Reviews (page 2 of 14)
I’ve always been rather on the fence with this album. I do like Blur, and all their albums have something to offer. This one definitely feels more whimsical (very much in the British 60s Kinks esque vibe) and poppy. Far Out seems like an attempt to ape Syd Barrett. The ‘quality’ to me is more on the anthemic slower songs To the End and This is a Low. Otherwise it just feels somewhat lightweight and disposable, albeit fun, compared to albums. That said, it’s an enjoyable listen and I’ll happily do so again.
While this list does seem a little heavy on the Brit Pop, this is one of the albums that I think truly does belong on the list. The hit songs are classics and the album tracks are interesting and unique. I’m not a huge Blur fan, but this is a great album.
I like Modern Life better, but this one’s pretty good
3/5
Naah not my cup of tea
fucking LOVE girls and boys. The rest of the album is nice
It’s ok.
I'm a britpop fan, and a Blur fan, but this was too long and had too much filler. Some amazing highs tho. Parklife was my fav song of the album. End of a Century (my fav first listen) and To the End were my other highlights
99 albums ago, I had Modern Life Is Rubbish and was pleasantly surprised that a britpop album can be good. As easy as it is to snide and be annoyed at all the excessive amount of britpop albums on the list, only Blur to me (thus far) actually seem to have albums that I didn't know about before that have a good argument to be on the list. No I am not going to even bring up that famous britpop band that starts with the letter 'O'. They suck I referred to the Blur I first heard on Modern Life is Rubbish as, "Some sort of compromise between The Kinks, XTC, and 90s rock stylings". I'd say that's mostly similar here, with more Kinks and less XTC influence, and add on about 20% more synths. I think Blur does the pop structure better and is more clear to be tongue-in-cheek vs. [redacted]'s attempts to be serious and whimsical at the same time. Parklife has that smart pop music structure but manages to make songs whose compositions standout from each other. I don't know what else it is (dancing about architecture), but it manages to click well no matter how much I try to shrug it off. I've tried to put down Parklife as something I could say is a 4 and move on, but if I gave Modern Life is Rubbish a 5 for being a pleasant surprise, Parklife also did the same kind of thing. I am actively fighting negativity bias, but please list, I know I have one [redacted] and one Blur album left, please do not recommend more Britpop. Suede was enough.
Where’s the woo hoo song. Kidding. But still not my speed, mate.
Liked the energy of the Songs.
One of THE classic Britpop albums. The hits elevate it.
Better than I expected, actually
Pretty good Blur classic
Quirky, melodic, uplifting, vibrant and I've always been fond of the slow songs on this album but I was surprised relistening how varied and strong the whole album is. The creativity, confidence and panache of a band who would write with unrestrained cockney humour Parklife or Girls and Boys, and transition to the slower songs like This is a Low or Bad head.
In the sea of 90s/2000s alt-rock bands, Blur really stood out with their style and creativity. I enjoy their approach and songwriting and they put on an outstanding live show. 4.
Har hørt denne et par ganger før, men synes fortsatt ikke den sitter helt. Det er noen sterke spor deriblant Girls & Boys og Parklife (baserte Sleaford Mods hele sounden sin på sistnevnte?), men synes helheten er litt bland. Vesentlig step up fra låtskrivingen på Modern Life Is Rubbish da. Hadde ikke trodd jeg skulle være den fyren, men etter x2 Oasis og x2 Blur så er jeg Oasis > Blur. Dog kan ingen av britpopperne touche Common People.
Liker plata best når den høres ut som gammal new wave. Liker den dårligst når den prøver å høres ut som Beatles-pop, for da høres den mer ut som gamle 60-tallsband som prøver å gjenskape 60-tallssoundet. Oasis er også bedre på å skrive låter i tillegg til å være et fenomenalt shoegaze-band
great
nice album from the 90's
Such a joy, I felt the second half was better than the first. Full spectrum of emotion but always on the upswing Playlist add: “Clover Over Dover” but “This Is A Low” made it into my overall 2026 playlist
A great pop album that really refined Blur's distinctive sound, while also showcasing their ability to branch out into different genres with songs like To The End. It peaks a little early in its runtime for such a long album, but it's a fun, varied listen all the way through. What a ridiculous ear worm Boys & Girls is by the way. A textbook 4.5/5 for me. Favourite tracks: Boys & Girls, Tracy Jacks, Parklife, To The End, This Is a Low
As this is my first Blur album on the list, I have been waiting to type a little blurb about my impressions of the band before I actually listen to a single song. “Song 2”. That’s it. That’s my entire knowledge of the band going in. I’ve heard it from just about every hockey game I’ve ever watched. I actually thought they were a one hit wonder band, and didn’t realize just how massive they are in the UK. And this is coming from someone who can easily and proudly tell you that one of my favorite bands of all time is the Gorillaz. This is my third Damon Albarn album on the site if I’m keeping track correctly, and the third different Albarn band in general. The dude has so many albums on here under different names, so it’s hard to keep track of them all. Of the Blur albums though, this is my first of 3. I had been patiently waiting to roll one, due in part to being a big Albarn fan. With how much I love the Gorillaz, I’m kind of ashamed in myself that I’m only listening to Blur for the first time now. Unless it’s not great, in which case I’ve been dodging a massive bullet this entire time. This first part of the review was made before I’ve even listened to the album yet, but I’m expecting to enjoy this, and I hope I’m right. Albarn very rarely lets me down, so we’ll see. I also love the album art, mini bonus. Now on to the actual review, post listen. After listening to it a few times, I’m not sure what to think. It’s still got Albarn singing, which I like. In fact, unlike the Gorillaz, he sings on just about every song on the album here. It’s much more of a traditional English band, and for that reason I kind of find it less interesting in general. It’s still very good, but it just doesn’t hit the same. If you’re British, I’m sure you’ll love it, but it just kind of sounds like a million of the other Brit Pop albums I’ve heard for this project so far. It’s not bad, but I would rather opt for a Gorillaz album if I was listening to Albarn. Some things can be too British. This is one of those things. You can listen to an album, not relate to it at all, and still enjoy it, but this is just too British for me. I feel as if it’s a great album with very good production value, phenomenal singing, and plenty of song variety, it just doesn’t really do anything for me personally. “The Debt Collector” for instance, is just circus music. If it’s supposed to sound like something you’d hear at a Park, I just can not relate. It’s skippable. I don’t know, none of these songs really grab me, even though I can hear how good they are. Not sure why this one isn’t really hitting me today. I was expecting to love it. Instead I just kinda like it. Don’t get me wrong, some of these songs are alright. “London Loves” stands out with all the funky synthy goodness I actually expect to hear from Albarn. That song is pretty good. It’s a great blend of both of the bands unique sounds, combining the Electronica of the Gorillaz mixed with the more traditional Rock guitar playing of Blur. My favorite song was the penultimate “This Is a Low”. It perfectly displays Albarn as a singer, and it’s beautiful. More beautiful than I expected. It’s also just got a killer guitar riff in the middle of the song that brings the song together perfectly. A really good song. Ok, so my first experience with Blur wasn’t as amazing as I was hoping for. But it wasn’t bad either, so that’s fine. I could grow to love this band. I’m not counting this album out just yet. I could see myself revisiting this one and giving it a 4. But for now, I’ll keep it as a 3 and move on to something else. 2 more albums to come from Blur.
It was ok, just sounded all the same with a lot of electronics.
It’s alright. I don’t have beef with it.
yeah I don't like Blur. The albums are too long, too boring, too uninteresting and repetitive. I don't get the appeal.
Oooh-another album featuring Damon Albarn. This 1 with more annoying/repetitive lyrics than some of the others
Love it
Can be so relaxing.
This unfortunately did not hit.
