Blur and Modern Life is Rubbish are the two I find myself returning to the most. I like 13 more now than I did almost 20 years ago.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Friday, 12 October 2018 06:27 (five years ago) link
I liked it better then, I think - it was my #17 album of the year. I imagine it would struggle to make the top 40 now, although the thought of having to listen to tons of 1999 music to find out is depressing. Maybe next year, after the inevitable Pitchfork article about how it was a pivotal year in popular music, uncoincidentally written by someone born in 1982.
― dorsalstop, Friday, 12 October 2018 16:19 (five years ago) link
Almost every album sparked the same contradictory emotions, you admired them, then you wanted to strangle them. It has to be Modern Life for Blue Jeans, don't you think? Out of Time is also damn near perfect.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Friday, 12 October 2018 20:52 (five years ago) link
Some bands I like to name check,And one of them is BLUR,Classic songs with a long historySouthern boys just like you and me.Be-El-You-AreFlashback to 1991,Leisure was their first LPLater on came Modern LifeMallard art, and titles to match: Chemical World, Starshaped, For Tomorrow, Blue Jeans,Kazoo kazoo you are mine, Oily Water was my least favourite song,Oily Water was my least favourite song.
― dorsalstop, Friday, 12 October 2018 23:16 (five years ago) link
Taken from the Blur tracks poll I did in 2011 - not votes for albums, but aggregating the votes for tracks to the albums they came from:
1. Parklife (2,786)2. Modern Life Is Rubbish (1,808)3. Non-album tracks (1,535)4. Blur (1,491)5. Great Escape (1,341)6. Thinktank (1,221)7. Thirteen (1,174)8. Leisure (738)
― the salacious inaudible (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Friday, 12 October 2018 23:39 (five years ago) link
If you swap #1 and #7 the results of the poll may be just about right. As an album Modern Life Is Rubbish is the most cohesive though.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Saturday, 13 October 2018 17:40 (five years ago) link
Of course I refer to the aggregated tracks results.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Saturday, 13 October 2018 17:42 (five years ago) link
Parklife was always a stronger end-to-end listen compared to Modern Life is Rubbish, which I always felt outstayed its welcome by a few tracks (it seems to fall off a little after 'Oily Water' for me) ... Nowadays, I'm far more likely to listen to Modern Life is Rubbish over Parklife, which feels like it's aged quite badly.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 14 October 2018 09:29 (five years ago) link
I mean, I don't want to say Parklife sounds dated, but it is strongly evocative of a very specific time which is at odds with now.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 14 October 2018 09:30 (five years ago) link
I always found Parklife a big drop-off after Modern Life Is Rubbish. Girls & Boys is such a crap song, I found it ridiculous the first time I heard it just when it had come out and the whole album was such a mixed bag and not really holding together.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Sunday, 14 October 2018 11:47 (five years ago) link
This is crazy talk afaic - "Girls & Boys" is one of their standout tracks, and Parklife is pretty much their most cohesive album. I do agree with Turrican that it is too much of its time for it to resonate with current tastes, and I doubt I'll have the desire to listen to it again some time soon. (I do in fact think it also sounds "dated", but I've never understood why that's such a pejorative. Revolver sounds dated, Thriller and Bandwagonesque sound dated, "In da Club" sounds dated. So what?)
― dorsalstop, Sunday, 14 October 2018 12:56 (five years ago) link
I'm listening to Think Tank for the first time in years. It could definitely do with editing and there are tracks here that do absolutely nothing ('Jets'?) but also it hold up a lot better than I expected
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 14 November 2022 17:09 (one year ago) link
I'd say Out Of Time is up there with the best of their stuff. Actually, I probably did say that (in that poll more than a decade ago).
― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Monday, 14 November 2022 18:52 (one year ago) link