Parklife

Blur | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 14, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000002TQB
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,871 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #19 in Music > Alternative Rock > British Alternative > Britpop
  • #41 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > General
  • #68 in Music > World Music > Europe > British Isles > Britain

Track Listings

1. Girls & Boys

2. Tracy Jacks

3. End Of A Century

4. Parklife

5. Bank Holiday

6. Badhead

7. The Debt Collector

8. Far Out

9. To The End

10. London Loves

11. Trouble In The Message Centre

12. Clover Over Dover

13. Magic America

14. Jubilee

15. This Is A Low

16. Lot 105

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

You'd have to stretch back to 1967 to London's psychedelic underground (a time and a place that Blur is admittedly fond of) to find a band that revels as much in its Britishness. And on its third album, Blur takes 30 years of cool English rock, throws it into an art-punk Cuisinart, and ends up with a masterpiece of timeless hooks and Cockney attitude. Like the Kinks at their satirical best, Blur paints warm and funny portraits of quintessentially English characters ("Tracy Jacks," "Parklife," "The Debt Collector"), delivering them with early Small Faces swagger, wiggy Syd Barrett-via-Julian Cope production, XTC circa "Respectable Street" vocal hooks ("ooh-we-ooh"), and a cynical Buzzcocks detachment. The band members are mods, of course, borrowing fashion tips from the pre-glam David Bowie, tempos from the Jam, and actor Phil Daniels (the star of Quadrophenia!) for a vocal cameo. "Magic America" is the best bored with the U.S.A. song since the Clash, Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier sings backing vocals, the Pet Shop Boys remixed the single, and the members of Blur love Wire so much that they hired that band's old road manager. But enough namedropping: Parklife is the album on which Blur proves that it's a force to be reckoned with on its own terms, described by front man Damon Albarn as a nocturnal travelogue of London; the only time the album leaves the Motherland is on its lead track, the unbearably catchy single, "Girls & Boys," which follows randy English youth on holiday to Greece. --Jim DeRogatis

Product Description

CD

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A genuine cultural and musical masterpiece March 14, 2000

By M. D. Lewis

Format:Audio CD

It does, in some ways, bother me to give five stars to a Blur album (my self-admitted favourite band is Oasis, after all), but this CD is simply magnificent. Nowhere, not even on the best Oasis album, is 1990's Britain best captured in song. These are the best non-personal lyrics penned by Damon Albarn (his best lyrics being found on last year's "13") and this is Blur at their musical best (coincidentally, or perhaps not, at their most "British"). Some songs are better than others, yes -- "Parklife", "End of a Century", and "To The End" sit on the classic side, while "Far Out", "The Debt Collector", and "Lot 105" are somewhat strange, and in isolation would be simply weird...but all are so very necessary for "Parklife" to be what it is! This is unassailably brilliant music -- and this is coming from an Oasis fanatic. Take that as you will...

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting, Even If You're Not English October 13, 2003