Great album
Bastante interesante
I was expecting to be underwhelmed by this, but I can admit it when I'm wrong. This was a good time.
I do think they coulda trimmed the fat a bit.
Fully new album im excited not the sound i was expecting only really knowing them from song 2, but im here for it. very very britpop. i love the groove they caught on here. its a little weird but just enough weird to catch the ear theyre so british its a little funny. i like the pop of the snare banging. wow even this guitar sounds british somehow oh i like this, the guitar hits right. damon you may be british but your voice is still beautiful. trumpet accent is chefs kiss man i dont wanna comment on the britishness on every song but they make it so hard. not usually that big a fan of spoken word sections in music but i dont mind it mmm idk. a little too punk a little bit not enough singing nice little folk rockish vibes. nice vocals. nice backing vocals. nice little solo. just overall nice little song cool instrumental piece, nothing more than an interlude tho not an instrumental, but still kinda feels like another interlude. weird to put this right after the last track nice laidback song, really allows damons voice to shine at its peaks. a little overrated but it still sounds good they had to come back and remind us once again that they are, in fact, british a little less on the spoken word here, but it helps to have those classic 90s backing instrumentals behind it is that a harp being played? some kind of guitar? whatever it is sounds really cool and i love how unique it sounds on a song like this a lot of different things happening rn, but it kinda comes together? i wonder if this was being called experimental at the time i was about to say their britishness wasnt as distracting here until he says rubbish and then i remembered. great rock song tho, one of the better of this sound on the album i just love when a rock band is able to do a really great acousting song, it just hits different for whatever reason. also makes the electric guitar hit even harder when the solo comes in great close out song (not counting the outro track) fun outro, not necessary but not unnecessary overall thoughts, at times this album was a little too british for its own good, but in a way that added to the charm of it and helped in to not get boring. not really any song on here i would consider bad and only a couple id say are mediocre, but most of the songs were good and a few great ones too. id give it a 7.5
Lots of great fun songs
It’s got some real heaters, and I definitely like the record on the whole, but not all of it
Enjoyed some, but not all. Already loved "Girls & Boys." Added "Badhead" to my liked songs!
Blur has very high highs, but their lows are also very low. I used to prefer Blur over Oasis, but after trudging through this album which is apparenty Blur's 'best' I think I have to give the crown of Britpop over to Oasis.
Blur's finest hour and one of the defining records of the Britpop movement. I am not English and I only started listening to music in the 00's, so my opinion of Britpop does not come with all the very polarized baggage that it often has. To me, these are just great songs, with fun and catchy choruses and occasional genre switch-ups. Every track here brings something to the table, which is a feat for a 16 track affair. One really has to marvel at the Damon Albarn's songwriting prowess. The man has been keeping his style fresh for over 30(!) years now, still making noteworthy work. Fantastic. Key tracks: Girls & Boys End of a Century Parklife London Loves This Is a Low
Far from their best
Best I can do is 2*. It's an album of three radio tracks and a whole lot of mediocre to bad filler tracks. It gets that second star only because the radio tracks are decent enough.
Very fun formative album for me. They are a bunch of dickheads though, only redeemed a bit by being less cunty and far more talented than their rivals, Oasis.
A very solid rock album with some interesting left turn choices
While I don't disagree with others on here that this list has a little too much Britpop, I admit I legitimately enjoy Blur (and Oasis). This is a fun record with a bunch of catchy hooks and a good mix of styles (like the waltz-y "The Debt Collector"), and a bunch of bouncy tracks.
Has some good songs in it 6.2/10
I can see why a non-British audience might find this album boring but I think it's Blur's best, and the archetypal Britpop record along with Morning Glory Similar to other Blur albums I think this has a bit too much filler to be 5* as a whole album, but the highlights are amazing
Exactly what I would expect walking into a London nightlife hub with live music in the early 1990s...the definition of Brit Pop. Some punk stuff, Beatles threads and that blaring British accent. Liked more than I thought I would!
Don’t even remember it! But I listened!
classic,
This record doesn’t really know what it wants to be (except successful). It’s all over the place and tries very hard to channel classic British pop rock and make it successful in the 90s. “Magic America” is notably awful, but the rest of the album kinda meanders somewhere in “forgettable” territory.
There’s a great episode of the YouTube series “That Pedal Show”, a nerdfest on guitar pedal setups, where Daniel Steinhardt and Mick Taylor interview Graham Coxon on his techniques, setup and influences. When asked about the raw, angular guitar sound he crafted during the earlier Blur albums, he explained it plainly: “I was being contrary against John Taylor, who was coming at me through Alex James. Alex was a kind of funky, swingy type of player. I was a really contrary, moody little sod, and I was trying to go anti-that. That's why Girls & Boys is like that.” I absolutely love Blur, but mostly the Blur who leaned fully into Coxon’s influences and made two incredible masterpieces in “Blur” and “13”. Back in the day, during the polarising Blur vs. Oasis debacle, I was definitely on the side of Oasis. But I never thought it was so black and white. I had Blur albums, and loved them too, but as a very different type of music. The thing that struck me about Blur during this era was summed up perfectly by Coxon’s explanation in “That Pedal Show”. Daman Albarn was writing insanely catchy pop songs, bringing “Scary Monsters” funk-era Bowie and bright electronic keys together with brilliant melodies. But under the surface Coxon’s guitar would growl and bite. “Girls & Boys” is the perfect example. It starts off with a programmed electronic riff, before the drums and Alex’s funky bass line start to groove. It’s proper, upbeat pop music. Albarn’s vocal melody seals the deal - this is a hit, exactly as it is. But then as the lyric “on holiday” punctuates the first line, Graham’s guitar comes in snarling and gnashing at the brightness of the tune with the darkest-sounding, rawest riff you could never imagine. Coxon’s use of dissonance was incredible. He had an unbelievable gift of creating the most interesting way to play horrible sounds, that when combined as part of the sum of the rest of the song, sound perfectly melodic. He’s one of two modern guitarists (along with Jonny Greenwood) who was genius enough to be able to pull off these insanely inventive guitar sounds while staying true to the melodic charm of the songs themselves. “Girls & Boys” isn’t the only example, we hear it all over this album. The delay-soaked dissonance at the end of “Tracy Jacks”, the messy anti-solo of “London Loves”, the sustained feedback textures of “This Is a Low”... I could go on and on. That’s the winning ingredient that caught my attention. But of course, it wouldn’t be anything without Albarn’s songwriting too. Songs like “End of a Century”, “Badhead”, “To the End” and “This Is a Low” are perfect examples of Daman’s brilliance when it came to songwriting. And what was charming about Blur back in these days, was how little they took themselves seriously. Songs like “The Debt Collector” and “Lot 105” are quirky, almost circus-like jingles that show their irreverent humour. And then there’s the title track “Parklife”. Graham’s guitar riff is perfect and the chorus is a masterpiece. The brass section makes it feel more like a Madness song than Britpop. But the real stroke of genius was getting Phil Daniels to perform the lyrics as spoken-word Cockney poetry. I was 10 years old when this song came out, so like any other 10 year old back then, I knew pretty much every lyric off by heart. A particular favourite being: “I get up when I want, except on Wednesdays when I get rudely awakened by the dustmen. I put my trousers on, have a cup of tea, and I think about leaving the house…” I don’t know why, but I absolutely adored those lyrics. There’s something so interesting about themes of mundane everyday activities delivered as poignant poetry. It just works so damn well. I mean, it’s a classic. So, while I still gravitate towards “Blur” and “13”, listening back to these earlier albums is always a blast. Indie pop music, made so much more interesting thanks to the genius sonic inventiveness of Graham Coxon. Or, as he put it in “That Pedal Show”: "I was just trying to be interesting, or keep myself interested… and I just made life very difficult for myself."
