a thread for Parklife

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This was my first CD ever bought, and also my first proper "rock" album (as opposed to dance/pop compilation) that I ever owned. I am listening to it again, twelve years later. And it's very good. Obviously a lot of the music just goes straight over my head through familiarity, but it's a really good diverse bit of music.

Do you like it? Favourite bits? Memories?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:00 (nineteen years ago)

I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD
I KNEW THIS WOULD BE A DOG LATIN THREAD

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:02 (nineteen years ago)

best song is 'trouble in the message centre'

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

You cannae beat a bit of Badhead.

― Venga (Venga), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

This Is A Low is the best song Blur ever recorded

― nate woolls (napawo), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

To The End also brings back some very niiiiiiice memories. I don't think I'd be too keen on that song otherwise.

― Venga (Venga), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

the title track is one of the most abysmal things i've ever heard in my life. 'this is a low' is ok though.

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

best song is 'trouble in the message centre'

I always hated that song when I was younger but now I love it. It's aged a lot better than any of the other songs, I guess because of the recent postpunk revival.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

"This Is A Low" ain't far behind, though. Third, interestingly, is "The Debt Collector", a beautiful little instrumental nobody ever seems to praise.

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)

"This Is a Low" is the 2nd best song Blur ever recorded after "Yuko and Hiro" get your facts right please oh and "Girls and Boys" is great so DON'T TRY IT, SON.

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:11 (nineteen years ago)

That was very poor.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:12 (nineteen years ago)

I don't really like Girls & Boys - a much worse lead single than Country House (which is actually close-to-genius when you ignore the media clamour at the time). Tracy Jacks is good - I like the Kick Horns' coda at the end. End Of A Century sounds like a Hovis ad in a good way. Parklife? Well it's not amazing but it is an anthem in many ways. Bank Holiday is probably their best non-Song 2 Punk song. Badhead, yes it's genuinely melancholic but doesn't upset me as much as a lot of stuff on Great Escape. I always liked The Debt Collector - an example of "decent" filler. Alex's Far Out as well, is filler but does the job of feeling "spaced out" very well. To The End is a very good ballad, maybe their best? No, that's reserved for later. London Loves - maybe the weakest track on here. Clover Over Dover is nice and pastoral and I like the fake harpsichord and the interesting backing vocals. Magic America, well it's good but can't say much more than that.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

Magic America - imagine that coming out today... weird!

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

I like Coxon's description of Lot 105 as being like "Barbara Windsor kicking you up the arse" after all the dying swan grandeur of This Is A Low.

― Venga (Venga), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

Girls & Boys is great you nitwit. Country House is worse than the Peterloo massacre.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:16 (nineteen years ago)

Jubilee - "HOURS of RUBbish!" always has me cracking up.

This Is A Low is obviously Blur's best ever song and the crown of the album.

I always really love Lot 105 as well. I think as a 15 year old I stuck it on repeat for a whole day and left the house, much to the annoyance of my mum.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

Girls and Boys just grates on me. I don't like those bubbly synths at the beginning or the "girls who love boys who love..." chorus. Whereas the layered effects, the "blow me out..." hamronies on Country House do it for me every time.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

It's still a very good album. I'd say their best, probably. G&B is amazing.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:18 (nineteen years ago)

1 missisippi, 2 missisippi, 3 missisippi, 4...

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:19 (nineteen years ago)

Whenever I listen to Jubilee, I can't help thinking of that Rock Profiles episode where they make Alex out to be a total campster with all the limp-wristed posturing heheh.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

I have affection for all of that trilogy. Modern Life, Parklife and Great Escape - Parklife is probably the most consistent as an album but they all have sequences of awe.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

tracy jacks!!!

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

I sold it after a week.

Then I bought it back.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:23 (nineteen years ago)

I like Great Escape best of the 3, probly because it seems most despairing and nihilistic, also cause it has "Yuko and Hiro".

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:27 (nineteen years ago)

And "He Thought Of Cars" - that song really gets to me, for personal historical/geographical reasons.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:28 (nineteen years ago)

I think TGE peaks and troughs more than the other two of the trilogy. Yuko, Cars and Universal are all staggering, but then... "Charmless Man". Ouch.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:31 (nineteen years ago)

"Mr Robinson's Quango" double ouch.

But Fade Away, Top Man, Entertain Me (even Arnold Same for its narrator's sins)...all fab...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:33 (nineteen years ago)

xxpost

Yeah, that's a fantastic song too. The whole album is outside of the city, staring across empty fields. Parklife is half celebratory, cynical as it is. But yes, it prolly has fewer shitty songs than Great Escape

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

I don't really like Girls & Boys - a much worse lead single than Country House (which is actually close-to-genius

wtf????????? this is incomprehensible.

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:37 (nineteen years ago)

I don't want this to turn into a "guitars must die" thread, and I far prefer "Girls and Boys", but objectively "Country House" is probly more of a Pop song than G and B: overcooked Madness vs Lodger-era Bowie, innit?

