So why is Blur’s Parklife on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
While I consider Blur’s 1997 self-titled album to be the band’s Britpop/alt rock masterpiece, Parklife holds a very solid second slot in my personal Blur album power rankings. And in fact, I suspect that if I had discovered Blur by way of this album in 1994 instead of finding my way to it years later*, it would hold an even “higher” spot on this here best 1,000 albums ever project.
* For more background on my journey as a Blur fan and the whole Oasis vs. Blur thing, check out the entry for Leisure, #609 of best 1,000 albums ever.
Which is all to say that every time I throw Parklife on, I dig it more.
“Girls & Boys” is perfect Britpop – it’s endlessly catchy and fun and propulsive. And it’s a good song to remind us of how great Damon Albarn’s voice is, which excels both in this mode as well as with harder rocking songs and with slower, more emotional material.
And in terms of the latter, “End of the Century” is just fantastic, so much so that I can imagine it being featured on Blur itself. It’s also one of Blur’s most Beatles-y song, especially its latter half.
Both Blur (“Look Inside America”) and Parklife (“Magic America”) have a song about the U.S. “Magic America” is quirky and has a lovely melody. It also strikes me as a particularly 1994 song for some reason.
The title track, “Parklife,” really leans on the Brit in Britpop – it’s a memorable and unusual number that documents what Blur guitarist Graham Coxon describes as a cheeky catalog of the British “park class”: “…it was about the park class: dustbin men, pigeons, joggers – things we saw every day on the way to the studio [Maison Rouge in Fulham]” and that it was about “having fun and doing exactly what you want to do.”
“Jubilee” is a great alt rocker with new wave and glam rock flourishes.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with Blur’s Parklife
The cover art photograph of Parklife, shot by Simon Fowler, is of a greyhound racing track.
The dog on the left is captured in mid-snarl, and has a somewhat unsettling cage around its snout that presumably stops it from biting other dogs. The other dog is much cuter from what we can tell, and appears to be merely interested in getting his best racing form going.
It made me curious about the history and present status of greyhound racing, so I consulted Wikipedia for a quick update. Greyhound dog racing dates back to 1894, but its popularity was in steep decline by the 1990s.
As of this writing, there are only two active dog racing tracks in the United States, both located in West Virginia.
Some stats & info about Blur – Parklife
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Britpop, British Bands, Rock Music, Dance Music, Alternative Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #438
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Parklife released? 1994
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #322 out of 1,000
Blur’s Parklife on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Blur’s Parklife that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Love in the ‘90s is paranoid.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.