This is the most average britpop album I've ever heard. This is not a criticism nor a compliment.
Fucking blur
Usually an oasis v blur thing that people talk about, but this is the first time I’ve given blur a go and they are nothing alike. Catchy, vaudeville, 80s new wave pop dragged into the 90s, some guy Ritchie Raquel UK culture. Lots to love, but also very wierd and hard to love. I love Damon Albarn, park life is a great single. I want to come back to this but I’ve gotta be in the right mood
The last of the three Blur album son this list. Still mediocre IMHO, the others were 3's, I tend to go for a 2 with this one.
Really diverse album, with some catchy lyrics, beats, vocals, guitar, and my favorite song I vividly remember was London lovers
I’ve never had much interest in Britpop, and the entire craze/feuds that surrounded it in the 90s—I’ll always know Damon Albarn as the guy from Gorillaz. That being said, finally getting around to this album was honestly a real treat. This is such a clever and dynamic slice of 90s music, equal parts pop and alternative. There songs in so many different flavors, from psychedelia to Eurodance. Some of the commentary feels a little shallow by modern standards (things have certainly gotten worse than watching the tube and BBQing), but the ennui of late-stage capitalism is still wholly relatable. This will certainly be a new mainstay in my “albums for everyday life” rotation. Fav Tracks: Girls and Boys, Tracy Jacks, End of a Century, Parklife, Badhead, To the End, London Loves, Clover Over Dover, Jubilee Least Fav: Far Out Score: 7
Wonderful album, really stood the test of time.
Enjoyable overall, the titular song is the highlight for me. I expected to like it more than I did.
Fun and easy listen.
Fine. But kind of monotonous, and not in the good way
Perhaps the most British album on a list full of British albums.
Example of 90's Brit-Pop. The album is cohesive and good with a few standout songs. Pitchfork: n/a Rolling Stone: Top 500 Albums #438 Best Songs Girls & Boys Parklife
Another complete surprise, but a profoundly negative one. I thought I liked (or at least tolerated) Blur. But this album, new to me, was formulaic, asinine, and way too cute.
Painful, and some of the songs were downright cringeworthy
Better than the last I heard
Some good tunes
Much prefer the later albums when they stop the Chas n Dave stuff and get a bit weirder but still some good tunes here
Loved this album more the older i got
Not my favourite blur album some good songs
Actually class, only 1 or 2 duds
Classic rocket ship album. Started strong and then crashed down
yes… yes ofc i’ve listened to thiss before……
I like a lot of britpop and 90s alt-rock, but for some reason Blur just doesn’t do anything for me. This has a handful of nice melodies here and there, but none of the songs are interesting or catchy enough that I want to hear them again.
5.5/10 - for whatever reason, I just don’t enjoy BLUR.
There's a bit too much filler but a lot of these songs are great. The album's first 4 songs are extremely strong and I can see why this was a Britpop staple. Strong 7/10
Pretty fun listen. Instrumentation is vast and quirky. Vibe throughout is playful but never vapid. These guys are geniuses, it feels like they're showing off throughout. Can't believe I'd never heard "Girls and Boys" - don't think I'm getting it out of my head this month. But don't think it'll be a repeat listen - the hooks are too idiosyncratic, and topics a bit too british for me to get into. & Albarn's accent was starting to drive me a bit crazy towards the end
Very early 90s British a few catchy songs but not anything that i will need to revisit.
1st half of the album is good.
Not bad, fun to listen to.
The first half or so of this album is great; I hadn't listened to the title track in ages and it holds up. It's ridiculous and fun and just great sounding. Blur's creativity shines for the beginning of the album and all of the weird stylistic mashups and songwriting quirks come through as you would expect them to. Then it kinda fell apart. I feel like half the tracks on here are filler, or maybe just bad songs. "Trouble In the Message Center" and "Magic America" were the only songs I liked after "The Debt Collector". I don't know why they felt the need to make an album this long when they could've easily released one of all bangers. Anyway the first half makes up for the back half, and it's still a decent listen, just not nearly as well executed as it could have been.
Not bad, but I have to work to like BritPop
Horrid.
A great listen front to back. Damon’s songwriting is tight, engaging, funny, and charming. This is peak Blur.
yeah its a pretty fuckin good album! havent listened to it in years but it sure is full of Classics, with "end of a century", "parklife" and "girls & boys" all loaded right up front. the latter of these is obviously my favourite being as gender-wrecked as i am, but i think it'd probably still be a banger even without the lyrics about girls who are boys who like boys to be girls. it's an all timer. other than those i like the thrashy energy of "bank holiday" and the darker feel of "trouble in the message centre", but i think the album does kinda start to lose steam in the second half. having said that.... it holds up a lot better than most albums that make it past the 50 minute mark, and "lot 105" is a pretty fucking funny way to end it. what a bizarre little track. awesome.
Not for me
I'd not heard this album all the way through. It's alright, I suppose.
They could have trimmed some of the fat off but I love Damon Albarn and it does sound ahead of its time
Gold from my days in pomp
Decent album, but that’s a first time listen. I won’t give it a second any time soon.
I knew this was a 5 without having to listen to it again, but I clearly did as it’s excellent. I bought it the week of release, and it’s been with me ever since. There’s so much on this, there’s the OI OI lads stuff like girls and boys and the title track, the twitchy post punk of London loves and the tired romanticism of this is a low. Era defining for me
my reaction to Blur is usually "hurry up and be a cartoon guy already" but this wasn't bad
Hasta ahora de mis favoritos sin ninguna duda
Actually really liked this. Do I got a thing for Brit rock?
Bass line on girls and boys, London loves being fun and some of the slower ones good, largely forgettable record, better than anything oasis ever did
Why it go beep boop in the middle
Woo hoo
p736. 1994. 2 stars. Proof that Blur were a great singles band, but lack the talent for a decent album. They remind me of the The Kinks, but without the whimsy. This is an incredibly flabby double album, full of filler and pitiful instrumentals, and saved from 1 star by the quality of the singles. Actually, I've realised that the main reason I don't like this album is because of Damon Albarn's faux Cockney voice, plus the fact he's a cunt.
glaub nonie es blut album ganz glost. girls and biys isch en huere coole song. macht spass und isch groovy und irgendwie funny. end of a century au herzig, ich checks langsam. sie hend sich nöd so ernst gnoh und das isch sehr guet achoo noch de grunge era. ich ha s bitz problem demit dass bindem und vielne andere albe vorallem hervorghobe wird wie guet d songs s lebe in england beschriibed und so. ich bin nöd vo england ich schwizer und i guess italiäner. aso s isch cool was blur do macht abet ich chan nöd glich guet relate wie brits halt. to the end mega schöni melodie.
que hinoooooo. damon albarn pai de todos nós.
too painfully british to be entertaining
Even as an American angry at the amount of "who?" Brit bands shoved into this list, you're doing more coke than the Gallaghers if you think this doesn't deserve it's inclusion. Easily a top fiver britpop album. Takes lots of loving influence from 80s British new wavers/art poppers like XTC. 8.5/10.
8/10
Pretty good, a bit long
damon has to be one of the most prolific and consistent songwriters of the last 30 years, such a unique ear for melody and versatility across the different genres he explores this album is a satirical portrait of 90s england presented through a catalog of typically british characters and sounds; working class struggle and punk music, the rave scene and electronic music, strong accents and 60s garage music... The cultural language is constantly changing without losing identity because the story that is intended to be told needs to be expressed with those styles and that flexibility.
