from it somewhat due to their circumstance at the time, the music on Leisure is still (to my ears) quite good. Should we disparage that there are the marks of the alleged "shoegazer" sound and Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine influences? I have no idea why. While some tracks, like Fool, are not all that good... there is nothing bad here. And Bang is still an entirely catchy song... intelligent or mature lyrically? No. but it's not dumb, either...
While I do view Modern Life is Rubbish as a wonderful expansion of Blur's style, Leisure is a major accomplishment. And may I dare say that I'm happy to have "I Know" (which suits the album much better) on my U.S. version instead of "Sing" (though I'd like to have had both)
While I do view Modern Life is Rubbish as a wonderful expansion of Blur's style, Leisure is a major accomplishment. And may I dare say that I'm happy to have "I Know" (which suits the album much better) on my U.S. version instead of "Sing" (though I'd like to have had both)
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It's Blur, captain, but not as we know it. It's lucky that Damon's voice is so distinctive, otherwise you would have thought this was a completely different band. Despite the rather dull and uninspiring lyrics, this is still a hell of a lot of fun to listen to, with some great tunes and though quite a lot of the songs are fairly similar and unremarkable, their are exceptions (The beautiful, dreamlike 'Sing', 'Bang', an energetic and exciting song (and probably Leisure's only song that sounds like it could have come from a later album) and the frantic, era-defining 'There's no other way'). It isn't really the Blur we know, but it's definitely a hell of a lot of fun!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Imperfect, but much, much better than its reputation suggests.
The mix is this album's greatest problem. Though it's often said that Leisure is a 'baggy' album, it isn't. Read more
Published 2 months ago by James Marriott
Blur's Debut Album = Forgotten 90's Gem
Before I begin this review, I do have a few questions regarding the front cover of this album. Why is it a picture of a weird looking woman from the 1950's? Read more
Published 16 months ago by Matthew Stoneman
More honest than other releases!
This is an album that is pushed into the shadows of Modern Life is Rubbish,Parklife and a few more by the fans and the band itself. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Arthur
One of Britain's best bands start with rather inconsistent debut
Alongside Oasis, Blur are one of the most popular bands of the last 20 years but despite the albums that followed like Parklife and their self titled 1997 effort, this album is... Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2009 by T.K
Two ridiculously infectious reasons...
Ignore all the hype and mis/preconceptions about Blur's early work and buy this album for two excellent reasons: "She's So High", a wonderfully addictive slice of guitar-driven,... Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2006 by nicjaytee
Leisure
This is, undoubtedly, Blur's weakest album but it's by no means a bad album as some people make out and there are also some fantastic songs on here.
1. Read more
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Published on 29 July 2006 by BlurFan
Alright Start
Blur's debut contains Alex and Dave's tightest ever rhythm section, Graham Coxon's most intricate guitar work and Damon's most laid back vocals. Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2005 by Elliot Davies
In hindsight... it was no masterpiece
Blur have the dubious honour of being connected to almost every-single memory I have of my high school years. They're also pretty much the poster-band for Britpop (still! Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2005 by Jonathan James Romley
Airbrushed mess.
This is the sound of a band trying to search for a direction of their own (see Radiohead's 'Pablo Honey'). Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2004 by "maythebloodiestwinners"
WOW, in a baggy kinda way
The best thing your gonna hear from way back when !
Even if you didn't listen to this when it was first out, you will recognise some of, if not most of these tracks ! Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2000
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