Product Description

'Parklife' is Blur's third studio album, and is the follow up to the critically-acclaimed 'Modern Life Is Rubbish'. With its references to British culture in the 20th century and its amalgamation of musical styles from the 60's, 70's and 80's, the album is a musical melting pot of all that is good about English guitar pop. Includes the singles 'Parklife', 'Girls And Boys' and 'End Of A Century'.

Track Listing

1. Girls And Boys
2. Tracy Jacks
3. End Of A Century
4. Parklife
5. Bank Holiday
6. Debt Collector
7. Far Out
8. To The End
9. London Loves
10. Trouble In The Message Centre
11. Clover Over Dover
12. Magic America
13. Jubilee
14. This Is A Low

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #787 in Music
• Released on: 1994-04-25
• Number of discs: 1

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

Customer Reviews

When the planets aligned to create the greatest British Album
The arse end of decades of conservative rule which seemed to last longer than the eastern block, economic stability, high employment and the false dawn of new labour conspired to create a time when Britain could celebrate itself. This album covers the lows and highs of this septic isle feeling like a lock in with Martin Amis, Martin Parr, Auden and Ray Davis. Musically brillant subversive singalongs with razor sharp lyrics this is a masterpiece that had the fortune to arrive such a pivitol moment.

THEY INVENTED BRITPOP WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM PHIL DANIELS
After the commercial failure of Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish, the Colchester foursome were quite literally on their 'last legs'. Their record company were close to cutting the band loose and the failure of the albums two big singles 'Into Tommorow' & 'Chemical World' had seriously dented Damon Albarn's confidence.
It was time for a re-invention of the Blur sound. Albarn and Coxon turned the band overnight into a Bowie/Kinks/Madness hybrid and hit gold. The resulting Parklife was a revelation and, alongside Oasis's What's The Story Morning Glory, literally invented Brit Pop. Lyrically and sonically this is still the finest long player Blur ever released and is without doubt one of THE records of the 90's.
'Girls & Boys' was a massive hit and cleverly mixed electronic beats with a knowing Bowiesque delivery, 'Parklife' was The Kinks on speed with a liitle help from Phil Daniels and 'To The End' a gorgeous understated ballad. Even the relatively minor hit 'End Of The Century' still sounds great with it's near poetic lyrics and winning 'Mockney' vocal.
Parklife scored big though because of it's consistency and, with songs as strong as 'Tracey Jacks', 'London Loves','This Is A Low' and the lovely 'Badhead', the album tracks were in every sense the equal of the singles. They even pulled a great punk song out of the bag with the manic thrash of 'Bank Holiday'.
With the band currently on hiatus there has never been a better time to revisted Parklife and to remember exactly what Albarn did before he became a rennasaince man, part of a cartoon band and a highbrow musical maverick. Let's hope he gets back to his day job soon.
Parklife hasn't dated in the slightest. If you don't already own it, shame on you ! Great iconic cover artwork too !

cw

The real Little Britain!
During a time when Oasis and Blur where rival's, it would be hard to say 'who was your band'. For me, Blur have always stood out among other Brit-pop and Indie groups for something quite unique. They're very clever guys!
Parklife may have well paved the path for the album 'The Great Escape' in that they both focus on the stereotypes of modern day England. Parklife captures this in an fun and energetic way, starting the album with the song everybody's heard, Girls and Boys! I remember it more from the psycadelic video (in typical early 90's fashion) but the lyrics ground under-age sex. The lead song of course, Parklife, is one of the highlights of the album. The lyrics are so simple, you'll wonder how it could become so catchy. Phil Collin's does a brilliantly funny job taking the lead vocal (now Kevin Wicks in Eastenders!) for this song, and add's the funny slant by his pronounciation of the words, and of course, another great video!
London Loves is one of the more mature songs of the album, which is nicely placed in the second half of the album, along with a couple of other fillers. One thing you wil notice, like The Great Escape, is that Blur liked to include short snappy tracks to link songs - Bank Holiday is an axample at just 1 minute 42 seconds, and of course, the rather fun Debt Collector, with its trumpet sound that you can just imagine a short, tubby man collecting money! And then of course, the final track Lot 105, is a jolly little number.
While this may not show the signs of your average mature brit-pop band, it demonstrates how fun it is when we look at our daily lives. Though I feel The Great Escape sounds a little fresher with more stand out tracks, this is deffinately the funnest outing from Blur. And if your fed up with Noel Gallagher's random lyrics (though some of his stuff is good) then this is for you.