That is one of the definitive BritPop albums of the 90s some of the nicest singles
The sheer ambition of this album is staggering: Damon Albarn and his bandmates set out to make a genre-jumping Beatlesque pop album - which just by itself is an invitation to unflattering comparisons - that also works as a sustained satire of British life. Those are difficult masters to serve: the songs have to be amazing and the lyrics have to be observant and insightful and the tone has to be exactly right - too harsh and it's cruel, too light and it's toothless. Amazingly, this succeeds on all counts. The more satirical genre exercises are perfect sonically, from the clubby "Girls & Boys" to the punky "Bank Holiday" to the chanson-y "To the End" to the snotty "Jubilee." Albarn is even better when he's sincere; "Clover Over Dover" is understated and heartbreaking, as is the plaintive "End of a Century." The sheer degree of compositional difficulty on some of these songs is staggering - witness the jazz chords combined with the Cobainian anti-guitar solo on "London Loves," for one. And on the sublime "Trouble in the Message Centre" there's a mid-song key change that snaps the track into focus - the exact moment when the drugged-out protagonist pulls himself together temporarily and figures out exactly how deep is the shit he's in. Which brings us to the cast of characters Albarn has conjured - office drones, bored (in)significant others, inhalant-loving teenagers, hedonists on holiday. It would be easy to be cruel to them, because they are all at least slightly ridiculous - and yet Albarn wrings a subtle pathos out of each of these songs. Every one of our subjects is *solitary*, which sometimes means aloof and sometimes self-contained and sometimes just plain lonesome. The most striking thing about Bill Barrett's (possibly imaginary) trip to America is that he's apparently vacationing solo, and the hungover layabout on "Badhead" ends the song by acknowledging that he intends to lose contact with whoever he's been talking to. But it's "This Is a Low" that hammers the point home: *the shipping forecast will be here for you even if - when - nobody else is.* More than anything this is an album about the peculiar modern experience of starving, spiritually, at what is supposed to be a buffet - of being presented with the full panoply of consumerist options, none of which satisfy. In that way it is an ironic harbinger of Cool Britannia - an album about how the bonds between people have collapsed and will have to be rebuilt, quietly packaged as a disposal pop simulacrum of that same idea. I still can't believe I was able to pick up a used copy of it at age fourteen, one fateful afternoon at a record shop in Texas. Best seven bucks I ever spent. On this listen I realized that, like Tracy Jacks, I'm getting past forty. I'm sure I'm ridiculous in a million ways but at the very least I'm trying to cut down on my porklife and get some exercise. And my house is still standing, for now at least.
I guess it's time I admit I just don't get Blur, maybe they are just too British. Girls and Boys is my favorite Blur song, so I was excited to hear the album, but unfortunately that is the one of the only real fun songs here. Nothing else is bad, but he just kinda drones on and it isn't that memorable. This is a very high 3, but I'll round up. Low 4.
calmer than i thought it would be
I really like Blur but for me they are more a singles band than an album band. I feel like the best of their songs are great on their own but the packaged albums rarely fully land for me. The highs are great but the lows bring the album down a bit for me.
More British rock slop but at least this is halfway decent.
Some good songs on here. I remember the Oasis vs Blur battle and was on the side of Oasis and feel vindicated. This is ok but not ground breaking for me.
yAy
This album is really good. Tons of amazing ideas. Fun to listen to. I love the variation on their instruments. (the synth, the vocal bits)
Another day, another Britpop band. Totally forgot that Dan Albarn is part of Blur though, I'm not much of a Blur fan (only know them from 'Song 2'). Apparently this album is a concept album which is neat I guess. I'm not one for concept albums, at least on the initial listen, since I'm more of a music first and lyrics/meaning second kind of listener. If the sound(s) can get me attached or even addicted to the track(s) then I tend to dive in and examine what is being said. That being said, I expected the album to be typical Britpop upbeat guitar riffs and rhythms however the album is a bit all over the place. A lot of different flavours. Dan Albarn vocal performance does a lot for me. I enjoyed the delivery for almost the entirety of the album. Even the tracks I that weren't my thing I found myself still interested more in harmony his vocals provide with the music. I'm sure someone who isn't into Britpop, or start to get sick of it (i.e. anyone doing this list), will find something in this album that jives with them and pushes the right buttons for pop-music (and rock-pop?). Overall, this is a just a good britpop album with A LOT OF FLAVOURING inside of it. Neopolitan Ice-cream pop-album. T3: Boys & Girls, End of the Century, Magic America
Blur invented bisexuals in 1994
A bit meh
3,5. Доволі непогано
Incroyable.
Blur is pretty amazing and this is possibly their best album. Like half of these songs would be any other band’s best song
In 1994, "Girls & Boys" was playing everywhere and I hated it. To me, Britpop felt like an annoying tsunami of harmless boring music that clashed with the vibrant grunge and neo-punk scenes, pushing music back toward something more conventional and socially acceptable. Although I still dislike the genre, I have since learnt that Blur is among the Britpop bands I can appreciate once in a while. This is mainly due to the fact that beside their popular hits, their albums often feature a more experimental side, with odd sounds and weird circus music. Parklife, however, doesn't have many of these moments - you need to rummage through a LOT of very average or uninteresting songs to find a couple of gems. It's certainly not an album I will return to ; it lacks the boldness of their self-titled album or even the energy of The Great Escape. 3/10
We got them all, it was inevitable given how painfully British this list can be. I think we’ve almost completed the set now: The Verve, Oasis, Pulp, Suede, Supergrass… and here comes this second Blur album. Damon Albarn is worshipped like some alternative-rock guru, especially since Gorillaz supposedly provided definitive proof of his creative genius. But with Blur (and Gorillaz), where others hear brilliance, I mostly hear fairly shallow pop rock. It probably captured Britain at the time very well, not quite the football-lad Britain of Oasis, but the slightly less bad boy version of it. The four singles obviously bring back memories, and the fun is contagious, but the bouncy pop, the too many weaknesses and the very British concerns still do very little for me.
Hate to say it, but as much as I used to love this album when I was getting into music, it really hasn't aged well for my taste. For starters, I've been forced to play the title track live far too many times (one time) with a terrible band and an even worse singer. That also meant rinsing it over and over in practice for about 4 months... So not a fan of that one. It also made me get really sick of Albarn's voice, which is tolerable with Gorillaz as they're actually doing something vaguely interesting there, but even then, as stated in my review of their debut album, it's probably the worst part. A lot of this album, not that I remembered it that well, is also trying desperately to be more weird and unique, but in ways that just make it sound downright childish and silly in a bad way. Why does To The End start using random chromatic scales in the background that sound like actual circus music?? Why does Girls & Boys have such stupid, annoyingly repetitve structures? And, god, after seeing that Coachella performance a few years ago, it really showcased how unbearable that chorus is, particularly in terms of vocals. Then, there's the more "normal" songs like the aforementioned despised title track, which I find fine but overall boring and pretty uninspired (I mean, the whole Britpop movement was just indie rock bands trying to go back to the popularity and energy of 60s pop-rock but failing miserably, especially when other cats like Neutral Milk Hotel had similar inspiration but are a lot better overall, in my opinion.) In general, if you couldn't tell from that really long parenthesis, I'm really not a big fan of Britpop these days (sorry Ellis - I do still like Charmless Man and Country House******* though, my nostalgia for those is less corrupted by You Know Who). Overall, sure, there are some less overplayed songs on here that are more enjoyable, like Trouble in the Message Centre, Clover over Dover, and to a lesser degree, End of a Century, I don't really find them that good in comparison to literally anything else I could listen to now or even back then. I don't really think I've gone off anything from my early music taste like I have this.
