Think Tank, the latest from Brit Rock mainstays Blur, contains what may be the finest song in the band’s history (“Out of Time”). Some of frontman Damon Albarn’s forays into world music, as well as influences from being an integral cell of cartoon supergroup Gorillaz, find their way into the overall sound of the CD and the material finds the band in a decent place as a whole. Think Tank is good, but that’s the problem. With the circumstances as they are, this should have been a great album.

I can imagine throngs of Blur fans suddenly burning bald-headed effigies of me for making the statement, but let’s be honest. The material is much too comfortable and slightly too close to tried and true styles. This was a moment for the band to redefine itself, but instead it feels like they took the easy way out and tweaked out what was already there. Sure, you can sort of see what Albarn’s brought to the table, but it’s couched in that other dreamy ballad, that other rough-and-ready rocker, that other Manchester-inflected, trippy club song. And what of guitarist Graham Coxon? There’s absolutely nothing of his solo forays into indie rock here because he’s no longer with the group (except for the last track, “Battery In Your Leg”). How convenient.

Alright, so that’s what Think Tank doesn’t have. But what does it have? Among the catchy, albeit familiar, tunes you have Albarn’s very soulful voice; the guy certainly has that occasional blue-eyed falsetto down cold. His croon on “Sweet Song” and his jaunty turn on the bouncy “Gene By Gene” are by no means hard to listen to. And as for the aforementioned “Out of Time”, the song has sad resonance but also has such a dominant hook in the arrangement that you will remember it long after the disc is over (even though it’s the second track). It deserves a place in the pantheon next to past tunes like “The Universal” and “This Is A Low”.

What makes the majority of these songs remotely different is the disjointed, trip-hop construction. Alex James and Dave Rowntree are superfluous here, their parts easily replaced by loops, samples and an able D.J. Yes, the actual arrangements would lead one to think this is a bold new Blur. That doesn’t change the fact that the bursts of guitar that pop in and out of “Crazy Beat” draw too many comparisons to “Song 2”, the fleet “We’ve Got A File On You” recalls Gorillaz’ “Punk”, and the remainder have a similar loping beat one after another.

The shame of it is that now that America has taken Brit Rock to heart again with Radiohead, Coldplay and others, the time was right for an extraordinary Blur release. Yet, in the process of a Radiohead-like reinvention, all the band has succeeded in doing is creating a unique Albarn solo album with guest mates. Interesting, not hard on the ears and, again, containing a truly beautiful moment, Think Tank is barely a silver medal winner that had a chance to be gold.

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