In case you missed the news, Blur just announced they're releasing a new album -- and they gave us a new song to boot. So we decided to take a short look at some hits from the past to remember what we loved -- and still love -- about this particular English rock quartet. This edition of Throwback Thursday travels back to 1996 to the time Blur stopped by Late Night with Conan O'Brien to perform "Charmless Man."

Watching that video, you might notice what seems to be a stereotypical snotty British rock star attitude emanating from the band. Band leader Damon Albarn comes off as the physical manifestation of "kiss my ass." But here's the thing with that: It totally works. You can usually get away with this sort of vibe if you've got the songs to back it up. Case in point, this 1993 MTV performance of "For Tomorrow":

And you never get the feeling that the band's directing all this at you. Albarn and company always seem to be thumbing their noses -- or maybe flipping that weird two-fingered bird British people do -- at the same people you'd flip off.

We'd be negligent in our duties as musical curators if we didn't mention the song that really sold Blur to stateside music fans. "Song 2" made the U.S. turn its collective head and take notice. It's about as perfect a summation of the 1990s as you can get in a two-minute pop song. Since then, we've been all ears.

Here are Blur performing that seminal track on a 1997 appearance on Letterman:

The 100 Most Anticipated Albums of 2015

(Don't worry: We didn't know Blur were releasing a new disc when we put this gallery together!)

More From Diffuser.fm