Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Beetlebum
2. Girls And Boys
3. For Tomorrow
4. Coffee And TV
5. Out Of Time
6. Blue Jeans
7. Song 2
8. Bugman
9. He Thought Of Cars
10. Death Of A Party
11. The Universal
12. Sing
13. This Is A Low

Disc 2:

1. Tender
2. She's So High
3. Chemical World
4. Good Song
5. Parklife
6. Advert
7. Popscene
8. Stereotypes
9. Trimm Trabb
10. Bad Head
11. Strange News From Another Star
12. Battery In Your Leg

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1795 in Music
• Released on: 2009-06-15
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

CD Description
Britpop legends Blur are to reunite this summer, marking their 20th anniversary by playing their first shows with Graham Coxon since 2000. The first eagerly-awaited Hyde Park date sold out within minutes and, due to the massive demand, more dates and festival appearances have steadily been added.

To celebrate the reunion, Midlife: A Beginners Guide To Blur is released--a unique collection of the best songs from the band’s career to date. Standing separate from Blur’s previous Best Of, Midlife represents a comprehensive collection of their biggest hits and favourite album tracks. The tracklist offers a deeper look into the group’s entire musical output, across 2 CDs.

Midlife includes album tracks Sing (Leisure), Strange News From Another Star (Blur), Badhead and This Is A Low (Parklife), which sit alongside hit singles Girls & Boys (Parklife), Parklife (Parklife), The Universal (The Great Escape), and Beetlebum (Blur). The collection will also include Popscene--originally released in 1992 as a non-album single and unavailable since.

Customer Reviews

A much more "deeper" collection of classic blur tracks
At last! EMI have decided to release a much more comprehensive blur collection. moulded in the same way as the 1999 beastie boys anthology this two disc collection looks deeper into blurs rich back catalogue. a few of the singles have been missed off only to make space for lesser known gems, "to the end","sunday sunday" and "end of a century" are not here. but in their place are excellent tracks like "bugman", "he thought of cars" and "death of a party".

also blurs early years are looked at. this is the only place you`ll be able to get the hard to get 1992 single "popscene". good choices were made by including "badhead","battery in your leg" and "bluejeans". Modern life is Rubbish was almost totally ignored with the 2000 Best of.

There are no b-sides here which is a slight shame but there are enough from 1995 onwards to make an excellent second b-side album to complement the '94 japanese Special collectors Edition" album, maybe EMI are listening.

There isn`t too much from the Leisure era but i guess room has to be made for later releases. You`ll only be missing "Theres no other way" really. its also a shame there isn`t say two new tracks to promote it better. also its a bit light on "the great escape" era too. "country house" was a big single at the time but it wasn`t a good single so it worth missing. i would have included "best days" or "yuko and Hiro".

So overall its a solid collection for someone who hasn`t got all the albums. All of blurs LP`s are looked at properly this time round so you couldn`t have asked for much more.

You can't please everyone
You certainly cannot argue with the quality of this compilation. These are some of the greatest songs of the nineties and Blur must surely now be remembered as the most consistent British act of that decade (note that Oasis' "best of" relied almost entirely on songs released in their first two years on Creation). It is also great to see some of my favourite album tracks and less known singles get their place in the limelight - This is a Low, Badhead, Trimm Trabb, Blue Jean, Chemical World and (finally making an appearance on an album) Popscene.

However there are some unbelievable ommissions - End of a Century, Tracy Jacks, and To The End were always far more indicative of the enduring nature of the Parklife album than the two big hits. Young and Lovely (the b side of Chemical World) really should have been a single in its own right.

And of course - On Your Own - just the other day I was thinking what a great set opener this would be for the forthcoming reunion dates - but clearly the band think otherwise.

But it is testiment to their greatness that even though these songs have been ommitted this is still one of the best "best ofs" ever!

Great but get all the albums!
Great compilation of blur's best but if you really are new to these guys I'd strongly suggest starting on their first album, Leisure, and climb up the musical tree all the way to Think Tank. That way you'll really appreciate how the boys evolved over the years and you won't miss out on killer tracks like Oily Water, Jets, the list goes on and on. The same is true for any seminal band.

This 2nd 'best of' is great for a quick fix however and perfect for flinging in the car stereo for summer cruising.

Can't wait to see them next month!