I get up when I want except on Wednesdays when I get rudely awakened by the dustmen: Blur - Parklife poll

badhead

the debt collector

usually my vote would go with "Girls & Boys" but i feel that song will get plenty of love in this poll. thinking about going mellow with my pick: "End of a Century," "To the End" or the lovely "This Is a Low."

Oh crap, this is the hardest poll ever. Soooo many excellent songs. Going with Magic America for the wonderfully incisive lyrics about shallow dreams, the top ch00n and the great production, but sod it, almost anything here would do.

5. (Bonehead's) Bank Holiday

Thou shalt check thy song titles after copyage from Wikipedia

lol

lol, i thought that song didn't look right but let it go.

xpost

Tracy Jacks

This Is A Low.

End of the century, although this is a low is pretty good. This maybe their most successful album commercially but in no way is this blurs best album creatively.

Snakes on a Plane

Ladies and Germs, track five is called "Bank Holiday" really.

Unfortunately, the version of To The End I like best (the one with Francoise Hardy doing the Laetitia bits) is a B-side, not on the album, so I'm going to have to vote for This Is A Low, purely based on memory and how every time you think the song can't get any more barren and windswept, Graham comes in with yet another each time more blistering one-note drone guitar solo.

Actually, I'd be surprised if This Is A Low doesn't win. Shipping Forecast nostalgia and all that.

One of the all-time best closing tracks. (Not counting the "Her Majesty" style of Lot 105 obv)

I fucking hate the cheesemaking Country Life columnwriting Tory voting Cotswold landlord SCUM that Alexander the James has turned into, but good god, his basslines are just heartrending.

And that was a high place to fall from for you, right?

haha don't think he "turned into" it but like all great fascist artists it's better if you can forget he's a real person

'fascist'

'artist'

he had a nice fringe

This Is A Low.

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Anyone at all surprised that EZ and I are in agreement? No? Okay.

xp

nah the guy is a proper musician, it's just he's also a pig

http://www.superiorpics.com/wenn_album/Alex_James_-_upset/Alex_James_001_080708.jpg

Steven Alexander "Alex" James (Also known as A. James) (born Steven Alexander James on 21 November 1968) is an English musician, songwriter, journalist and cheesemaker. He is best known as the bass player and occasional vocalist of band Blur. He has also played with temporary bands, Fat Les, Me Me Me, WigWam and Bad Lieutenant.

lol he's 20 days older than me

Bad Lieutenant is a temporary band? THANK GOODNESS!

'This Is A Low' will win, so I don't feel so bad voting 'Clover Over Dover' instead. Could vote for half of these though.

I voted for "End of a Century" btw on account of my mind having gotten dirty

You're getting closer to thirty?

it's receding bleakly into the distance

but the lyric doesn't say that yr mind undirties itself once you get thru the other side

I am pretty sure I have already arranged a poll for this, named "This is a Poll" or something. Anyway, "This Is a Low" it is.

i hate blur

when they die, every member of blur will end up in tartarus having their entrails out by raptors each day before they grow anew, infinitely

inshallah

torn out

and eaten by said raptors

their bleakness/nihilism is compelling and accurate. everything else is just indie bellendery

Possibly one of the most important, most landmark albums for me. The first CD I ever bought and the first "proper album" I ever bought as well (as opposed to chart pop and dance compilations etc). It's an extraordinary album, brimming with diversity and released just before Blur tipped into superstardom, so it retains its humility. Although I love pretty much every song on this, I'd be kidding if I said This Is A Low didn't eclipse them all.

I voted for "End of a Century" btw on account of my mind having gotten dirty

― until you can see right thru (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 10:20 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You're getting closer to thirty?

― Mark G, Wednesday, 11 May 2011 10:21 (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

Hearing this lyric when I was 15 - 30 seemed like so far away. Now I are one.

Why "(Bonehead's) Bank Holiday"? Wasn't this an Oasis song?

I dunno, check the edit history

(It's the same on the wikipedia page, it should be "Bank Holiday")

Bad Lieutenant is a temporary band? THANK GOODNESS!

― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, May 11, 2011 9:13 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark

real lols

Also is 'Parklife' going to suffer because everybody's carefully voting for something else?

no i think it'll suffer because it's shite?

Unfortunately, the version of To The End I like best (the one with Francoise Hardy doing the Laetitia bits) is a B-side, not on the album, so I'm going to have to vote for This Is A Low, purely based on memory and how every time you think the song can't get any more barren and windswept, Graham comes in with yet another each time more blistering one-note drone guitar solo.

I didn't know this existed, what a fantastic version - thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJmVTJYFbHE

"Girls & Boys" - I'm amazed I still like this song so much. I thought of it as a fun novelty song back then but there's more to it than that.
Having said that, I'm voting for "This Is A Low".

^^^^^^^x-post to willem's YouTube yes yes yes, that's the one I meant. I mean, Laetitia is lovely and icy-cool perfection, but Francoise just brings a whole nother level of quite so utterly *utter* to the song.

Also, less Damon which is always a plus.

Also is 'Parklife' going to suffer because everybody's carefully voting for something else?

More like because it isn't really much of a song, and many of the lesser known tunes are much better.

"Ah pit oan Blur's Parklife cause ah quite like the title track where ye hear the boy that wis in Quadrophenia spraffin away"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m5uJZx7xZA

wait, zis programme is called Zing if You Can and he done a "song" that's essentially just talking?

i cant believe i ever liked this band

Blur are musically very talented. They were overhyped in the 90's and albums like parklife just don't do them justice. Albums like 13 are much better. It's like judging radiohead purely on The Bends rather than their later more mature sounding music.

I think, overall, Parklife is their best and most consistently decent album. After its success they became a bit cloying, depsite some very good follow up albums.

I actually dislike Parklife the most. What a rich tapestry of taste this forum provides!!!

End of a Century was my favourite at the time but This Is a Low is the best thing they ever did. People tend to remember Parklife, Girls & Boys and the whole faux-cockney imagery of the project but this is where they hit on something sad and true about Britain and Damon's argument that it's a quasi-political record really makes sense. It ends the record (Lot 105 aside) somewhere miles away from where it started, gathering up all the melancholy threads that run through End of a Century, Badhead, Message Centre and tying them together. Also, I love the 60s-psych eerie whimsy of the lyrics and Coxon's guitar solo is a thing of wonder.

when they die, every member of blur will end up in tartarus having their entrails out by raptors each day before they grow anew, infinitely

see, I actually really like blur, and I still think they kind of deserve this.

seems like an exception could be made for dave rowntree, tho. comparatively, at least, he seems like an innocent.

DL OTM - There's a kind of running theme on Parklife of wanting to get out of monotonous kitchen-sink lifestyles to escape to... the sea?

I even like the cute bits - Alex's astral musings on 'Far Out', the barrel-organ waltz of 'The Debt Collector', 'Lot 105''s cheekie light relief after 'This Is A Low''s heaviness. It's everything I ever wanted from an album really, and I was spoilt by its consistency when I bought it on my 14th birthday. I think I assumed at the time that all albums had this kind of scope and this many great songs, with lyrics (and chords!) printed on the inner sleeve...

I never liked Trouble In The Message Centre, but grew to love it years later. The only song I never really got into was London Loves, but it's not awful.

seems like an exception could be made for dave rowntree, tho. comparatively, at least, he seems like an innocent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkNvk2MgiCc

End Of A Century, by far.

^^^^

My Favourite Blur album is "Blur", but hey.

well, I like them all for various reasons (although I can lose about 75% of Think Tank) but PL seems like the only one that has no filler. Even the interludes and less-good tracks, if taken out, wouldn't improve the album.

Pop Scene single through The Great Escape is a pretty stellar run, all told,even w/ the throwaway punk tracks & the bloat on TGE. I like a lot of that which came after, but it was just.. different.

Leisure (1991) - played once
Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) - played loads
Parklife (1994) - played loads
The Great Escape (1995) - played twice
Blur (1997) - played loads
13 (1999) - played a few times
Think Tank (2003) - played twice(?)

you only played Leisure once? It's worth having, if only for "Sing", that albums' "This Is A Low".