If Britain were an album - part like 56. I do like how it sticks to being Anglocentric across different genres. It's a pretty cheeky record so the ballads that are sprinkled sour the vibe a bit. I remember not liking the songs "Bank Holiday" and "This Is A Low" when I listened to it a year and a half ago but they sound tame now with a bit more musical experience. I don't mind most of the songs, the satire just doesn't cut it for me.
meh.
high school me loved this type of music and you know what? so does 29 year old me. this album (brit)ROCKS
Expected this to be just another britpop album, but I like it. Had no idea I'd heard anything from Blur but Song 2 but as soon as Girls & Boys came on I recognized it. Can definitely hear a Beatles influence on them but they have really interesting drums and bass lines. The tracks are all really varied and playful - would definitely listen to this again when I was in the right mood.
80/100.
Brilliant. I see the Yanks are jealous.
Æðisleg plata og gaman að heyra gott stöff frá manns eigin samtíma. Gott líka að hlusta og fá staðfestingu á því að þótt maður geti haft smá gaman af einstaka Oasis lögum, eða næstum heilli plötu, að þá var aldrei neinn vafi um hvaða band væri málið. Fullt hús.
A stone cold classic.
Pretty good 4
Hé heftig en te punk. Niet mijn smaak. 2 sterren
For an album allegedly seminal of its era, this was a disappointment. Presumably its era has not endured.
I can’t say how disappointed I was with this album. In a year where Definitely Maybe was released by Oasis, I have no idea how there was ever a conversation about The Battle of Brit Pop. There are two songs on the track that were up to the standard…the rest felt like mindless filler.
Overall found more to like than dislike on this album. Particularly enjoyed This is a Low. 4
Why is Blur’s entire discography on this list
Boys and girls is definitely the best song on here. The rest of it is just ok. It's kind of... Jumbled? There's just a lot going on and idk if it really meshes well for me. It's like they're trying to do a 90s beatles thing. Wasn't bad though
eh. i don’t know if i’m really a blur guy i’m finding out. maybe it’s the wrong day, but i don’t find this all that appealing. i think it’s fine. the only song i find memorable is “girls & boys” because i knew it - but i don’t really like it. it is eclectic, i’ll give it that.
Brit pop personified. I mean it with no real malice by saying “meh, it’s fine.”
This album was perfectly adequate. Nothing too stunning, tracks blurred together quite a bit, but it was enjoyable to listen to.
Very British, playful and ultimately charming.
I thought I'd like Blur. They seem like the band I would like. BUT, it turns out I don't?
Not my go to Blur album, but still in the COOL BRITANNIA Pantheon.
The Blur sucks. Sorry not sorry. 👎. Vocals aren’t good and album too long and not interesting.
3 Blur albums? This author really loves his Britpop.
(Light to decent 7/10) A pretty fun Britpop record, and yes indeed it is VERY British. Unlike Albarn's future project "The Good The Bad and The Queen" which I felt was too British for my American-ass to properly appreciate, I felt like I could bop along to this album better. The instrumentals are jaunty and unique, especially for this era of the 90's. The album does tend to lull in the middle, but thankfully after "To The End" it picks back up and the amazing "This is a Low" closes out the record proper with an anthemic slow rocker.
Interesting
Good, but better to come.
Objectively this is not a seminal work. However it holds a special place in my formative music years and it makes me happy just to belt out a bit of parklife
Mediocre Brit pop....a reoccurring theme on this project.
I loved the 90s to early 2000s atmosphere this album creates. It was a fun, jolly and just a very enjoyable moment listening To this album. Overall i’ll say this album was a great listen and the rock production was also pretty good.
Classic and entertaining
Ah good album and Dean Albarn still making hits 30+ years down the line.
not bad. first half kind of foreshadows his gorillaz work. too long tho
I've been a serious slacker on the Blur front; I really like some of their songs but whenever I've had a go at their discography I've just not found myself in the mood to pick up what they're putting down. I think this project will finally redress that, though, because I enjoyed so much of this beyond the hits I knew. It's catchy, witty, eclectic, fun, and sometimes beautiful. The little fluff tracks are really annoying – and even without them the album would be a bit long for me – but it's largely good to great. Plus the black dog's face on the cover makes me smile :)
The singles from the album are OK being familiar but the rest is just pretty boring pop music of its day. No wonder I hadn’t heard them before or even if I had then must have easily forgotten them. They all seemed to blend into a background nothingness. The only track that sounded different to the others was Debt Collector and that sounded as if it was stolen from a merry-go-round at a kid’s fairground. Didn’t feel any extremes of negative feelings listening to it but just thought now I’ve heard this album I won’t ever need to again. Next please...
I was 100% obsessed with Blur when I was younger (my first gig!!) so it’s a little tricky to be impartial here. However, I do still feel it’s a brilliant record, full of pop hits and pure undiluted Britpop. Is it a bit dated - yep, is Albarns overexaggerated cockney accent annoying - yep but songs like End of a Century, Badhead, To the End and This is a Low are still absolutely brilliant. There’s more filler in here than I remember - they could have cut Bank Holiday, debt collector, London loves & lot 105 and it would have been a 5 star (why oh why oh why mess up the end of the album with such shite)
Extremely formative record for me - I just wanted to be Graham Coxon, and whilst I listen to this I'm actually completely unintentionally wearing the 'Pavement ist Rad' t-shirt he wore to promote this record, 32 years later, so nothing's really changed. I've listened to this 10,000 times and not much recently, but it's still pretty much as great as it was in the past. Like all Blur albums, it's too long and you don't need the silly filler tracks, and 'Parklife' has dated terribly (I hate that I still know all the words, so much more important things my useless brain could be remembering!), but 'Badhead,' 'To the End', 'Trouble in the Message Centre', and especially 'This is a Low' are still superb. 'This is a Low' is the best thing Blur ever did, and the guitar solo is perfect. I think this is also a weird case of 1001 book actually picking the right album - 'Modern Life is Rubbish' and 'The Great Escape' that sit either side of this have aged MUCH more poorly, in my opinion - the mockney bullshit is at least ring-fenced quite neatly within a few tracks on this record. And of course the self-titled album is infinitely better than all of these and had better be on the list as well!
i'm not sure how much of my dislike for this is purely my dislike for british voices
Solid but not something I need to revisit
Liked this for the most part. Found myself skipping ahead a lot at the end. This is the end should have been the end of the album.
I was an oasis kid, but I now feel I should have been a Blur kid, but I just never gave them a chance. Having listened to this I'm not sure. It had its moments, but so hit and miss, I'm not sure they're as good as they thought they were
Okay, not peak but not bad by any means.
I will never understand how Blur gets mentioned in the same breath as Oasis
blurry
Those britpop vocals are like nails on a chalkboard
Damn good album. Didn’t realize how Britpop Blur was. Maybe that’s why it really hasn’t landed as much in the states. Either way I’d like to revisit this band and this album has a lot to offer. Even though I’m giving it 4 Stars it might be a 5 Starer.
Typical britpop
Great album containing two of their big hits but also littered with great songs
I've been a pretty massive fan of this album for a while: it's probably my favorite Britpop album and 'Girls & Boys' is an all-time great album opener, and I was fully expecting to give it an easy 5/5, but sadly I do think it has shrunk on me since I first heard it 5 years ago. It's still fantastic, mind you, 'Girls & Boys' is just as good as ever, and it's surprisingly really varied genre-wise, but I'd be lying if I thought that it's fully consistent the whole way through. Still, at its best, this album is stellar - 'This Is a Low' is a stunning late-album highlight and 'To the End' is a really beautiful chamber pop pastiche that works really well. Not as good as I remember, but still really great.
