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Parklife |  | Artist: Blur
Label: Food
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £0.77
as of 25/11/2009 12:37 GMT details
You Save: £8.22 (91%)
New (49) Used (73) Collectible (3) from £0.77
Seller: dunabiv
Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 2629
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5.4 x 0.4
MPN: 29194
UPC: 724382919421
EAN: 0724382919421
ASIN: B000002TQB
Release Date: April 25, 1994
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Girls And Boys | | • | Tracy Jacks | | • | End Of A Century | | • | Parklife | | • | Bank Holiday | | • | Debt Collector | | • | Far Out | | • | To The End | | • | London Loves | | • | Trouble In The Message Centre | | • | Clover Over Dover | | • | Magic America | | • | Jubilee | | • | This Is A Low |
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| Editorial Reviews:
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 IParklife/I that truly provided the template for the entire movement. At a time when Oasis were aping the sounds of their pub-rock heroes on IDefinitely Maybe/I, 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. IParklife/I 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, IParklife/I 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. --IRobert Burrow/I
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
 Little Britain November 29, 2003
37 out of 37 found this review helpful
This album is the point in Blur's rambling musical career where it all came together. The band may well disagree with this, but this is the most cohesive album they produced. Rather than remembering Blur for two and a half minutes of screaming (Song 2) or for their tussles with Oasis (Country house, Charmless man), I'd suggest you take a look at this album. brIts simply a very very perceptive interpretation of a British way of life . 'Girls and Boys' takes you on a club 18-30, 'End of a Century' returns you to suburbia. 'Parklife' makes a slob of you, 'London Loves' deposits you in the rush hour and 'Magic America' gives you the dreams of escaping to bright lights. Finally, in one of the most beautiful moments of the nineties 'This is a Low' leaves you soaring over the land you know and love before 'Lot 106' brings a stupid grin to your face.brIts an evocative album, musically great, and most importantly its the best thing Blur ever did. Don't get the greatest hits, buy this instead. And then buy the rest of the albums.
Blur's masterpiece January 15, 2000
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
Music critics have never had shorter memories than when they have dealt with Blur. When 'The Great Escape', the sequel to 'Parklife', was released, they rightly hailed it as a classic. Ask them now, however, and you won't find many who will even admit to ever liking it - the music press follows fashion just like the rest of us. But all this is a round-the-houses way of saying that only the most ardent Blur-haters will think the same of 'Parklife'. Not a note is out of place, not a song fails to captivate. From the initial shock of Girls and Boys to the monumental, magnificent ending of This Is A Low (not forgetting the playful coda of Lot 105, a trick they tried again with less success on '13'), this is arguably the album of the decade. With pop music in possibly its unhealthiest condition since it was invented, we can only look back in wonder at albums like 'Parklife' and hope that somehow, somewhere, rock and roll will return for that one last encore all over again.br Blur, meanwhile, are just as interesting now as they were then, perhaps even more so, but will they ever release a record of this stature again?
Blur's crowning glory. December 16, 2006
dynamitekid156 (Notts)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
A quasi-concept album about Britain and its Americanisation, Parklife is the peak of Blur, coming as the second part of their Britpop trilogy, after the poorly received (commercially at least) Modern Life Is Rubbish and before the decent The Great Escape. It also came out in the same year as Oasis' debut album shook the world's foundations and the Blur vs. Oasis battle began. Funnily enough, unlike the Beatles vs. Beach Boys rivalry thirty years earlier, both bands produced their greatest work before even beginning their competition, Oasis with their debut and Blur with this masterpiece.
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br /Countless elements of Britain and its people are explored across this album's 53 enthralling minutes; monarchism in 'Jubilee;' everyday proletarianism in the title track; fashion trends and subcultures, as well as millenial interest in 'End Of A Century'; bank holidays on...well, 'Bank Holiday'; taxation and debt on 'The Debt Collector.' No stone is left unturned.
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br /And from this concept/theme you get some of Blur's finest songs. The title track is famous thanks to Phil Daniels, but really not one of the standouts here. The elegaic 'Badhead,' with its chiming guitar and tasteful brass, is lovely, while 'Tracy Jacks' addresses stereotypes (better than the other Blur song of that name) with the line 'I'd love to stay here and be normal but it's just so overrated.' ]
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br /Throughout, Albarne's cockney - or mockney depending on who you ask - voice and Graham Coxon's always dazzling guitar work hold everything together beautifully, and despite Coxon's apparent dissatisfaction with it, this is truly an album to be proud of, the jewel in Blur's crown.
I'd forgotten just how GOOD this is March 28, 2001
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
until I listened to it the other day for the first time in years. I was startled by how many different musical styles and influences there are here - it's a very experimental album, and one that works brilliantly. It's the best Blur have done so far, and is one of the few albums that have stood the test of time - it really is as good as the critics said at the time - and it isn't often that albums said on the day of their release to be destined for classic status actually achieve it, but this is a CLASSIC.
The real Little Britain! July 13, 2007
Top Cat (Somewhere in England, apparently)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
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!
br /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!
br /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.
br /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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
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