CD Project Thing #22 - Blur pt. 1
Blur - "She's So High" single (UK import)
Blur - "There's No Other Way" single (UK import)
Blur - "Bang" single (UK import)
Blur - "Leisure" (Dutch import)
The beginnings of Blur. I don't think I ever realized before this just how much early Blur was influenced by the Happy Mondays. It's decent enough (especially some of the singles), but it's hardly great, it sounds very little like Blur would soon sound, and I'm pretty sure it's my least favorite Blur album ever.
You'll notice that I have a LOT of Blur singles. That's cause I own the 22-disc singles box set they put out a few years ago (along with a few other random things, some of which might get sold). The singles in the set include all the tracks from all formats, so many of them are much closer to eps than singles (I think the longest one is 9 tracks). In order to save typing and not make this all super long, I'll mostly just be listing them along with the album they go with, I think.
Blur - "Popscene" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Modern Life Is Rubbish"
Blur - "For Tomorrow" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Chemical World" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Sunday Sunday" CD Single (UK import)
I can't honestly say that I'd quite know how to define Britpop, but I can say that this is about as Britpop as Britpop gets (and, according to Wikipedia, it's generally considered the very first Britpop album). It's a huge leap forward from the first album and a must for any lover of Britpop.
The singles are mostly pretty long ("For Tomorrow" and "Chemical World" are both 9 tracks!) and include a pretty good mix of new b-sides, covers and alternate version of the singles. "Popscene" is the only non-album single Blur has ever done, and it wasn't released on the Best Of, but it's on the US version of "Modern Life Is Rubbish" so that's not as annoying as it would be.
Blur - "Parklife"
Blur - "Girls And Boys" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "To The End" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Parklife" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "End Of A Century" CD Single (UK import)
Part two of Blur's 3-year Britpop trilogy, "Parklife" isn't too different from "Modern Life Is Rubbish" except for having a little more dance music influence, but that's not really a bad thing. One thing that is a little annoying (and most Blur albums suffer from this) is their tendancy to include a song or two of what sounds like circus music. I just don't get it.
Shorter singles with fewer b-sides this time, but they're still pretty decent.
Blur - "The Special Collector's Edition" (Japanese Import)
Japanese-only b-sides collection. It's like 18 tracks, and would have been really exciting, if I didn't have all the tracks except one on the singles box set (and the one I don't have? Japanese fans singing "Bank Holiday". Uh, yeah.) So, I think it'll be going away soon.
This cd is also notable for having really great artwork, something they'd continue on the next two albums. Not really a good reason to keep something, though.
Blur - "The Great Escape"
Blur - "Country House" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "The Universal" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Stereotypes" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Charmless Man" CD Single (UK Import)
The third album in Blur's Britpop trilogy, it's still pretty good although I don't think I like it as much as the first two (although that could just be me being really burned out by this point). It's maybe a little more rock, but it still sounds basically the same as the last two albums, and the writing is the same, and it was really just about time for a change.
"Country House" is most notable for being Blur's entry in the big "Blur vs Oasis" single war (and it won, IIRC). The first two singles here are 8 track singles with 4 live tracks each, the other two are just 4 track singles. It's all decent enough (except, did we need ANOTHER version of "To The End"? No, we didn't), but nothing super great.
Blur - "Live at Budokan" (2 Discs) (Japanese Import)
Continuing the trend of a Japanese-only album after a real album, this is (like the title says) a live show from the Budokan. I suppose that it's not bad, but at this point I pretty much wanted to kill myself before listening to any more Britpop. There's nothing especially notable here, most of them sound pretty much just like the album versions. It is wrong that I get really excited when I find something that I can sell? Well, I do, and I did.
Blur - "There's No Other Way" single (UK import)
Blur - "Bang" single (UK import)
Blur - "Leisure" (Dutch import)
The beginnings of Blur. I don't think I ever realized before this just how much early Blur was influenced by the Happy Mondays. It's decent enough (especially some of the singles), but it's hardly great, it sounds very little like Blur would soon sound, and I'm pretty sure it's my least favorite Blur album ever.
You'll notice that I have a LOT of Blur singles. That's cause I own the 22-disc singles box set they put out a few years ago (along with a few other random things, some of which might get sold). The singles in the set include all the tracks from all formats, so many of them are much closer to eps than singles (I think the longest one is 9 tracks). In order to save typing and not make this all super long, I'll mostly just be listing them along with the album they go with, I think.
Blur - "Popscene" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Modern Life Is Rubbish"
Blur - "For Tomorrow" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Chemical World" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Sunday Sunday" CD Single (UK import)
I can't honestly say that I'd quite know how to define Britpop, but I can say that this is about as Britpop as Britpop gets (and, according to Wikipedia, it's generally considered the very first Britpop album). It's a huge leap forward from the first album and a must for any lover of Britpop.
The singles are mostly pretty long ("For Tomorrow" and "Chemical World" are both 9 tracks!) and include a pretty good mix of new b-sides, covers and alternate version of the singles. "Popscene" is the only non-album single Blur has ever done, and it wasn't released on the Best Of, but it's on the US version of "Modern Life Is Rubbish" so that's not as annoying as it would be.
Blur - "Parklife"
Blur - "Girls And Boys" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "To The End" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "Parklife" CD Single (UK import)
Blur - "End Of A Century" CD Single (UK import)
Part two of Blur's 3-year Britpop trilogy, "Parklife" isn't too different from "Modern Life Is Rubbish" except for having a little more dance music influence, but that's not really a bad thing. One thing that is a little annoying (and most Blur albums suffer from this) is their tendancy to include a song or two of what sounds like circus music. I just don't get it.
Shorter singles with fewer b-sides this time, but they're still pretty decent.
Blur - "The Special Collector's Edition" (Japanese Import)
Japanese-only b-sides collection. It's like 18 tracks, and would have been really exciting, if I didn't have all the tracks except one on the singles box set (and the one I don't have? Japanese fans singing "Bank Holiday". Uh, yeah.) So, I think it'll be going away soon.
This cd is also notable for having really great artwork, something they'd continue on the next two albums. Not really a good reason to keep something, though.
Blur - "The Great Escape"
Blur - "Country House" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "The Universal" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Stereotypes" CD Single (UK Import)
Blur - "Charmless Man" CD Single (UK Import)
The third album in Blur's Britpop trilogy, it's still pretty good although I don't think I like it as much as the first two (although that could just be me being really burned out by this point). It's maybe a little more rock, but it still sounds basically the same as the last two albums, and the writing is the same, and it was really just about time for a change.
"Country House" is most notable for being Blur's entry in the big "Blur vs Oasis" single war (and it won, IIRC). The first two singles here are 8 track singles with 4 live tracks each, the other two are just 4 track singles. It's all decent enough (except, did we need ANOTHER version of "To The End"? No, we didn't), but nothing super great.
Blur - "Live at Budokan" (2 Discs) (Japanese Import)
Continuing the trend of a Japanese-only album after a real album, this is (like the title says) a live show from the Budokan. I suppose that it's not bad, but at this point I pretty much wanted to kill myself before listening to any more Britpop. There's nothing especially notable here, most of them sound pretty much just like the album versions. It is wrong that I get really excited when I find something that I can sell? Well, I do, and I did.
posted by Adam at 5:27 PM
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