10 Blatantly Unfinished Albums (That Were Released Anyway)

Supposedly Blur's Blood On The Tracks, being Damon Albarn's introspective exploration into his break-up with Elastica frontwoman and long term partner Justine Frischmann, 13 is a record that promises some gorgeous moments of emotional clarity ("Tender", "Coffee and TV", the harrowing "No Distance Left to Run"), all of which are overshadowed by the sheer wall of noise, unnecessary bites of experimentation which seem to serve as a segue away from sincerity, an excuse for Albarn and friends to do just about anything other than open up.

While some of these heavily-stylised electronic-reliant pieces are more memorable than others (some, like "Bugman", are even good songs), 13 sounds a bit too much like just over an hour of static and half-baked jam sessions interspersed with a couple of tracks that are more typical of your quintessential breakup record.

In attempting to push the experimentation and raw sound that helped elevate the band's 1997 self-titled Blur into the American market while simultaneously shedding the bells and whistles of Britpop even more than their previous record, 13 seems way too concerned with shocking listeners who were expecting more tunes like "Parklife", "Country House" or even "Song 2", with the band spending so much time on crafting strange lo-fi electronic noise that they apparently forgot to write some actual tunes. Oops.