By Sierra Wilson

Format:Audio CD

Blur is one of the last true 'album' bands in existence--that is, they focus their primary energies on making brilliant and adventurous records, à la The Beatles. Almost no band in the past decade has been so amazingly consistent, so cutting-edge and daring. "Parklife," their epochal 1994 release, still stands as the gold standard in the elustrious Blur back catalogue; it is a record that is boldly representive of its time period, yet light years ahead of it. Safely said, almost no band has ever made such a pure, diverse, and enthralling pop record, one that seems to encompass the very history of rock 'n roll. "Parklife" overflows with melody and atmosphere and Damon's lyrics unfold like a great story, jumping from one idiosyncracy of English life to the next. His characters, pulled from the everyday pages of English life, are rich and complex figures whose lives and actions beg for the listener's full attention. Yet, even if the listener is oblivious to the this record's staunch Englishness, the music is more than capable of enchanting your ear and enriching your mind. Beautiful guitar riffs, sonorous and thick bass lines, spacey organs, and sweeping horns and strings permeate these tunes. On "Girls and Boys," the catchiest bass line in the history of recorded music is intertwined with a minimalist guitar figure and a bleepy synth to make one of the best pop singles in history. On "This Is A Low," a backwards guitar figure cascades over light cymbal splashes, eventually giving way to Damon's echoey, melancholy chorus--when he longingly enunciates "This is a low/But it won't hurt you when you're alone," the hairs on my neck stand up.... The instrumental track "The Debt Collector" is whimsical and memorable, "Bank Holiday" is a thick, tasty slab of mod punk, a journey to garage rock heaven that remains far beyond the reach of many latter-day bands, and "Far Out" is a mysterius space-rock mini-suite, as bassist Alex James takes the mic with his melodramatic voice. Clearly, a slightly avant-garde/psychedelic aura edges this album, adding to the thick, superbly arranged pop melodies the genius of Coxon's angular guitar work (the solos on "This Is A Low," "London Loves," "Bank Holiday," "Jubilee," and "Tracy Jacks" are all quite impressive, proof that one doesn't have to reel off raging blues motifs to be a guitar virtuoso) and Damon's restless experimentalism. Each tune brings something different and enchanting to the table, whether it's the chiming harmonics of "Badhead" or the lush accordion and strings orchestration of "To The End." "Parklife" is loaded with surprises and left turns, and its artistic diversity keeps things interesting throughout. Blur have finished what The Kinks started, and in the process have made the best British album since "The La's" or maybe even "The Queen is Dead." A must have. Read more ›

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars REALLY CLASSIC February 25, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

Oh man, this is just one of the BEST albums! I have to say that I'm always going back and forth between the album "Blur" (The one with the "woo-hoo" song on it) and "Parklife" for my favorite Blur album. I really wish they got more attention over here and more radio play because they always kick out great songs. "Parklife" is thoroughly enjoyable. I especially like "Tracy Jacks," "End of a Century" and "Girls and Boys." And of course that ubiquitous title tune, "Parklife." Damon Albarn isn't afraid to sound silly and really plays up that whole quaint-but-cocky British thing. This album is really a fun piece of work; you need to own it and love it! One more note: I saw Blur back in 1997 in this tiny lame club in Seattle (I'm sure they were humiliated because they place was so small and filled with teenyboppers) but they put on a GREAT show, the best live show I've ever seen. They're teriffic showmen and just darn fine musicians. Get "Parklife" and everything else they've done, they are great!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly British, truly classic October 19, 2005

By Mike Smith VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

I've owned this album for as many years as it's been available, and I've never gone very long without playing it. It's as densely British as The Streets or early Billy Bragg, but infinitely more accessible. It's fun and rowdy, electronic and rockin'. Its moods range from the rioutously androgynous and danceable "Girls & Boys," to the punky "Bank Holiday," to the trancey "Far Out" (which has lyrics consisting only of stars and features of outer space), to the rapid fire "Trouble In The Message Centre" and the despairing "This Is A Low." Throw in a few short, listing organ instrumentals, lots of the thickest of British accents, and great, cheeky lyrics, and you have the weird and drunken ride of an album that is "Parklife."

My wife hates it--says it sounds "too 1980s"--but I love it. I think it's among Blur's very best.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Ever so slightly over-rated but very cool October 22, 2001

By alexliamw

Format:Audio CD

If there's one conclusion to be made after listening to Parklife, it's that Blur are most certainly English, and delight in satirising the English whilst remaining proud of their Englishness themselves. I mean, come on, for a start, the album is named after greyhound racing, and you can't get much more English than that.

Next, Albarn's voice is the most blatantly cockney voice since Joe Strummer's early Clash days. Next, 'Tracy Jacks'. I mean, no-one from another country could be called that, and the lyrics certainly couldn't be about a non-English person.

Musically (with the possibly exception of the out of place but possibly best song on the album This Is A Low, which is worryingly mature) it isn't exactly complex, or wonderful, but there are come cool, catchy tunes, not least the ultimate annoyingly catchy song of the decade, Girls and Boys.

However, lyrically, Albarn shines through, with his wry, funny, witty self-satirising lyrics, along with one song that is most certainly not about England, the great 'Magic America'. Parklife does represent a culture, but it does so in a way that isn't as fantastic as the following years' Oasis and Pulp albums. It is slightly over-rated, but it remains probably their best album, with the possible exception of its polar opposite 13.