Modern Life Is Rubbish - Blur

Like all blur albums (except 'blur''s) 'Modern Life is Rubbish' has a terrible front cover, and like all blur albums (except 'Leisure) the music inside is (as Tony the Tiger would say:) 'GGGGRrreeeeaattt'. 'Modern Life is Rubbish' is not blur's best album, but it is perhaps my favourite. It is simulataneously a celebration and condemnation of British society. The band were at a low in their career when this album was released. After 'There's No Other Way' (overrated) conquered the charts back in the day when indie firmly stayed in the Chart Show's indie chart, the enthusiasm for blur suddenly petered out. The ...  Read the complete review

("Modern music is rubbish" was going to be the title of this opinion, but I decided to go for something a bit more informative instead) If you've read my review on Parklife, Blur's first huge success, you'll know that I said that it wasn't as good as Modern Life is Rubbish. Why? For a start, this whole album meshes together much better. There's a diversity of sound, but there isn't the jading contrast that stops Parklife being as smooth as this album Furthermore, the lyrics to this track are brilliant. Most of them describe some people's rubbish lives, from the "pay-me girl" who's being thrown ...  Read the complete review

Picture it. It’s 1993. People are suffering from Post-Madchesteral-Depression. Even grunge is dying off. The ignorant kids are getting into Drum ‘n’ Bass. Is there NO HOPE! But wait… round the corner… a call to arms. Yes. The Britpop movement is imminent. From music being sick, to music’s golden age! And, it starts here. Modern Life is Rubbish was the blue-print for Brit-pop. Noel had written Live Forever, but forgotten which way the notes went round. And it was a quick, sudden revolution. Blur were actually a lot more successful with their debut Leisure than this follow-up. Leisure was a familiar, Madchester, new indie-dance ...  Read the complete review

A classic Britpop album born out of the 90s. But a classic album for all times? For Tommorow is a fantastic opener, Damon's cockney geezer cuts over the screeching violins and chugging guitar. Much as the album title suggests the song deals with the reality of life, telling the story of a young couple living in London, I very much get the live to work vibe. It's a reality that couples go out for drives on the weekend to convince themselves that they are making the most of their lives and then coming home and sitting in front of the telly of an evening. Chemical World feels post-apocalyptic with it's a alien vocal effects and indistinguishable ...  Read the complete review

You have to love this record! It's a bouncy, chirpy, catchy little charmer of an album, and there isn't a bad song on it. I'd have a go at changing something on every one of Blur's albums, except this one - it's flawless. Fair enough, you can say that it could be better, but then you can say that about anything. Winning the lottery could be better - you could win the lottery and become Batman, for example. Batman likes this record, by the way. I heard Modern Life Is Rubbish a fair while after buying and adoring Parklife and The Great Eccape, so I was expecting something a bit worse, a bit... earlier, shall we say. But no, clever Blur, for I ...  Read the complete review