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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Girls And Boys |
| 2. Tracy Jacks |
| 3. End Of A Century |
| 4. Parklife |
| 5. Bank Holiday |
| 6. Bad Head |
| 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 |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Although Blur had long been recognised as one of the premier bands responsible for the reinvigoration of Britpop in the 1990s, it's 1994's Parklife that truly provided the template for the entire movement. At a time when Oasis were aping the sounds of their pub-rock heroes on Definitely Maybe, Blur drew from the legacy of the Kinks and Small Faces to create an album that's as English as a rainy Sunday in front of the gas fire. Parklife is full of songs that, quite frankly, don't make much sense outside of the British Isles, songs that find joy in the mundane, like "Girls & Boys" (a song about working-class holidaymakers in the sun) and "Parklife" (a day in the life of a cheeky, unemployed bench-sitter). Witty, ironic and irreverent, Parklife remains one of those rare albums that sum up a specific place and time (Britain in the mid-1990s). For that reason alone, it can be considered one of Blur's finest albums. --Robert Burrow
Review
Before Damon Albarn became every inch the multi-faceted post-modern Renaissance man, Blur was his sole passion and Parklife from 1994 remains their finest work. Recorded between November 1993 and January 1994 in London, Parklife captured the zeitgeist in a manner few other albums have.
Their second album after the group's wholehearted embracing of British popular culture (the critically-lauded, commercially underperforming Modern Life Is Rubbish the first), with its Walthamstow dog track-adorned sleeve, Parklife was where Britpop began, with its series of well-crafted songs that re-tooled the writing of Ray Davies and Paul Weller for the 90s. Albarn - supported ably by guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree - mapped out Blur's territory as cultural tourists: chroniclers of the mores and foibles of the modern world, be it presciently with gender confusion, binge-drinking and the genesis of chav culture (all on 'Girls And Boys'), pre-millennial tension and growing older ('End Of A Century') or the renaissance of England's capital city ('London Loves', 'Parklife'). Even the album's nonsense ('The Debt Collector', or James' Syd Barrett tribute, 'Far Out') serves to bolster the flow. However, it is the touching closer 'This Is A Low' which steals the show, taking something as quintessential parochial as the shipping forecast and turning it into compelling, poetic pop.
Around the same period, Oasis released their first material. Soon, Britpop would have its Beatles and its Stones, with endless column inches scrutinising their lives and rivalries. Before all that, and regardless of what it all became, we still have this exemplary record. --Daryl Easlea
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album is the point in Blur's rambling musical career where it all came together. The band may well disagree with this, but this is the most cohesive album they produced. Rather than remembering Blur for two and a half minutes of screaming (Song 2) or for their tussles with Oasis (Country house, Charmless man), I'd suggest you take a look at this album.
Its simply a very very perceptive interpretation of a British way of life . 'Girls and Boys' takes you on a club 18-30, 'End of a Century' returns you to suburbia. 'Parklife' makes a slob of you, 'London Loves' deposits you in the rush hour and 'Magic America' gives you the dreams of escaping to bright lights. Finally, in one of the most beautiful moments of the nineties 'This is a Low' leaves you soaring over the land you know and love before 'Lot 106' brings a stupid grin to your face.
Its an evocative album, musically great, and most importantly its the best thing Blur ever did. Don't get the greatest hits, buy this instead. And then buy the rest of the albums.
Its simply a very very perceptive interpretation of a British way of life . 'Girls and Boys' takes you on a club 18-30, 'End of a Century' returns you to suburbia. 'Parklife' makes a slob of you, 'London Loves' deposits you in the rush hour and 'Magic America' gives you the dreams of escaping to bright lights. Finally, in one of the most beautiful moments of the nineties 'This is a Low' leaves you soaring over the land you know and love before 'Lot 106' brings a stupid grin to your face.
Its an evocative album, musically great, and most importantly its the best thing Blur ever did. Don't get the greatest hits, buy this instead. And then buy the rest of the albums.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Music critics have never had shorter memories than when they have dealt with Blur. When 'The Great Escape', the sequel to 'Parklife', was released, they rightly hailed it as a classic. Ask them now, however, and you won't find many who will even admit to ever liking it - the music press follows fashion just like the rest of us. But all this is a round-the-houses way of saying that only the most ardent Blur-haters will think the same of 'Parklife'. Not a note is out of place, not a song fails to captivate. From the initial shock of Girls and Boys to the monumental, magnificent ending of This Is A Low (not forgetting the playful coda of Lot 105, a trick they tried again with less success on '13'), this is arguably the album of the decade. With pop music in possibly its unhealthiest condition since it was invented, we can only look back in wonder at albums like 'Parklife' and hope that somehow, somewhere, rock and roll will return for that one last encore all over again.