- girls & boys: I’m just vibin’ bro and obviously I’ve heard this before. - Tracy Jacks: I like it, but not enough? I like the vibes though. - end of a century: I like this, and the lyrics too. - parklife: also heard this before and I’m just vibin’ again bro. - bank holiday: I don’t like this. - badhead: this might just be my favourite. - the debt collector: yo I was actually looking forward to lyrics on this, and now this shit just reminds me off when I was younger bro. - far out: no. - to the end: I like these lyrics, but that’s about it. - London loves: I like the instrumentals but about the rest? Idk man. - trouble in the message centre: I like it but it’s not like wow this changed my life. - clover over Dover: why are we in the 1800s? I do like the lyrics though. - magic America: I kind of like this? Nah kind of boring never mind. - jubilee: now I actually like this, this is good. - this is a low: I like the vibes but again I’m getting kind of bored. - lot 105: I feel like I just got laughed at for listening to this and they’re just rage baiting me at this point. And I just got jumpscared okay! ( I don’t know what to think about this! I think I like it more than “blur” but I feel like I shouldn’t compare them to eachother? This album feels like my life? Boring and dull, but the songs are still so catchy, that’s what makes it great )
proud to be Bri-ish, mate
2 of the worst songs in history on a very good album
Fav song: Girls & Boys
Parklife is easy to enjoy. Stephen Street's production is glossy. Alex James's basslines are buoyant. And Graham Coxon is exceptional from start to finish. Even when he's just playing off-beat stabs, the guitars sound calculated but febrile - they're exactly where they need to be, but they could go anywhere! These elements all do a lot of work and, while The Debt Collector and Lot 105 are the obvious targets for criticism (unjust criticism! They're neatly-arranged band workouts), I think Bank Holiday and Jubilee are the real clunkers that cannot be gussied up by studio and instrumental craft. Blur would get Song 2 out of such thrashing later, so it's a mode they can handle, but the version they produce on Parklife feels unnecessary and leaden, compounded by Albarn's weak lyrics: "Until mama loses her knickers!"? These songs exemplify a limitation in some of the songwriting across the album - too many two chord verses, a lot of them a single tone movement up or down. Thankfully, Coxon comes up with something inventive pretty much every time, but Albarn sounds a bit shambling. It is worse when his efforts at storytelling prove underwhelming - Tracy Jacks has a superficial sheen, but is nothing. Albarn, as a storyteller, is not Ray Davis or Paul McCartney; Jarvis Cocker has him outstripped here, with greater class and psychological insight. He will become a much better storyteller, but some of the character portraits here feel cheap. If one was going hard, you could even lump Girls and Boys in here: a looping four chord cycle with weak satire. That too hard though. Girls and Boys is great. Elevated by all the components I mentioned at the top of the review, but also giving Albarn space to indulge himself as a frontman and enjoy himself with wordplay. And perhaps it is the amount of space on Parklife that lets some of those weaker elements through - too long, filler covered over with shiny paint - but it is also that space that allows Albarn to develop. Always strong with melody, he starts to really meld melody with performance and emotion on To The End and This is a Low. An emotional openness starts to appear on this album that will serve him well going forward. Parklife shows Blur as a tight, inventive band, but Albarn is sometimes still an art student rather than an artist. NB. Far Out was the inspiration for the first proper Essential Penguins song, Cumulonimbus. 3.5 I think the crucial thing that most people don’t appreciate about Parklife is how courageous Blur were in making it. In retrospect it is easy to read Girls and Boys especially as mere successful commercial fishing - dancey drums, cheeky lyrics about sex, of course it was a hit etc. Wasn’t the song Parklife just chorus and gimmick? Weren’t Blur just three pretty boys mugging and jumping around and Dave Rowntree was also there? I think most people’s view of Parklife (and Blur in that era) is something like that; of something manufactured, of effective exploitation. It is generally unknown that not only were these songs, these arrangements, and these artistic decisions entirely their own - Blur received no encouragement whatsoever from their label; quite the opposite. David Balfe the owner of Food warned them about all this pandering to a small market of ‘Art students’ while they were working on these songs, declared the whole direction a mistake, repeatedly threatened Blur with being dropped, and then sold the label weeks before the album was released. In the face of that pressure and constant naysaying, a 25 year old Damon Albarn kept his head down and made the music he wanted, the way he wanted. Credit to their producer Stephen Street for backing him up. It’s just a brilliant album. Graham Coxon, 23 and already a verifiably prodigious player on Modern Life…, enters his pomp here as the most creative and consistently inspired guitar player of his generation (on this particular topic there are sometimes declarations for Bernard Butler from Suede Ultras - they’re avin a laff) On later Blur albums Coxon’s guitar would become an event - abrasive, wild, effects-heavy stuff that dominates the track. The magic of Coxon’s playing is that it was always that way but folded so well into the rhythm of the song, and so judiciously placed in the mix, that it is hard for the casual listener to notice how unusual it is. Girls and Boys is a perfect example - Alex James’ funny, loopy bassline is easy to notice and much celebrated - I’ve never heard anyone mention Coxon’s abrasive, angular, chromatic lines which are all the way through that song. Those lines are so unlikely, but they fit so neatly that no one notices they shouldn’t. It’s a similar case with Parklife - everyone knows the main riff and no one notices the odd sophistication of the guitar line in the chorus. There is such variety in his playing as well. There are several tracks on Parklife whose diverse guitar lines I could happily be tedious about - End of a Century, Trouble in the Message Centre, This is a Low (the solo is a guitar miracle - no one else could have done that) - but I would settle for people listening to them, and possibly hearing them for the first time. I think The Great Escape might be Coxon’s masterpiece - alas, it isn’t on this list because [checks notes] nobody likes it, not even the band. Oh well. Back to Damon. Damon Albarn is, in my opinion, a songwriter of the first rank. If the last quarter of a century has seen a sort of grudging admission from all the people that don’t like him (once again it’s mainly his face) that he is sort of good at getting hits because of the undeniable commercial achievements of Gorillaz, well I still don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. His instincts for melody, for hooks, and for arrangement ideas are as keen as ever Paul McCartney’s were. In Blur - a unique band cruelly yoked by the British press and by subsequent pop history to the concept of being the Other to Oasis - Albarn was as dazzlingly prolific as McCartney at his height. Like McCartney, he is also partial to the odd indulgence in ‘Granny Music’ but where McCartney’s recollection of Music Hall was digested as the forgivable eccentricity of a genius, Albarn’s recollection of The Kinks (or indeed Music Hall) has been recorded as one of the reasons Blur, and Britpop as a whole, bear a sort of creative illegitimacy in common analyses. Sure they were just ‘copying’, same as Oasis, goes the conceit. Second-hand. It is only with Gorillaz, a truly contemporary version of pop music, in this narrative, that Albarn’s talent becomes worthy of acknowledgment. But Gorillaz invites listeners to a version of the future in entirely superficial ways. The core of Gorillaz success is the same as Blur’s - well-wrought hooks, irresistible melodies, diversity of sound, energetic novelty in arrangement. Albarn already had all that on Parklife. The title track is so familiar to everyone that it is a perfectly simple business to roll our eyes when it comes on the radio and sigh at the poverty of chorus and gimmick. Parklife is one of the strangest and most inspired pop songs of the 90s in my opinion. Like all the greatest pop songs it is hard to imagine sitting down and writing that because it is hard to imagine it not existing already, and therefore easy to imagine writing it - it was just sort of obvious wasn’t it? Was it fuck. I almost wish it had been just 80,000 Art students that had bought Parklife - then we’d never hear the end of how absolutely brilliant (and brave) Blur were. 4.5/5
yws
Kesälevy
Possibly the best 90s Brit Pop album. Its diversity and creativity are simply stunning, especially compared to e.g. Oasis' straightforward pub rock.
Blur is one of those britpop bands that think they’re smarter than they actually are.
