[6] Guitarist Graham Coxon worked on soundtracks for the shows The End of the F***ing World and I Am Not Okay with This, while also releasing his debut album with side project the Waeve in February 2023.

[23] The album has been compared to the works of Lou Reed, John Cale,[23] Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool and Blur's own Think Tank.

There is something about the safety of this lido which can get worryingly rough, which it does, and there are stories of this place where this guy would go down and exercise and there would be sharks washed in by the sea.

"[10] The album's title references Darren "Smoggy" Evans, the band's former bodyguard, who currently works for frontman Damon Albarn.

"[16][12][27][10] In June 2021, frontman Damon Albarn first hinted at new music from Blur and Gorillaz, ahead of his second solo studio release The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows.

[31][26] The album's lead single, "The Narcissist," premiered on Steve Lamacq's BBC Radio 6 Music show, on 18 May 2023.

[35] Uncut felt that "better than simply a personal or a confessional album, The Ballad of Darren is clever in what it does and doesn't say about its creator's life", while Amanda Farah of The Quietus found the album to have "a gentler approach", describing it as "an almost-pop record with strong choruses but more ambling verses" and "a statement of where Blur are now".

[23] Emma Harrison of Metro in her review said of the album that it was 'Emotive, visceral and full of intent, Darren takes us on a soul searching journey which is a testimonial of how overcoming loss might just help you find yourself, your sound and your friends via the power of music.'

[44] Joe Goggins of The Skinny remarked that Blur "shake off" their "latter-day heaviness" on "a handsome set that sounds like four mates having fun again".

[36] Jazz Monroe of Pitchfork described the album as "meticulously polished", writing that its "songs conjure something more real than anguish: the dulling of losses, the warm aura of midlife decline, and the fading belief, with advancing years, that crisis serves to raise the curtain on your next act".

[47] Additionally, The Guardian,[48] The Telegraph,[49] the BBC,[50] Yahoo, Uncut magazine, Reader's Digest, The Independent,[51] Rolling Stone, and NPR listeners' poll all had the album in their best-of-2023 lists.

All tracks are written by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree.Blur Additional musicians Technical