A song by Blur. One of the few things I truly liked that made it to prime time MTV in the last 10 years.

I actually prefer this song to most of the originals from which it was crafted. It's not just the general harmonic and melodic structure, and the laid-back vocals contrasting with the very tight production, that place it in the Britpop tradition: many specific elements within the song point back to specific pieces of Britpop from the past.

For example, the riff is reminiscent of songs like Respectable (Rolling Stones) or I wanna be your dog (Stooges; not British by any means, but produced by a Welshman). The bridge part induces memories of Make me smile (Cockney Rebel). The title obviously refers to the Beatles; the "what you've done" line is from Remember (John Lennon). The overall atmosphere is very similar to that in songs like Rain, I'm only sleeping (Beatles), Sunny afternoon (Kinks); the repeating fadeout can be compared to the ending of I am the walrus.

It doesn't matter. In good popular music, you can see all the catchiness, the cute melodic lines, the riffs, the neat sound effects, the clever instrumentation, the crisp production, and everything else, you can analyse it to bits and it doesn't make a shred of difference, it's still the best thing in the world to listen to. This quality is abundant in Britpop, and Blur are masters of the genre.

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