Blur, meanwhile, are just as interesting now as they were then, perhaps even more so, but will they ever release a record of this stature again?
Blur, meanwhile, are just as interesting now as they were then, perhaps even more so, but will they ever release a record of this stature again?
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A quasi-concept album about Britain and its Americanisation, Parklife is the peak of Blur, coming as the second part of their Britpop trilogy, after the poorly received (commercially at least) Modern Life Is Rubbish and before the decent The Great Escape. It also came out in the same year as Oasis' debut album shook the world's foundations and the Blur vs. Oasis battle began. Funnily enough, unlike the Beatles vs. Beach Boys rivalry thirty years earlier, both bands produced their greatest work before even beginning their competition, Oasis with their debut and Blur with this masterpiece.
Countless elements of Britain and its people are explored across this album's 53 enthralling minutes; monarchism in 'Jubilee;' everyday proletarianism in the title track; fashion trends and subcultures, as well as millenial interest in 'End Of A Century'; bank holidays on...well, 'Bank Holiday'; taxation and debt on 'The Debt Collector.' No stone is left unturned.
And from this concept/theme you get some of Blur's finest songs. The title track is famous thanks to Phil Daniels, but really not one of the standouts here. The elegaic 'Badhead,' with its chiming guitar and tasteful brass, is lovely, while 'Tracy Jacks' addresses stereotypes (better than the other Blur song of that name) with the line 'I'd love to stay here and be normal but it's just so overrated.' ]
Throughout, Albarne's cockney - or mockney depending on who you ask - voice and Graham Coxon's always dazzling guitar work hold everything together beautifully, and despite Coxon's apparent dissatisfaction with it, this is truly an album to be proud of, the jewel in Blur's crown.
Countless elements of Britain and its people are explored across this album's 53 enthralling minutes; monarchism in 'Jubilee;' everyday proletarianism in the title track; fashion trends and subcultures, as well as millenial interest in 'End Of A Century'; bank holidays on...well, 'Bank Holiday'; taxation and debt on 'The Debt Collector.' No stone is left unturned.
And from this concept/theme you get some of Blur's finest songs. The title track is famous thanks to Phil Daniels, but really not one of the standouts here. The elegaic 'Badhead,' with its chiming guitar and tasteful brass, is lovely, while 'Tracy Jacks' addresses stereotypes (better than the other Blur song of that name) with the line 'I'd love to stay here and be normal but it's just so overrated.' ]
Throughout, Albarne's cockney - or mockney depending on who you ask - voice and Graham Coxon's always dazzling guitar work hold everything together beautifully, and despite Coxon's apparent dissatisfaction with it, this is truly an album to be proud of, the jewel in Blur's crown.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
It's all a bit of a... Blur. Well not really
As the album that made Blur the defining Britpop band, it's also the definitive Britpop album. As an exploration of working class Britain to doolalling over the thoughts of Magic... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Jonny X
A trip to an era
Listening to Parklife almost two decades after its original release is like reading a history book about the human behaviour of the 90s (in Britain to be specific although it... Read more
Published 1 month ago by HB
Parklife, the classic Blur
This was the second Blur album I have purchased, after Great Escapes. I listened to the band way back when they were first famous and I wanted to recapture my youth as a 50... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Doctor Pete
Essential brit pop album
If you're a fan of brit pop you must have Parklife by Blur in your record collection. I originally had it on cassette and it never left my walkman as a school kid.
Published 12 months ago by J. Knight
90's Britain on a Disc.
When you say name me some 90's albums this record always pops up and does really stick in the mind of people who grow up in the 90's. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Arthur
Brilliant!
This is one of Blur's best records. The title track is absolutely superb, but the whole record is definitely worth a try.
Published on 20 April 2010 by R. Dyrøy
So thin it's see through
Mockney geezers con the South: shouldn't think it sold much North of Watford though. There are one or humourous moments but otherwise this album is a real let down with hardly any... Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2010 by A. E. Hardman
Top quality English pop
I'm a relative latecomer to this album, having owned a copy since 2006, though of course I'd heard Girls & Boys and the title track before. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2010 by G. Fielder
Outstanding
... and then "Girls & Boys" was released and the whole thing EXPLODED! Sounding like cheap Giorgio Moroder, but then roughly taken by both Nile Rodgers and those Sparks dudes, it's... Read more
Published on 5 July 2009 by Guy Peters
A britpop classic
I had this album on tape, but decided to buy it on CD also.
It is the first album blur had that was in the public eye. Read more
It is the first album blur had that was in the public eye. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2009 by J. Green
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