It seems 2016 was the year that I came to properly understood Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish. On the 3rd April that year, two days before I turned 21, I spent a couple hours in the afternoon going through its 2012 Special Edition issue. I already had this in my iTunes library, but the files all had a volume normalisation thing going on, so all the songs sounded equally quiet with a lot of loss in the dynamics. Must have initially downloaded it from the wrong kinds of places. But with that normalisation turned off on Spotify, a big difference was noticeable. Before that “new” listen, I was only into a few songs like ‘Chemical World’, ‘Star Shaped’… ‘Sunday Sunday’. But in this new light, ‘Pressure on Julian’ sounded brilliant – and it’s a great song you naysayers, the production of ‘Miss America’ felt like a huge pillow I could sink into, ‘Oily Water’ was cosmic, mind-warping. Each deep cut could get their own re-evaluation. But the one song that grew highest in my estimation was the 11th track, ‘Villa Rosie’. What I used to flimsily disregard as a passing song that was near the album’s end became one that, in my eyes, probably could have been a single in its time. The track was repeated on several separate occasions throughout 2016, it was my new favourite song for a while.

But why? “Why?” You’re asking. Damn, I don’t want to do a whole step-by-step of each section of the song. But I like the climbing build-up of the intro that falls into the slamming chords and incessant thrashing of cymbals, which then transitions into one of Graham Coxon’s most unique guitar riffs.. A “perverso riff”, in his own words. You watch that clip I’ve just linked and see how his fingers move over the fretboard to gets those licks off and carry out the chord progressions. It looks almost unnatural. The riff shouldn’t work, but it does in context of the song, and very well too, I should add. The “OOH-HOO” vocals that the riff then climaxes with, they’re a little funny, a little obnoxious even, but I like ’em, I think those are the feelings they’re going for, anyway. While Damon Albarn’s singing the verses, you can hear what seems to be a vocal overdub of him whispering the lyrics over the top. Sometimes it’s all I can focus on. I guess it’s meant to add a sense of mystique or something. And the verses then lead into what might be one of Blur’s most under-the-radar singalong choruses that they’ve ever put to tape, with harmonies all over the shop. There’s that little “ding-dong” that occurs after each “Ooh-hoo” in the short break following the second chorus. Coxon’s guitar solo brings everything home. The way the track ends with the sudden stop and the slow picking of the last chord… Man, this is such a tune. And you won’t find any footage of a young Blur playing it live, because they never did until they started to in 2023, the weirdos.

If you want to know what the song’s about, look no further than this link. Might have to scroll your way down or ‘Ctrl + F ‘Villa Rosie’, depending on how you like to surf the net. But if you’re feeling lazy, ‘Villa Rosie’ is about a fictional ‘watering hole / drinking den’ of the same name where the lads – not the members of Blur, just in general – go to shoot the shit after work. Don’t even really think I have to analyse the lyrics all that much, you get the idea of what’s going on. I think the most telling line in the whole song is ‘All losers come to Villa Rosie every night’, because up to that point I get the feeling that Villa Rosie is the place to be by the way Albarn implores listeners to ‘form a queue’ there, saying how it promises ‘a sweeter life’ – which for the longest time I thought was ‘a sweet delight’, I kind of like that better. So really, it’s a bit of a commentary on the types of people who go to those types of people who go to those kinds of gentlemen’s clubs who Albarn apparently holds a little disdain for. Nevertheless, it’s a lot of fun to be had while listening to the song. Just the general upbeat nature of it and all those little musical nuggets in between for the ears to latch on to. Modern Life…, it’s my favourite of the three “Life” albums by Blur in that Britpop era, and ‘Villa Rosie’ is one of the biggest reasons for that preference.