Like an anthem from Queen or a chorus from the disgraced Gary Glitter, the chorus from "Song 2," Blur’s best-known hit, made its way into sporting arenas as part of the smorgasbord of muscled-up rock riffs offered between game play to pump up the excitement level.

But Blur's two Olympics themes don't have quite the same energy. The Britpop icons' reunion coincides with the 2012 games in their home base of London; their last show is scheduled to be a Hyde Park celebration at the end of the summer games. It seems like the perfect conditions for a band to rescue the Olympics from musical schmaltz. Unfortunately, neither works. One song is an alternate-universe “Let It Be” with less heartfelt (or discernible) sentiment; the other a kind of chintzy Casio-tone popper with only occasional alignments to Olympic themes.

“The ice and gold is just a double code; it’s a metaphor,” frontman Damon Albarn sings in his deadpan way on the oddly titled “The Puritan.”

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