True, but by then I had the Trainspotting soundtrack.

(I did say, I bought it at a jumble sale. Oh, that was on a different thread. Still...)

Apart from Think Tank, which I think has at least three brilliant songs, my experience is much the same as Mark G's. Every now and then I go back to The Great Escape and 13 but they're both so patchy and alienating in their different ways.

The ballads on her would be tolerable if it weren't for the fact that Albarn just cannot pull of sincerity. He can't do it. He constantly sounds like he's taking the piss. But the best plasticky Blur pop songs are on this album, so voting for Girls & Boys.

Birthday, Wear Me Down and There's No Other Way also worth a listen. I also don't hate Bang.

<3 <3 nakhchivan for that post about tartarus, entrails &c

I am finding this really interesting as I think I see blur as a totally different band to the rest of you. I am a fan and have seen them three times. I have no nostalgia for what I think is their commercial music. For me it goes:

Leisure (1991) - played lots
Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) - played lots and loved
Parklife (1994) - played a few times, not loved
The Great Escape (1995) - played once and hated
Blur (1997) - played loads and loved
13 (1999) - played loads and loads and really loved
Think Tank (2003) - loads and loads and loved

I think the middle bit of their career was guff. Am I mad?

tamtam otm

I've seen them twice, Once at the Old Trout Windsor, in advance of their first headlining Glasto, Parklife era.

Last time at Reading Fest, 1999.

13 feels disjointed and I just can't get over Tender - 6 minutes of navelgazing insincerity is not a good way to kick off an album. And then Bugman makes its noisy entrance, ruining any sort of gravitas one might still feel from Tender. It's got its good moments though - The run from Battle through Caramel is especially nice. I also like Trimm Trabb. Oh man, you guys have got me wanting to listen to Blur for the first time since their (really brilliant and nostalgia inducing) performance at Glasto '08.

Great Escape is a drug album - that drug being Prozac. It's Albarn staring blankly out the window all day, feeling conflicted about his fame and imagining a silent environmental apocalypse raining down outside. While some people saw it as Parklife Mk2, it's a lot stronger in concept but lacks the carefree bounciness of the previous two records and can be a deeply troubling listen in places. It's Coxon's songwriting contribution (I think he wrote it?) Best Days that's the most affecting though.

I saw them 5 or 6 times I believe. And I'm in Canada so that was a hell of an acheivement! MILR & Blur do it for me; I like their fuzziness. But the ballads in the middle albums were fantastic, the poppy songs perfect for the Britpop time and place.. but 13 never did much for me. Damon should've saved that stuff for The Good, Bad, Queen.

Remember Me Me Me's Hanging Around? That was a good Britpop tune! And Graham.. just NO at your stupid solo albums. Though I liked the 'Graham'est albums of Blur's career, he really needs Alex or Damon to pop him up slightly.

Voted This is a Low.

Yeah I never really got into Coxon's solo stuff (except the first album, which is cute and came out in the same era as 13).

"Hanging Around" is the quintessential Britpop song I reckon.

"...she said talk about thungs"

I was the one who got the blur_girl @ hotmail email address. But sadly and stupidly I lost the password! So now my gmail references obscure bside Theme from an Imaginary Film. Which reminds me. The bsides on the Great Escape singles were fantastic! Stereotypes especially - Ludwig! Tame!

I saw them at Wembley 1997, The b-sides gig in camden 1999 and at Glastonbury 2009.

B-sides gig being the most enjoyable for me.

I remember every 3 months or so that I love them and listen to their albums.

xp to dog - yes, I too went for the Sky is too High and I think the next as well - but then I had to admit defeat ;)

"Girls & Boys"

I totally agree with Matt DC. At the time when I was around 18, I really liked modern life and parklife. but then I realized they were very annoying and fake. Albarn, especially (in his delivery/songwriting, not the public personae which is something else). the only song I would save is "girls&boys" indeed which is so superficial in criticizing superficiality that it's great !
also, I always thought the real strength in the band was the bass. many great lines that made the tracks (on the other hand I never liked the guitars much).

