12. Strange News From Another Star
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZnzK5eKXyU It's the contrasts in artists that make them so intriguing. It's the grey space between alien and human in David Bowie's psyche, or the romance and reason that pulls on both of Radiohead's sleeves. And 'Strange News' is a conflict all of its own. It's a confusion of the future, of what to do with yourself, coupled with the surest key change in a chorus. It's the message that actually, the present's a good place to live, at a time when Blur were moving on and looking outside the Britpop garden. And it's that despite the signals and chirrups of guitar, announcing the future as a newspaper headline, the song is so quietly sad and mourning, just wanting to stay in bed today and forget its problems. And whilst the album version is beautiful, the version that Albarn performed in memory of John Peel perhaps brings out the track's sadness best.