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:40 (nineteen years ago)

when i was younger i listened to all of the blur britpop trilogy from end-to-end, but these days i wonder how i did it, the gaps in quality seem pretty glaring and there's a few tracks on each i can't stomach. think modern life is the worst of the three, probably give great escape the nod as my favourite, mainly for 'he thought of cars'.

eh, 'parklife' best in its more downbeat, melancholy moments, worst at its chirpiest, i'd say. i have much love for 'end of a century', 'badhead', 'this is a low', 'to the end' and 'clover over dover' (def not enough love for that song on this thread) - i find 'far out' to be a pleasant oddity too.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:44 (nineteen years ago)

We don't do "objectively" on ILM.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:58 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, that was an odd choice of word. "Historically", maybe.

― You've Had Your Chances (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:00 (nineteen years ago)

You see, "subjectively," Country House is a stinking chunk of overripe rhinoturd the binmen neglected to remove from Suggs' refuse whereas G&B is sexy and sleeky and synthetic and gliding Studio 54 SW6 movietone punctum.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:05 (nineteen years ago)

Like I said, I far prefer G&B. I was just poking at Lex's kneejerk pop-radar.

― You've Had Your Chances (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:07 (nineteen years ago)

A great, great, great album. The highlights being "End Of a Century", "Magic America" and "This Is a Low". But everything is great apart from the awful "Bank Holiday".

"The Great Escape" was even better though. ;)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:08 (nineteen years ago)

And to think that after the trilogy they only got better... :-)

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

OI, JAGGER, NO!!!

― You've Had Your Chances (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:21 (nineteen years ago)

Debatable until you get to Gorillaz.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

thing is now we can all see what would have happened if Blur had decided to keep remaking Parklife with those Kaiser Chiefs!

― pscott (elwisty), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

"Blur" was a good album, better than the Great Escape. 13 and Think Tank were where the rot really started setting in.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

Different from, rather than better than.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

otm

xpost

different and better

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:24 (nineteen years ago)

Until 'Think Tank' each album was better than the one that preceded it (with MLIR -> Parklife the most questionable improvement). What is beyond doubt is that during the 1990's they released 5 classic albums and one (Leisure) very passable one.

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

I like the later stuff, but Great Escape was the pinnacle. They weren't as good at being what they later became, and Coxon's indier-than-thou schtick got too influential. Both Gorillaz albums are better than any of the post-GE Blur rekkids.

― You've Had Your Chances (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:26 (nineteen years ago)

'TGE' fucking blows.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:27 (nineteen years ago)

london loves sounds JUST like owner of a lonely heart. I think I even started a thread about that. i appear to be the only person who hears this though

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:29 (nineteen years ago)

i think parklife is hands down their best achievement. particularly, since it captured them both at the top of their game and the top of the genre as a whole

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

Blur starts well but trails off something awful after halfway.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

You can't compare the two. Blur was Coxon's album, whereas Coxon is almost entirely absent from The Great Escape. It's like comparing the Edgar Broughton Band with Ray Stevens (multiple xpost).

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

Au contraire, the second half features 'Death Of A Party', 'Look Inside America', which are excellent, and ESSEX DOGS which is the BEST SONG BLUR EVER RECORDED. There, I've said it.

On 13 they got the Albarn-Coxon balance just right, with spectacular results.

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

There's nothing on 13 that's as good as either "Out Demons Out" or "The Streak."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

"Blur" were a good album, in spite of a couple of nadirs, but not as good as "The Great Escape". "13" has one good track. And nothing more.

Other than "Coffee & TV", Gorillaz has been better than Blur 1999-2003, which says more about the current state of Blur than about Gorillaz.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

i think i have the opposite opinion to dog latin re blur. i think the best things they've ever done are Turn It Up and Think Tank.

― pscott (elwisty), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

We saw them in a bar once, didn't we? That was nice. It is my only Blur memory of note.

We should have sat them down and made them listen to us saying all this.

I think I saw "Alex" at Reading Festival too. Outside the toilets, in his country gent outfit.

I think I like "Tracy Jacks" best.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

And "He Thought Of Cars" - that song really gets to me, for personal historical/geographical reasons.

Nice to see this song mentioned. It had a deep affect on me that nothing else on that album did, though it's hard to say exactly why. I listened to it again sometime in the last year, and still couldn't unravel the mystery.

I suppose I don't really like to pick favourite Blur albums, but Parklife is certainly the place I'd tell anyone to start who didn't know them.

― Dugga Dugga Dugga (Bimble...), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

That's true, which is another reason why I like TGE. I'm a sucker for "the album after the big one" albums: they almost invariably have lots of shades of burnt-out bleakness going on. I think I like hangovers better than being drunk.

― You've Had Your Chances (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 18:37 (nineteen years ago)

Hahaha

― Dugga Dugga Dugga (Bimble...), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 18:46 (nineteen years ago)

Hi, been away.