The bsides on the Great Escape singles were fantastic! Stereotypes especially - Ludwig! Tame!

The Horrors and A Song were also very good. Blur were a great b-sides band. I wish people would look through Albarn's singing and public persona and appreciate them for their eclecticism and songwriting.

'Mr Briggs' 'People In Europe' and the wonderful 'Inertia' my fav B sides. As for this poll - This Is A Low, and if the poll wasn't confined to just this album and was instead their entire recorded output it would still be This Is A Low.

ahhh, Inertia! Reminds me of my own mellow b-side favourite.. Into Another.

http://www.ryan-mclaughlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/vonnegut2.jpg

hahaha I am b-side obsessed, clearly

Best Blur B-side
Best Blur B-side

Peach, When The Cows Come Home, Imaginary Film... Too many

Young & Lovely managed to win BOTH polls! Impressive.

funny that you started those polls within a year of each other.

I know, I am ridiculous :(

Still, the latter one actually got a quantity of votes.

This is one of the albums I loved at that time that I still play a lot now. So many great songs on here but my favourite by far is Trouble in the Message Centre. That's probably the most underrated song in their back catalogue.

Badhead, This is a Low, To the End and Tracy Jacks are all amazing too. The title track is the only one I really skip these days.

I think the middle bit of their career was guff. Am I mad?

Yes. Or at least you don't appreciate genius pop music. The middle bit of their career (also including "Modern Life Is Rubbish" and the poppier tracks on "Blur") was the best part. The last two albums were really, really bad considering they were Blur albums.

speaking about Blur B-sides, i just counted and have 30 singles in my collection. the last one i bought was the 2CD set of "Music Is My Radar" which came out in 2000...i really liked Blur. don't really listen to them now, weird.

Xpost No, I really don't appreciate genius pop music. In that sense I am a savage. I like bad blur music :S

I have that singles boxset/zipbag, and the singles that came after.

Once in a while, I dig it out to play and have a b-side feast...

Once this Africa Hitech review is done and I can stop listening to footshangaanjukestepbasscore music for a bit, I'm gonna clear my ipod and have a 100% indulgent Blur b-sides week.

I saw Alex James being obnoxious on another reality tv show the other night. He'd allowed a homeless person to come and live in his castle for the cameras, as far as I could tell.

You sure that wasn't just Graham on a bad day?

Think This is a Low will walk this, so tempted to vote End of The Century or Clover.

Badhead.

I am pretty sure I have already arranged a poll for this, named "This is a Poll" or something. Anyway, "This Is a Low" it is.

― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Wednesday, May 11, 2011 2:24 AM (2 days ago)

can you provide a link? as i still can't find it...

I am pretty sure I intended the title, but it seems like the poll was never actually posted. About time then.

I now remember my "This Is a Poll" proposal was suggested not in a Blur poll, but in the poll of Cure's "Wild Mood Swings".

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

This is a low. One of the best.

Badhead strikes me as kinda Steely Dan-ish

Voted for G&B, though I do live This Is A Low and To The End too. This is a very good album.

I've been putting this off, but the poll is closing, so in a panic I'm voting "Badhead"

I'm not one of those clueless Yanks who never heard of Blur until they tried to sound like/spoof Nirvana. No, I first heard of Blur when "Girls & Boys" spent 15 weeks on the pop charts here. Like that other hit song they had in the US, this one is rather unrepresentative of their sound, but w/e - it boasts one of the all-time-greatest choruses, and is my fave Blur tune.

I would count "Girls & Boys" as a considerably more typical Blur song than "Song 2". Not their best, but it has the Duran Duran harmonies, and Duran Duran were actually quite English sounding too, like Blur.

I didn't know 'Girls & Boys' had been successful in the US! What did you make of the video?

thinking about going mellow with my pick: "End of a Century," "To the End" or the lovely "This Is a Low."