PARK LIFE
I swear man, the British are responsible for some of the best but ALOT of the weirdest fucking music I have ever heard. This shit is not good. The fact that this shit has over a 3 and some other albums struggle to break average shows me how flawed yall opinions are. Who is the target audience for this type of music? I am so serious rn.
not as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue
Tämä oli sellaista parempaa britti-indi-rokkia. Tässä ei ollut ärsyttävyyttä. Itseasiassa ajoittain ihan nautiskelin kuuntelusession aikana.
No olipa hassu brittipoppilevy. Joku yks tuttu juttu löyty, se nappas aivan ok, mutta muuten ei oikein ollu paljoa kiinnostavaa. Kertakuuntelulla meni aivan okei, tuskin tulee sen enempää pyöriteltyä.
Fun album.
Pleasantly meh. I didn’t dislike it, but also could have died without listening to this and it would have been perfectly fine.
Top 5 most front heavy albums ever, still pretty good
I think Blur is very pedestrian as a band and have never been much of a fan. Boys & Girls is a great song, but the rest of the album is non memorable.
Commercially, the concept of Britpop was the best thing for this band. For me it hurt them in terms of their legacy though - strip out all the hype and bullshit and you get a worthy successor to The Kinks, Bowie and XTC with this album. It's full of hooks, kooky as fuck and very much a British statement.
Girls and Boys is the hardest line dance I’ve ever done
3 out of 5. Started off ok but then fizzled out by the end.
What a unique album. I feel like it has different genres within it. Rock. Punk. New Wave. I was almost convinced this was going to be a 5 (or at least a 4) for me after hearing the first few songs, which were fun. And then it got a little too punk and chaotic for me. And then it redeemed itself with some of the cool synth in the latter songs. I kept thinking how some songs sound very much like Oasis. Same kind of drawn out notes and vibe. But different enough. By the end, I feel like the album is solid. It’s actually quite fun and very British (in a good way), but that one listen was enough for me to soak it in and appreciate it for what it is. I don’t feel the desire to listen it again.
Vibes: 3 Instruments: 2 Production: 3 Emotional Value: 1 Storytelling: 1 Album Cover: +0 Stand Outs: Girls & Boys, This is a Low Overall Rating: 2
This may be the first Britpop album I've heard that kinda lives up to the "modern Beatles-like" sound that Britpop is supposed to be. It could be sort of like The White Album, all over the place and experimental, only not as good. There really a few really good tracks and a few that are a complete waste of time. 3.75 (almost a 4, but not quite there)
All the people. So many people. Fun album overall. Favorites: London Loves, Girls and Boys, Tracy Jacks, To the End, Clover Over Dover, Magic America
I've always been a fan of Blur although I've never listened to this album in full (I only had The Best Of CD growing up). Favourite songs include 'Girls & Boys', 'Parklife' and 'This Is a Low'. An easy five stars!
Great album by a great band.
wish i liked anything half as much as i liked the singles!
Just another average Blur album.
One of my discoveries in this project is that Blur is way underrated. With this album alone they carry on the tradition of Bowie and the Clash, and even maintain the Brit playfulness of jaunty little ditties that show up in 60s albums.
Classic album that I am very familiar with. Always happy to give it a new listen.
Vooruitstrevend, je voelt de karakters, en lekker toegankelijk
3.5
Having spoken to many, I infer this is the auditory representation of what went on in the mind of an average Brit in 1994.
I’m slightly confused. This album includes some really great songs white half of them are just to simple, predictable and dull.
A breakthrough I think, and indicative of the 90s Britpop thing, but not quite the heights they'd achieve in the future.
No entiendo como compitió con oasis este disco
Good vibes... reminded me of those bright movies in the early 2000s I used to watch with my Grandmom. Like cheaper by the dozen
I got chills listening to Tracy Jacks, Parklife too. This album seems like a party, a chill party. What a trip, great album.
Good energy and rhythm. ★★★
I heard a little Gorillaz in it, pretty cool!
Some cool bass stuff. Fine
Entirely enjoyable. No songs on this album that I already knew but the vibes were great.
I'd forgotten what a great album this is.
J’adore girls and boys donc ça commence bien To the end ! L’album est un peu long 7/10
Surprisingly catchy brit pop
One ok song. I don’t know man come on. This is I don’t know whatever just noise just garbage. I’m giving it two stars for the graphic design.
Better than I expected overall, not really my things overall, but I see where they were one of the most popular britpop bands because its a lot better than most of the dreck britpop also included on the list. Skunk Anansie clears this though.
Another great album from Blur. Fun upbeat songs throughout with punchy instruments and Damon as always with a great vocal performance. Liked the title track and Boys & Girls most. The cover is also pretty cool.
Always loved this album cover. That first track is really great. I really like how this album feels like it could have been made in the early 70s but absolutely can’t be due to subject matter. There’s moments that sound like the Kinks or the Jam. I like how diverse it sounds.
Enough fucking britpop
Fun, but nothing to write home about. Only listened to it once through and felt like it was enough.
Feels like a 90’s continuation of the Clash and the Sex Pistols but softer around the edges. And some the Doors-like organs in there. Never really listened to them outside of their hits, quite enjoyed this album, musically diverse and interesting. Curious ska-like finish 😅
Listenable but didn't do much for me.
..
Decent album
bom, tentei deixar meu preconceito com blur de lado ao maximo pra ouvir esse album, e INFELIZMENTE gostei. a faixa girls & boys INFELIZMENTE é legalzinha, assim como o album por um todo também é uma experiencia bacana. esse vai ser nota 7,0 com muita dor no coração
As many have said here, this starts to lose its way big time after To The End - although it ends brilliantly on This is a Low. But when it is good, it’s sensational.
Yeah, this is absolutely none of my business. Two stars because I’m able to recognise it is good for what it is, regardless of my opinion on the music.
I love albums that offer variety while being cohesive. I didn´t fully love all the tracks separetely, though
The music of my teenage years. I enjoy this more every time I hear it. Britpop, for all its flaws, does get a bit too much criticism these days. This album is unapologetically British and it’s brilliant.
Gives an 80s sound, bounces around between sounding like the clash, or just generic 80s electronica.
Some fun songs. Did really drag me in, but I'd definitely listen again.
Started in a simple jolly and upbeat way, and made me think it would be somewhere between a 3 and a 4 (for my taste). However, it just kept getting more and more quirky, unusual and subtly avant-garde. It feels weird for me to say, but in a way it became unpleasant and frustrating to listen to. Perhaps the instruments/musical arrangement is not to my liking, as it feels quite simplistic. Amusingly, on the other hand, if it just played it safe and stayed generic, it would probably annoy me for being "FIFA rock", vapid and uninspired... I'll settle that I respect it, but don't particularly like it. Feels harsh giving it a 2, and maybe it's just a bad day, but it took me a lot of willpower to even finish... Highlight: "Theme from an Imaginary Film" and "Red Necks" from the Extended/Special Edition were oddly good. Of all things. What? "Alex's Song" ruined the streak tho.
It's ok, middle of the road. I prefer other Blur stuff I've listened to. Could probably be worth a second listen down the line but this is how I'm feeling right now.
Britpop! And it was ok.
Classic Brit rock with some timeless singles. Personally a bit too "twee" for my liking, and a bit bloated for what it needs to be.
Early Britpop?
4.5 Not as consistent as MLIR, but maybe the highest highs of any blur album
I'd probably like this if I was 18 when it came out...
In the era of Brit Pop, if Oasis were the Beatles, Blur were the Kinks. I always dug the Kinks.
GIRLS AND BOYS??? It made bop my head Bad Head is very grandpa coded (in a good way) To the End: croissant LAAAA LA LA LA LAAAa: Magic America MKAYYYY, I see myself going back to a few songs from this record. Solid 3
A pretty good album, I liked Girls & Boys, Parklife and The Debt Collector the most.
