13
One man's loss is our gain. On 13, lead singer Damon Albarn feeds his lyrics with the pain from his breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Elastica's Justine Frischmann. From the down-home hymnal "Tender" to the eerily psychedelic stagger of "Swamp Song," Blur, graced with the cohesive strength of William Orbit's production, take the high road, avoiding the woe-is-me drudgery of self-pity and presenting Albarn's varying shades of grief with a collection of melancholic, disturbed achievements.