Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur

Blur

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 28, 2009)
• Original Release Date: July 28, 2009
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B002A03IDY
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,692 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

2009 two CD collection from the Britpop legends, released to coincide with their 20th Anniversary and reunion tour. Midlife: A Beginners Guide To Blur is a unique collection of the best songs from the band's career to date. Standing separate from Blur's previous Best Of, Midlife represents a comprehensive collection of their biggest hits and favorite album tracks. The tracklist has been hand-picked by the band and offers a deeper look into the group's entire musical output, across two discs. 25 tracks including 'Song 2', 'Girls & Boys', 'Sing', 'Parklife', 'The Universal', 'Beetlebum' and 'Popscene', which was originally released in 1992 as a non-album single and unavailable since. EMI.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent title for a Blur collection, August 1, 2009

By	Andrew Terrick "andyt4579" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'll admit to being one of those Americans who didn't know much of anything about Blur before Song 2. As so often happens when coming across some music that is enjoyable, I immersed myself in the back catalog, and by that time Blur's was already entailing four studio albums, albums that showcased quite a musical difference from the self-titled LP. And I loved every minute of it. Whereas the Greatest Hits collection showcased the vast amount of singles, this album truly comes across as a beginner's guide...a smattering of hits and album tracks from those five albums and the subsequent two afterward. Its more of a superbly constructed personal mixtape or iTunes playlist for the band than anything, showcasing some extraordinary songs not released on their own like Trimm Trabb, Badhead, This is a Low, and Advert.

Every compilation package for any band comes with its faults, and this is no different. Some big hits are missing (especially for the US audience, Country House and There's No Other Way could've made the cut over some of the other singles). No track from their incredible b-side collection is represented. And there's nothing new to give those of us with the studio albums reason to go out and buy this (maybe that's a good thing...though probably not from a marketing standpoint). But if I were to be on the lookout for a quality introduction to one of the best bands of the 90s, this comes pretty close to how it should be.

4.0 out of 5 stars Really good music, October 6, 2009

By	Karen S. Simpson "OutofControl56" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I love Blur the more I listen to them. This is one of my favorites of all their work.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hopefully a beginning to something new, September 1, 2009

By	Szegedi Zoltan "Szegecs" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For some guys, blur started (and probably ended) with "woo-hoo" (for your reference the title is Song 2) the song that made them famous in more places than they were before, and gave access to mainstream radios that are reluctant to air anything longer than 3 minutes unless it's paid programming.
blur showed their talent early with "Sing" that later on made the soundtrack for a cult movie, you might remember - Trainspotting. Luckily this important milestone is included in the compilation, showing the potential of the band capable of doing more than its -somemetimes embarrasing - early releases, like the video for There's no other way (check their Starshaped dvd for the original version of the sinking crew)
While for others in the britpop scene electronica has been a fine flavour added to the guitar riffs, blur was not afraid to build songs on "processed beats", and release songs for their loyal fans that some of others would have thought to be out of scope for them.
My personal favourite is Beetlebum, the opening track, perhaps the most beautiful way to say "I love you", and unfortunately one of the most emotionally frustrating moment I've ever heard recorded. On the other hand, Parklife, one of their best is joyful and colourful, you just want to jump up and down as you hear it...
All in all... a best buy for those who want to dive in deeper....