I guess it's Blur week. Something tickled me as familiar on "Modern Life is Rubbish," but it finally connected while listening to this album that the Damon Albarn behind this album is the same as the one behind Gorillaz. After listening to several Blur albums, this seems to be the moment when he really started developing the style that would come to define his later work. This album is pretty fun. It starts to drag a little towards the end, but there's enough energy left over to close things out well. I considered giving "Modern Life..." five stars the other day, so I think between the two it balances out. I was listening to one of my other playlists while I wrote this, and a song by The Good, the Bad & the Queen came up and... yep, that's definitely Damon Albarn as well. I guess he's quite prolific... and I'm not great at recognizing voices! Favorite track: "Girls & Boys"
me encanta!!! amo blur :) y este álbum tiene grandes canciones
Doesn’t really stand out
Love Girls & Boys. Some hits and misses on here.
Despite being a fan of Gorillaz for my entire career of liking music, I think this album is what made me realize what a gem Damon Albarn is. The sound he adds to a song always comes off as so charming, I think it's part of the reason he's had such success across experimenting with genre. An approach that is not missing on this album, the direction of this album swaps back and forth so frequently. "Girls and Boys" is a club song, "Bank Holiday" is a weird new-wave punk song, "Far Out" is a mix of a wiggles and earthbound song, "Parklife" is uhhhh... And while it's probably unfair to credit Albarn excessively, while ignoring the rest of the band, I do think his presence adds so much. Homie is just so versatile. 4/5
It’s all a blur…
britpop, kind of entertaining, sounds like they're having fun. probably won't listen again ever
I was surprised by this album's playfulness and cheery attitude. Mixed with British Punk flavor, polka interludes and French chanson. It sounds crazy, but it's not my cup of tea... With all of these contradicting influences it's hard for me to see the identity of the album.
I know Blur from "Song 2." That song is not on this album. Parklife is Britpop — very English, very 1994, jumping between styles without warning. "Girls & Boys" is fine. The rest is all over the place. 1/5 — wrong album, wrong mood, wrong me.
This album just flshed past me without making a dent. Some moments sounded cool, others really silly, but nothing makes ma want to revisit sometime soon. 2.5/5 - okay
One of the more decent britpop/rock records I have heard on this list. Not a high bar, because a lot of it has been pretty mediocre. It's fun, playful and has decent instrumentation. I keep forgetting Damon Albarn is in this band so I was kinda shocked to hear his voice randomly pop up.
It is probably one of the very few actually good british 90s albums on here. It combines some pretty neat pop tracks, with intermissions which would feel in a porcupine tree or king crimson album (which I do consider a positive). Simultaneously it does fall off into being quite samey except for those few interludes after the first few songs. This is a typical album where I find myself zoning out because nothing really pulls me back in after the first 4 songs.
I liked the first two, and two in the middle. It lost steam after that..
There’s a lot of genres flying around on this one, but it still very much works. And you can definitely hear influences like the Kinks, Beatles, and even XTC here and there. An overtly Brit-pop sounding album that overall was a good listen. It’s just too long which causes it to drag a little on the back half.
Is this the most British album to ever British? Holy smokes, I knew Damon Albarn had that accent but reeeeeally coming through on this one. But man, props to the dude for creativity. Loves him a keyboard or synth or toy or really anything that makes noise and he can turn into a song. Some of it was a bit repetitive but overall an interesting listen. 3.25
Forgot Girls and Boys is a Blur song. Rest of the album not as strong so rounding down. A wooo hooo. 3.5/5
decent, blur is amazing
вибачте шо я сумнівалась це зарашо бля
full of great basslines and punchy twangy guitars. Classic britpop album
Above average britpop but you already knew. Girls & Boys really hit this time around. Needs another listen, not because I’m unsure but because there’s a lot of cool and interesting things I wanna come back for.
When the band's self-titled came up, a couple weeks ago, I noted that it was weirder than I had expected. Boy, was I unprepared for this one. The sheer wackiness of this record makes it really fun, but it also makes it inconsistent, so while it may not be my favorite album of theirs so far, it definitely deserves the five stars.
Imagine that, another overly hyped Brit band that wasn't that good. I am sensing a trend. Just like "Tracy Jacks" this is "...so overrated". They sung about Brit shit I can't relate to and that's why I never got into their sound. The first song, "Girls & Boys" (38M listens - 37M of those in England) is so annoying. It sounds less like 1994 and more like 1982. "End Of A Century" (27M) sounds more like a Blur song/sound but it's super average. Outside of the chorus for "Parklife" (178M) it's a pretty lame song with Captain Jack Sparrow singing about stuff an American can't relate to. "Bank Holiday" was unlistenable. I have no inkling how these guys ever made a splash in the US outside of "Song 2" which is a masterpiece. Everything else is soaked in pub beer and covered in HP Sauce with a side of breakfast beans. If this were released today, it would fall flat (for a second time in the US) and barely dent pop culture. 2 stars
Ok
Some interesting songs mixed with a bunch I don't long to hear again.
Not a huge fan of the long instrumentals in some songs, and I wasn't particularly interested in the songs I didn't already know. Doesn't help that i was mid heatwave.
I don't exactly hate Blur but three albums is absolute insanity
Fun and frolocking from them posh lads. Add Song 2 and this would be Best of Blur
Hmm, a lot of bad tinny pop shite on here. The phony cool britannia on full display, still a couple of decent tracks. But the more it goes on, the worse it gets, Their next one is much better I think. 2.5 rounded up Heard before? Yes Owned: Yes, 87/331 (26%) Will I get: Already have
Thought this was going to be better than it was, pretty boring actually. Maybe I got this on an off day. 2.5/5
Needed to put it down halfway through because it was so annoying, I hate his stupid voice.
Starts out strong but then kinda drops off. Still better than most Brit pop of the era.
Sounds like if someone made Rebel Rebel into a whole album. Seriously just sounds like a Bowie rip off 90% of the time. Totally mediocre and overly appreciated like all Britpop. Still, I didnt want to cut my ears off listening to it
196. ok
Got it - it's Britpop, so we have to hear it. But do we? I wasn't a fan when it came out, and it didn't grow on me in the meatime.
Some songs were ok
Solid brit pop album. Not my favorite flavor of it tho. Should be either better with its melodies or rock more. IMO caught up in between.
This is gonna get a 5
This one grows on you. Just not that much, more like a 2 to a 2.1 ‘Badhead.’
Entertaining more than enjoyable. 2.5/5
Another album by an OK British band. What a shocker.
Banger album met bangers
Just a fun little rock album with no skips. Nothing much else to say
brit pop! this is a quintessential british album that totally captures the early 2000s brit pop culture. very fun vibes and timeless tunes.
332/1001 Blur - Parklife Heard before? ✅ Revisit? ✅ On the whole, far more positive than usual with Blur. Yes it's a bit too top heavy, but for the most part, the album material holds up against the singles.
Das erste Album von Blur, welches ich mir 2x angehört habe. Richtig abwechslungsreich, geht doch.
better than i expected. guitar tone is great. some songs are very creative. some dumb and annoying. good enough album but it should have ended 9 songs in. definitely didn't need to be that long and definitely didn't need to hear this before i die.
I liked blur already so it’s not surprising this album slapped
Man,.I enjoyed this even more than the last time I heard it.
Same kinda thing like the Clash do that I don't like that much
332/1089 got gorillaz a couple days ago and today is blur so that’s fun this was a good britpop record, i think i prefer it over parklife for sure, very enjoyable faves: To the end, This is a low, Clover over dover, Trouble in the message centre, Girls and boys 76/100
Fun but not enough memorable songs - may need a few more listens
More Britpop noise. The best part of this album is that it ended.
75
Standard Brit Pop album, not bad. Deep undertones of Beatles influence.
More britpop.