Your mission, Hoffmanites, is to create the ultimate 90 minute Blur CD. Something that sums up the best of Blur for anyone wanting to get to know the band - the important hits, the representative deep cuts, the breadth and depth of the band. I've done mine, and it includes the usual suspects from their early and peak years, but very little from their later years. But I'm happy that way, as I don't think their later work is representative, nor comparable with the impact and quality of their early and peak years. I suspect they were looking for more credibility, and decided that American alt-rock, especially Pavement, was the way to go. But in doing that they left behind their strengths as a band able to write brilliant pop-rock music with a keen awareness of Eighties and Nineties UK indie music combined with a considerable working knowledge of Sixties UK pop-rock: The Kinks, The Beatles, Syd Barrett. Here's my list, which fits a 90 minute CD perfectly "She's So High" "There's No Other Way" "Popscene" "For Tomorrow" "Advert" "Girls & Boys" "Tracy Jacks" "End of a Century" "Parklife" "To the End" "Stereotypes" "Country House" "Charmless Man" "The Universal" "Mr. Robinson's Quango" "Beetlebum" "Song 2" "Tender" "Coffee & TV"
I've been making 90 minute CDs for years. Love doing it. If you try too pack to much on you may have a problem, but all decent burning software will warn you of that, and you have to wilfully disregard the warnings in order to get a problematic CD. Other playing problems are likely to do with dirt or scratches. Microfibre clothes are great at cleaning CDS, and toothpaste is ideal for smoothing out scratches.
Good list. I have been on a bit of a Blur kick after randomly picking up the compilation Midlife from a stack of CD's at home a week or so ago and listening to it in the car. I need to give this some thought. Off the top of my head I would have to differ with you on the omission of "This is a Low."
I'd see This Is A Low as their Stairway To Heaven, Child In Time or Freebird - ultimate statement, anthem, eternal.
I've never even heard of 90 minute CDs, can you buy them? Or are you just overburning normal CD-Rs somehow? And "This Is A Low" is Blur's best song. No excuse for missing it out. Generally I don't see many deep cuts on your list, it looks more like a greatest hits. You need more of the weirder stuff like "Oily Water" or "Miss America" or "Country Sad Ballad Man" or "Essex Dogs". Also, nothing from the brilliant The Magic Whip? I realise you didn't include much later stuff as you don't think it's representative or comparable, but missing out an entire era of their output really is contradicting your original intention to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the band.
I understand. "This Is A Low" features on many "Best of Blur" lists (in the top 20 in seven out of the 14 lists I consulted), so the omission does look odd. My thinking is that Albarn is trying to combine the lyrical interests of Morrisey (The Smiths) and Ray Davies (The Kinks) (two of his main influences) to create a melancholic song using iconic British imagery - the weather and the shipping forecast. For me, the lyrics are too stretched around that concept, and lack the humour, or the edge, or the knowing cleverness that marks out his better lyrics. It's a little, well, forced. If you consider two of the influences behind that song "Waterloo Sunset" (linked) and "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (linked), which are clear bases for the song's construction and theme (musically and lyrically), the song's weaknesses become more apparent. Well, at least to me. There is, incidentally, a magic moment, when Albarn and Davies sing "Waterloo Sunset" together in The White Room, finishing with an impromptu couple of chorus of "Parklife". DAMON ALBARN & RAY DAVIES "Waterloo Sunset" & "Parklife" (White Room 1995) HQ - YouTube
I do believe that a lot of people would agree with you. I like it, and it was on my short list, but felt the lyrics were just a little too contrived and flat compared to the other's on my list, and the music is attractive, but a little too simplistically anthemic compared to the crafted brilliance the band were capable of. I like the guitar trills, and the lush sweep, reminiscent of the shoegazing scene they tried to emulate early in their career, though never quite making it - that really wasn't their thing: informed and knowing well crafted pop songs was their strength. Compare, say, Ride's "Leave Them All Behind" or MBV's "Only Shallow" for that lush sonic guitar sound which Coxon and band would strive for, but never quite achieve. I don't find the song to be representative of Blur, though it is recognisably Blur. I do agree, though, that it does sound like those songs you mention. All of which I like, though don't highly admire, even though I regard Led Zeppelin as one of the most significant bands of the 20th century. The song structure they used for "Stairway", they had previously used on their first album for their cover of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", and formed the basis for Plant's theories of light and dark, that was taken up so notably by Nirvana as loud and quiet. I find that many people who don't like or "get" Zeppelin will list "Stairway" as a track they like. For me, as with "This Is A Low", it is recognisably Zeppelin, without being properly representative. I don't think "Stairway" is Zep's best song - it's not even the best song on the album (that has to be the rousing woosh of "Rock and Roll"), but it is certainly well known and well liked.
Fair enough and of course there is no "right answer" here. Actually I think the Battle Of Evermore is the best thing on IV, but I digress. I'm not a fan of anthems per se but I think there are enough little touches that make TIAL a cut above - notably the deft guitar and the wistful lyrics that mean it's not euphoric. I always thought that the Shipping Forecast was a unique angle and made it their most British statement of all. Standing in Mile End Stadium at the end of a day being rained on it was the perfect closer. Vive la difference. Ride's Leave Them All Behind is stupendous but that deserves another thread...
