Revisit of the Week: Blur - Think Tank (2003)

Hot take 1: Think Tank is Blur's best album. Again, it's Flint here with an affinity for a band just doing a weird-ass career derail of a record. During the sessions Blur had become a trio because guitarist Graham Coxon got fed up with the musical direction Albarn was pushing the band towards and clashed with Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim) who was producing parts of the sessions, and decided to simply ditch the band (hot take 2: the only Coxon-featuring song here, "Battery on My Leg", is the album's weakest song and a lukewarm reheat of the previous album's stand-out "No Distance Left to Run"). This gave Albarn the impetus of driving Blur even further away from both the cheeky-chappy britpop they made their name with and the noisier alternative rock they'd reinvented themselves through in the albums prior. Fresh from his solo album Mali Music and Gorillaz' debut album a few years prior, Albarn nudged the rest of the band to adopt both more global influences and more club-heady…