“Blur toured North America for the second time that year [1992]. And just a year into the post-Nevermind world, flannel, disaffectedly mumbled lyrics, and buzzsaw guitars were the new normal. "Nothing in England counted and that really pissed us off,” Albarn recalled in 1999. “So we decided to make a record as English as possible; a record full of English references and English cultural icons.” Therein lies the irony of their breakthrough 1993 album, Modern Life Is Rubbish. Though it wouldn’t hit big in America, it was conceived with the same spirit of roguish overthrow as Nevermind itself. Albarn’s newfound articulateness was, actually, an act of punk rebellion, a sneering rejection of the status quo.