Graham Coxon had often said he felt the loose, jagged, American-indie sound of Blur's self-titled album was "his" more so than the band's other members -- The Sky Is Too High, released between Blur and its follow-up, 13, lends credence to this statement.
Most of the record is drum-less, consisting of oddly slanted constructions of electric and acoustic guitars in Coxon's trademark style (quirky, sloppy riffs and arpeggios shooting all over the fretboard) -- the real magic is the way this approach works so perfectly on strange minimal ballads like "In a Salty Sea" and "Waiting," the sorts of constructions Blur shied away from until their self-titled release.
The resulting songs are reminiscent of certain pre-Blur tracks (Modern Life Is Rubbish's "Miss America," most notably), but Coxon's low-fi, personal and decidedly non-pop approach makes this sound work as a little world unto itself, rather than a brief excursion on a thoroughly pop record.
On the rare tracks where Coxon switches to a driving, noisy full-band arrangement, things are equally slanted and interesting -- since The Sky Is Too High is essentially a side project, and therefore tends to restrict itself to a small, bedroom quality, one has to wonder what a proper solo release from Coxon would sound like.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thats All I Wanna DoGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 04:29 | 10 MB | 30 MB |
| 2 | Where'd You Go?Graham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 03:35 | 8 MB | 14 MB |
| 3 | In a Salty SeaGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 02:45 | 6 MB | 11 MB |
| 4 | A Day Is Far Too LongGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 04:27 | 10 MB | 23 MB |
| 5 | R U Lonely?Graham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 02:51 | 6 MB | 16 MB |
| 6 | I WishGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 04:47 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 7 | Hard & SlowGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 02:26 | 5 MB | 14 MB |
| 8 | Me You, We TwoGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 02:35 | 5 MB | 11 MB |
| 9 | WaitingGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 02:47 | 6 MB | 11 MB |
| 10 | Mornin' BluesGraham Coxon | Graham Coxon | Play | 02:18 | 5 MB | 11 MB |
| 11 | Who The Fuck | Graham Coxon | Play | 03:08 | 7 MB | 21 MB |
| 36 mins | 82 MB | |||||
| 36 mins | 198 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Graham Coxon | Composer, Engineer, Primary Artist, Producer |
| 2 | John | Engineer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |