Well, hello there. Welcome back to another special, one off review podcast from us, the fellas at Trve. Cvlt. Pop!

On this episode we are looking at the 9th studio album from recently reformed Brit-pop legends Blur, The Ballad of Darren. This is the band's first album since 2015's rather disappointing The Magic Whip album, but the members of Blur have been keeping themselves busy in a world without their main band; Damon Albarn has been doing some solo stuff and a little project called Gorillaz, both guitarist Graham Coxon and drummer Dave Rowntree have gone solo too and bassist Alex James has... made some cheese... we're not sure. So, does the world need a new Blur album? Is it a risk to come out of hiatus and give the world new material when you already have a stellar back catalogue to fall back on and millions of fans who would surely be happy to see Blur live out their days as a lovely nostalgia blanket?

Well, as you'll hear, when they are able to give us such an interesting new flavour as the one we get on The Ballad of Darren, it's certainly worth the risk.