The Magic Whip
2015 studio album by Blur
The Magic Whip (stylised in Chinese text as 魔鞭) is the eighth studio album by English rock band Blur. Recorded in Hong Kong and London, it was released by Parlophone in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2015 and a day later by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. It was the band's first studio album in 12 years, marking the longest gap between studio albums in Blur's career, and the first in 16 years since 13 (1999) to have featured the original line-up (Coxon featuring on only one song on Think Tank). The album also marked the return of the band's longtime producer Stephen Street following Blur (1997).
The album received acclaim from music critics. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, marking Blur's sixth UK number-one album. It was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales of over 100,000 copies. It was the first album by the band in North America under Warner Bros., after Blur were transferred from Virgin Records in 2013, following the purchase of EMI and its assets by the Universal Music Group in 2012.
Background
In May 2013, Blur were set to play Japan's Tokyo Rocks Music festival.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Magic Whip” as 2015 studio album by Blur. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 2015 studio album by Blur. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19317962. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015, 1999, 1997 and 2013.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Magic Whip” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.