When it comes to Blur’s ‘Star Shaped’, I have vivid memories of being in my room during my first year of university and listening to it repeatedly, air drumming to Dave Rowntree’s performance many times. The summer prior, I’d listened through the band’s whole discography and downloaded all their LPs to my laptop. According to my ‘Chemical World’ post, I did all of that in one weekend. It was a lot of music to take in. I think I revisited Modern Life Is Rubbish at some point during the first semester of uni, and ‘Star Shaped’ just jumped out as an immediate favourite. While the band were making Modern Life… they were told by their label that they didn’t have any singles on there. Damon Albarn went off and wrote ‘For Tomorrow’ in response. But listening to ‘Star Shaped’ all this time, I always thought of it as an obvious single contender.

The track is the thoughts of a narrator just doing the things he can that’ll help them get through the week. They wash with a new soap, which apparently helps keep a good mental health going. They can’t help but get to the office late, even attempting to show their face when the weather outside isn’t very good. And they have a few drinks with mates at the weekend to maintain that strong bond of friendship. The narrator works hard on keeping up appearances, but inside they know this focus on work can’t be too great in their actual development as a person. But the cheery backing vocals tell the narrator it’s all good and that the work they’re doing now will eventually pay off. They’re star shaped. They’ve got potential. A little bit of an existential crisis thing going on in this track. But you wouldn’t know it because the music’s so upbeat and packs a heck of a punch.

Gotta say, I like almost everything about this song. Damon Albarn’s got that youthful tone in his voice, which always worked wonders in that particular era of Blur, and it’s one of the few that I can think of in the band’s catalogue where he goes back and forth on the vocals with Graham Coxon, who provides the chirpy backing during the choruses. Coxon’s guitar work’s impeccable, filling in spaces with little runs and licks here and there to make things a little more engaging. Dave Rowntree’s drum performance plays a huge part in my enjoyment of the track. May not seem incredibly special to some, but they have a massive presence that provides an extra edge. And a lovely part is when things get a little quiet for the horn interlude by composer Kate St John, who also plays during the song’s floating waltz-time outro. Ah, so much to latch on to in the three-and-a-half minutes this track lasts for. One of my favourites from that whole ‘Life’ trilogy.