Favblur = "Blur"

Been Playin Parklife recently (main car only has cassette player, so been shopping in Oxfamtapes. Bit like buying stuff in the early seventies, pricewise), and it's wonderful indeed. Around that time, I had a doctrs appt the same day tickets for Blur at the Old Trout Windsor went on sale, so got 2 for the smallest gig they ever did, probably, the week before they did Glasto w/ Phil Daniels, etc.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

Am I the only one who thought / thinks Parklife wasn't / isn;t as good as Moder Life Is Rubbish?

fwiw I saw them the week after Mark when they did Glasto w/ Phil daniels etc.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

Now that I'd have to think about...

Mmm... It's very close.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:15 (nineteen years ago)

To be honest I wouldn't even say it was close.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:16 (nineteen years ago)

i would not call 13 spectacular but it's the only blur album which approaches good

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

Ah go on then. MLIR. Just cause I haven't heard it for a while, and it's got "Young and Lovely" on it (well, my one has)

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

The "ooh-ooh OOH-ooh"s in Tracy Jacks always remind me of a really specific time and feeling.

i would not call 13 spectacular but it's the only blur album which approaches good

You astound me, the Lex. (In that I honestly thought you wouldn't think much of any of them.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

'13' is by far the worst blur album (if we're to pretend 'leisure' doesn't exist, which i'm perfectly happy to do); blur don't really do textural pieces very well, it was pretty heavy-handed for the most part.

the self-titled one has some good moments, i'd probably have it roughly on a par with 'modern life is rubbish'.

'think tank' was a lot better than i thought it would be. losing graham was necessary - you felt they were cramming in too much on '13', 'tt' felt a lot more spacious, i like that 'on my way to the club' one quite a lot.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 20:07 (nineteen years ago)

But Leisure has Sing on it!!!!!!!!!!

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 20:37 (nineteen years ago)

It also has "Bang!" and "There's No Other Way" On It. Those alone make it better than "Parklife".

"Bang!" may have been their first Britpop song.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

Blur are great at texture, it's all they really excel at IMO.

geir, wtf?

i like 'sing' actually, but most of leisure is silly.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

I think there has never been anything I have considered "silly" in music, at least not in a negative way.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

Great album, though haven't heard since ages. Perhaps I will tomorrow, good idea. There are no bad songs on it, perhaps "To The End" is the only slightly weak track here.

― zeus (zeus), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 22:19 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

fucken impeccable release.

too many classics on the one studio release. i wonder how it all came together, but i'm so glad it did

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 1 February 2007 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

i often wonder exactly the same.

better songs on here - some faaaar better songs, but retrospectively i prefer Modern Life Is Rubbish's overall theme and vibe.

above BLOC PARTY on the cover of NME this week it actually says the phrase 'modern life is rubbish', clearly whoever put it there is cackhandedly missing the point of the original title but it feels nice to see it there all the same.

― pisces (piscesx), Thursday, 1 February 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

'modern life...' is my sentimental second favourite. 'chemical world' was actually my introduction to the band and stands as one of my favourite singles of theirs

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

when i think of blur, i think of fashionable scenesters arbitrarily choosing a set of disparate chords and forcibly mashing 'observational' lyrics around them

― richard wood johnson (rwj), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

idiot

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

listen to "modern life is rubbish" again.

― richard wood johnson (rwj), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

six months pass...

watching the documentary "Live Forever" reconfirms this notion.

― Richard Wood Johnson, Sunday, 12 August 2007 23:28 (eighteen years ago)

Bully.

― Dom Passantino, Sunday, 12 August 2007 23:53 (eighteen years ago)

That's true, which is another reason why I like TGE. I'm a sucker for "the album after the big one" albums: they almost invariably have lots of shades of burnt-out bleakness going on. I think I like hangovers better than being drunk.

This was a good post.

I listened to this for a while a few months ago, the guitars on "Clover Over Dover" are very intricate and I always liked those wistful "la, la la la la" sections on "Trouble in the Message Centre", it's kind of an unexpected shift from all that robot deadpan and OTT shredding, and then they smoosh the two together at the end.

Listening to "This is a Low" seems almost masochistic.

― That mong guy that's shit, Sunday, 12 August 2007 23:57 (eighteen years ago)

Apologies for the superfluous "la".

― That mong guy that's shit, Monday, 13 August 2007 00:00 (eighteen years ago)

Parklife = one of those albums that improves more or less as it goes on. Certainly the last 5 or 6 tracks (except for the disappointing London Loves) are quite brilliant. Not heard it in AGES, mind. It's the only Blur album I don't have to hand.

― Just got offed, Monday, 13 August 2007 00:05 (eighteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

what's wrong with 'london loves'? pure ear candy

― Charlie Howard, Friday, 31 August 2007 17:01 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.nme.com/news/blur/30965

Blur's 'Parklife' demos appear online.

― pisces, Friday, 7 September 2007 14:55 (eighteen years ago)

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