Think Tank by Blur

Think Tank, Blur's seventh album, arrived on Parlophone on 5 May 2003, and it's the sound of a band learning to live without its guitarist. Graham Coxon was in rehab for alcoholism when the sessions began in November 2001, so Damon Albarn, Alex James and Dave Rowntree simply started without him; he came back, relations soured, and he walked out, leaving barely a fingerprint on the finished record. Ben Hillier ran the sessions in London, Devon and Morocco, with Norman Cook and William Orbit adding production.

What fills the gap is Albarn's widening world: sampled loops, murky electronics, dub, hip hop, jazz and African rhythms, picking up where 13 left off. He called it a record about love and politics, and with the invasion of Iraq looming, an anti-war streak runs right through it. It leaked in March, then went straight in at number one in the UK anyway.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.