Lonesome Street

This song opens The Magic Whip. It finds Blur taking aim at modern life, a particular favorite theme for singer Damon Albarn. Guitarist Graham Coxon told NME: "There was a definite familiarity with that song. It's got that cheeky - sounding focal of Damon's, that perverse nursery rhyme feel, and it all sounds a bit like you're careering from a night of chaos."

The song was put together in a piecemeal fashion. "When I was listening back to it with Stephen (Street, producer), I thought, 'Why not go the whole hog and have a really Syd Barrett-y middle eight in there? recalled Coxon. "So I wrote another section for it, which is about the way you seem to ride the tarmac in Hong Kong; you stand on the road, you don't move and it will take you anywhere you want to go. It's a very lighthearted way to start the record."

The band enlisted San Francisco's Phoenix Fly Line Dancing Group, specialists in Chinese folk dancing, for the music video. The choreographed clip was directed by Ben Reed, who has also worked for Joan as Police Woman and Funeral For a Friend.