13. Northern Whale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76rgP3zfHNw The centrepiece of 'The Good, the Bad and the Queen', 'Northern Whale' is perhaps the missing link between Blur and Damon's one-off supercollective. But where Graham Coxon would usually add a sunny strum and a catchy riff, a bassy synth mechanically picks away at the stitching of the piano work. Damon sings of the whale that washed up in the Thames in 2006, and the tune meanders and drifts into a cloudy outro. 'Northern Whale' is both triumphant, and laced with a very English uncertainty of the day that lies ahead; it does so though with a sparkling chorus and sumptuous production. And that's not just very Blur, it's timeless in its own right.