― Bee OK,

yeah, me too. going with 'this is a low'

By the way, I coincidentally started this thread a few days ago, please vote:

Blur tracks Poll

i may well

Regarding this album:
Girls & Boys - loved it at the time. I wasn't a Blur fan before this - I didn't dislike them (I'd liked There's No Other Way and had heard someone else's copy of Modern Life a few times, I just wasn't especially interested in them), but this led to me buying the Parklife album. I never want to hear it now, though - overexposure.
Tracy Jacks - good, just about avoiding too much of the faux-cockney thing
End of a Century - brilliant, really love the 'ooo-ooo-oohh, aaa-aaaa-aah' bit after the 'gives her a cuddle' bit
Parklife - again, loved this at the time, but never want to hear it again
Bank Holiday - they had a habit of putting one of these tracks on each album
Badhead - narrowly my favourite over End of a Century, for the the little organ twirls
The Debt Collector & Far Out - quirky, silly, but nice
To the End - this was the soundtrack for our first dance at our wedding, despite the totally inappropriate lyrics
London Loves - alright
Trouble in the Message Centre - pretty good
Clover Over Dover - another great one - would like to know what the background words are during the final verse
Magic America - I really like this, but for some reason keep thinking it's about Earl Barrett
Jubilee - alright
This Is a Low - this was probably my favourite back in 1994, but I'm a bit bored of it now
Lot 105 - they did this kind of nonsense a lot as well

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

75 votes and should have guess that "This Is a Low" would easily win.

there is not a single bad song on this album and FUIUD

don't what?

this poll's results are not surprising.

Not sure I'm overjoyed by Girls & Boys coming second. Probably just the popularity of the single, and it's not a bad song, just - yeah I just don't ever need to hear it again. The rest is about right, but I feel sorry for Jubilee and Lot 105, both of which are fine/silly respectively. I like the way Damon sings "Hou-rs of ru-bbish" in Jubilee.

Lovely record this, even the duds are great. I had it on tonight on good speakers, and it sounds beautiful - I can't think of many or any indie records put together as caringly as this.

Mark - the "d" in fuiud stands for "disagree"

yeah, twigged shortly after I posted...

i hate blur

when they die, every member of blur will end up in tartarus having their entrails out by raptors each day before they grow anew, infinitely

inshallah

― no xmas for jonchaies (nakhchivan), Wednesday, May 11, 2011 5:24 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

torn out

― no xmas for jonchaies (nakhchivan), Wednesday, May 11, 2011 5:25 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and eaten by said raptors

― no xmas for jonchaies (nakhchivan), Wednesday, May 11, 2011 5:25 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

nice posts

I actually dislike Parklife the most. What a rich tapestry of taste this forum provides!!!

― I am leader of the sheeple (captain rosie), Wednesday, May 11, 2011 7:46 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Listening to this album start-to-finish for the first time in a very long time, and I can't help but feel that this album hasn't aged very well for some reason.

Correct, it's their worst album (apart from Leisure and Think Tank)

Songs are a bit corny, the sentiment cloys. Album dramatically improves in second half. Trouble In The Message Centre obviously best track

I personally prefer Leisure sometimes, too

also, raptors

I was just thinking about how much I like the lyrics 'everyday got closer/he knew in his heart it was over' from 'Tracy Jacks', but I've just googled it and all the lyrics sites seem to have it as 'everyday he got closer' which is not nearly as good imho.

Regarding whether Parklife has aged well, obv this a matter of opinion, but I think Blur sound less tied to this particular era than any other big britpop bands? I feel like most of Parklife could have been recorded in the early to mid 80s, whereas Oasis and Suede, for example, have a very 90s sound, even if they were doing retro stuff.

Still think this is their best album. I never need to hear the title track again in my life but apart from that I enjoy the rest of it. To me the albums that came after this contain moments that sound way more dated to me especially Think Tank and 13. B.L.U.R.E.M.I, Trailer Park, Crazy Beat etc haven't aged well in the slightest.

Also completely agree that Trouble is the best track. I'm sure I read the band don't rate it much and described as sounding tinny.