Blur - Peach

A vastly underrated song from their Modern Life is Rubbish era in my opinion. The album itself marked a big change in direction for Blur from their debut album Leisure, with the band favoring a much more guitar pop oriented sound in the vein of The Kinks and The Small Faces in comparison to their shoegaze influenced debut. Peach was originally on the original version of the album which would have been released in spring 1992 (the album wouldn't get released until May 1993) but this version of the album was scrapped and Peach got relegated to B-side status, being released as a B-side to the album's lead single, For Tomorrow. Musically, the track is very laid back and is in this slightly bizarre electric meets folk style. It's one of the most relaxing songs Blur have ever done I think and is a perfect counterbalance to more punchier songs of the Modern Life is Rubbish period, like Advert. The song definitely really benefits being played on a decent set of speakers or headphones I think, as there are some really beautiful subtle parts in the course of the arrangement of the song that sometimes don't come through. In terms of lyrics, its one that I have trouble deciphering. On one hand its easy to assume that the lyrics' weren't meant to make any sense, I've read that the song was intended as a psychedelic experiment and that explains why some of the lyrics (first verse in particular) makes little sense. Although, I think with a bit of inferring its possible to come up with an interpretation that sounds semi plausible at least. The lyrics are actually quite depressing I think, and in my opinion discuss someone who isn't in a great mental state, or to paraphrase the song's lyrics themselves, they've gone crazy. Part of the lyrics discuss a lost love and asks the question "Where is she now?", and state that the person in which the song is about wears a locket around their neck containing a strand of the girls hair. A repeated refrain of "You've got a massive hole in your head, I'd let the birds nest there instead" seems to suggest that the person has ended up in such an emotionally fragile state that they've either shot themselves or that their mental state is merely rotting away metaphorically. They could have shot themselves considering the lyrics also state the person has a gun in their pocket. As for the opening line of "Chemical eats the best part of the peach", I think the peach is actually a metaphor for the persons brain, and the chemicals could be a reference to drugs or something, with the eating reference possibly suggesting further how their mental state is just disintegrating. All of this is just my opinion though and I could be completely wrong. In any case, the song's beautiful arrangement coupled with lyrics that are more interesting than I had initially thought makes this song their best B-side in my opinion, and its a contender for the top spot in my list of favorite Blur songs!