Album · Blur
The Ballad of Darren by Blur
The Ballad of Darren is an album by Blur, released in 2023. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 19 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “The Narcissist”, on 15 lists with a best position of #14.
The Ballad of Darren, Blur's ninth album and their first since The Magic Whip in 2015, came out on Parlophone on 21 July 2023, and it's the sound of a band taking stock. Damon Albarn wrote the songs in 2022 while touring with Gorillaz, and the band shaped them together with Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, with James Ford producing at Studio 13 in London and in Devon.
It's the shortest Blur album, under 40 minutes, and it's full of rueful, wistful rock, with "The Narcissist" the standout, a slow-building, bittersweet anthem. The title honors Darren "Smoggy" Evans, the band's longtime bodyguard, and the cover is a Martin Parr photograph of a lone swimmer at the Gourock Outdoor Pool in Scotland. Critics loved it, and British fans sent it in at the top of the chart, the seventh Blur album in a row to open at the summit there.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from The Ballad of Darren on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Narcissist | 15 | #14 | – | 2023–2025 | |
| 2 | Barbaric | 4 | #34 | – | 2023 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.