Parklife is one of the best albums of the nineties in any country, it is a concept album by Blur, one of my favourite bands.

Parklife is the story of life in Britain, obviously it is a nuanced, stylised Britain but it is nonetheless a Britain which we can all recognise.

The album is one of the most popular in Blur's back catalogue, when I went to their gig in Hyde Park last summer, some of the songs still sounded as fresh, vibrant and relevant now as they did upon first release.

This was Blur's first real breakthrough album and highlighted the band as cheeky Essex chappies, when in reality, they are a band of incredibly intelligent uni graduates who created a concept album based on parts of their life and experiences.

Some of the songs on the album were highjacked by the people the songs were actually mocking and became anthemic in their popularity.

Although this album isn't as critically acclaimed as 'Modern Life is Rubbish' it is a still a damned good album for me and it means a lot because it showed me a new side of life and introduced me to concept albums by Blur influences such as the Kinks.

The album is based around life in the Essex/London estuaries and each song tells a seperate story, obviously the most well known are the Phil Daniels Fronted, Parklife which is a jaunty cockney knees up of a song with a memorable chorus and a great tune.

Girls and Boys was highjacked as a holiday anthem by lagered-up lads and laddettes when the song actually takes the mickey out of such people and their 'holiday experience' spending two weeks doing what they would at home but with the sunshine, the song is a fantastic one and is still well loved today but unfortunately it never really got the full acclaim it deserved due to its misrepresentation.

Also on the album is the brilliant Tracy Jacks which always goes down a storm at Blur gigs with its memorable chorus. To the End is an utterly beautiful song which reminds us of Sixties ballads with a cold edge and a video reminiscent of a Clockwork Orange with the chorus sung by Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab

This is a low and End of the Century are also beautiful songs, although I understand 'This is a Low' is based on the shipping forecast from a tea Towel owned by Damon Albarn. The album was based partially on London Fields by Martin Amis and has sly yet affectionate digs at Middle England and the way we are.

It was said that Blur would never break America with this colloquial sound, yet Song 2 and the Gorrilaz tend to argue against this.

This is a fantastic album that really does stand up to the test of time, listen to 'To the End', 'Parklife' or 'Girls and Boys' now and they still sound relevant and musically challenging today.


Track Listing:

Girls & Boys
Tracy Jacks
End of a Century
Parklife
Bank Holiday
Badhead
The Debt Collector
Far Out
To the End
London Loves
Trouble in the Message Centre
Clover Over Dover
Magic America
Jubilee
This Is a Low
Lot 105

The album is available for download or you can buy it from Amazon for £3.49, you can also buy it on Marketplace for much less. Honestly this is a 5 out of 5 album in my eyes and I recommend you buy it if you don't currently own it.