For me She's so high There's no other way For tomorrow Star shaped Girls and boys Tracy Jack's End of the century Park life This is a low Country house Charmless man The universal Beetlebum Song 2 On your own Tender Coffee and tv No sure if it fits on one cd, not in a position to check, but it would be something like that
Brilliant song! And that they could go from the woosh of "Rock and Roll" to the ethereal beauty of "Evermore" is one of the strengths of the band. It boggled me when I was a teen fan of the band (saw them at Wembley in '71) that critics didn't give them respect at the time (things, of course, are different now, but at the time Zeppelin were constantly dismissed as some kind of third rate, simplistic wannabe Yardbirds).
It does, with 7 minutes to spare so you could add one or two songs. Perhaps "To The End"? Good selection.
Yea, that's a good addition. The band's still reasonably new to me, from an album perspective. I really liked what I heard from them so I grabbed the album box set, It's really good. It's just getting time to engage it properly
They were a solid pop-rock band - key to the Nineties Britpop scene. Regarded more as a singles band, though Parklife was highly respected (and hugely promoted). They accepted they were pop-rock, but wanted to be taken more seriously, especially the guitarist, Coxon, so took some ideas from American alt-rock, especially Beck and Pavement, which made them more accessible to American audiences who tend to like their later albums from Blur (1997) onwards. They came out of the early Nineties British indie scene, particularly the baggy sound of Madchester and the shoegaze sound of the south of England; they were not as good as their peers, but Albarn certainly had a knack of writing a catchy song with knowing lyrics, influenced mainly by Ray Davies, Morrissey, and Syd Barrett. They saw their main rivals as Suede (rather than Oasis) - and there was something a bit personal about that as Albarn's girlfriend used to be the girlfriend of Suede's Brett Anderson. Blur were not as interesting nor as critically acclaimed as Suede, but were more successful commercially. However, it was the critical status more than the commercial success that the band wanted.... My favourite album is The Great Escape - it tends to get forgotten as it's the album between the popular Britpop album Parklife and the Pavement influenced lo-fi Blur which contains two of their best songs, "Beetlebum" and "Song 2". The Great Escape is loaded with great songs which somehow get ignored or forgotten. It's comparable to The Kink's Face To Face (1966) - another great album chock-a-block full of well crafted and clever songs that somehow gets overlooked. Ray Davies is a splendid song-writer; much better than Paul McCartney. Compare The Kink's "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home" from Face To Face with "She's Leaving Home" from Sgt Peppers a year later. Davies' song is darker and more interesting with interesting societal observations and comments.
Cheers. I much prefer Blur to Oasis, and I didn't hear that much, but Suede never really grabbed me. I always used to say that if Oasis were the modern Beatles.... then Blur were the modern Kinks. Much more quirky and interesting to me.
I agree. With Suede, it's the first three singles they released that rocked my world. Never before and I doubt ever again will a band put out such an outstandingly exciting series of debut singles in which the even the b-sides were brilliant. They struggled with the albums, and - of course - died a creative death when Bernard Butler left, but those few month in '92-'93 they were top of the world. This for a debut single is ****ing awesome: Suede - The Drowners - YouTube And then followed by Suede - Metal Mickey (Official Video) - YouTube And topped off with Suede - Animal Nitrate (Official Video) - YouTube Breath-taking. A great time to be alive.
Hands down, Think Tank is their best. Can't believe the OP hasn't included a single track from it. Three of the Great Escape singles are terrible.
OK. I'm a big Blur fan and they were my favourite band throughout the 90s, right from the start. I'll do this like a 90 minute tape, which is far more 90s! Side One Popscene Slow Down Bad Day High Cool Hanging Over For Tomorrow Advert Blue Jeans Starshaped Girls and Boys End of a Century This Is A Low Side Two Jubilee The Universal He Thought of Cars Yuko and Hiro On Your Own M.O.R Country Sad Ballad Man Coffee and TV No Distance Left To Run Out of Time Pyongyang
Of course it is! Blur without Graham Coxon? No thanks! Then there's Crazy Beat... Still an album that when I play it, which is rare, is better than I remember.
Agree on The Great Escape 45s. They really misrepresent the album. There's some other crap ones on it too, but at least half of the album, the least by then awfully contrived Britpop sounding stuff, is superb. I was really disappointed in a lot of it at the time.
I'll take a shot at this! No particular order:: Ghost Ship Trimm Trabb Tender Strange News From Another Star Caravan Out of Time This Is A Low Badhead Beetlebum The Universal He Thought of Cars There Are Too Many Of Us Thought I Was a Spaceman For Tomorrow Parklife
I didn't include a lot of big hits in my list because I found a lot of them got annoying quickly and don't represent Blur at their most interesting or creative. I really don't want to want to hear Parklife or Country House ever again and could live without Song 2 or Stereotypes. Seeing Song 2 live before the album was released was exciting though. It's sounded amazing!
