| Music Is My Radar | |
| Cover: | Blur - Music is My Radar.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Blur |
| Released: | [1] |
| Producer: | Blur, Ben Hillier |
| Prev Title: | No Distance Left to Run |
| Prev Year: | 1999 |
| Next Title: | Don't Bomb When You're the Bomb |
| Next Year: | 2002 |
"Music Is My Radar" is a song by British band Blur. As a single, it reached No. 10 in the UK.[2] It was released in support of the band's greatest hits compilation, , on which it was the only song that had not previously appeared on an album. An alternative version called "Squeezebox" appeared in 2012 on one of the rarities CDs from the Blur 21 box collection, released to celebrate the 21st anniversary of their debut album release, Leisure.
Nigerian musician Tony Allen, who is repeatedly mentioned in the lyrics, later collaborated with Blur frontman Damon Albarn as the drummer in the supergroups The Good, the Bad & the Queen and Rocket Juice & the Moon, and appears posthumously with Albarn on the 2020 Gorillaz song "How Far?".
Pitchfork critic Richard M. Juzwiak described the song as "truly one of [Blur's] best", adding: "It's minimalist, groovy, and combines the shiny poppy old Blur with the ragged noisy new Blur perfectly."[3] Daniel Durchholz of Wall of Sound called it "vital", while a less enthused Stephen Thomas Erlewine saw it as "good, not great".
Conversely, Graham Reed of Drowned in Sound called the song a "creative misfire" that is "devoid of tune or melody",[4] while NME critic Steve Sutherland labelled it a "will-this-do Talking Headsy clunkalong".[5]
The video shows Blur on a 1960s/1970s-inspired "Variety Hour" talk show where they sit on a couch (embedded into the red floor) while a group of dancers in black (male) and white (female) MOD-esque outfits perform a dance routine to accompany the song during an interval break. Those outfits are clearly inspired to the costumes created by the Sorelle Fontana for the dystopian movie “La decima vittima” by italian director Elio Petri. The dance choreography itself was executed by Blanca Li.[6]
The music video was not included on the VHS/DVD but was on the Blur 21 box set in 2012.