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Parklife

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For other uses, see Parklife (disambiguation).
Untitled

Parklife is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Blur, released in April 1994 on Food Records. After disappointing sales for their previous album Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife returned Blur to prominence in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: "Girls & Boys", "End of a Century", "Parklife" and "To the End". Certified quadruple platinum in the United Kingdom,[1] in the year following its release the album came to define the emerging Britpop scene. Britpop in turn would form the backbone of the broader Cool Britannia movement. Therefore Parklife attained a cultural significance above and beyond its considerable sales and critical acclaim, cementing its status as a landmark in British rock music.

Recording

After the completion of recording sessions for Blur's previous album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, Damon Albarn, the band's vocalist, began to write prolifically. Blur demoed Albarn's new songs in groups of twos and threes.[2] Due to their precarious financial position at the time, Blur quickly went back into the studio with producer Stephen Street to record their third album.[3] Blur met at the Maison Rouge recording studio in August 1993 to record their next album.[2] The recording was a relatively fast process, apart from the song "This Is a Low".

While the members of Blur were pleased with the final result, Food Records owner David Balfe was not pleased with the record, telling the band's management "This is a mistake". Soon afterwards, Balfe sold Food to EMI.[4]

Music

Blur frontman Damon Albarn told NME in 1994, "For me, Parklife is like a loosely linked concept album involving all these different stories. It's the travels of the mystical lager-eater, seeing what's going on in the world and commenting on it." Albarn cited the Martin Amis novel London Fields as a major influence on the album.[5] The songs themselves span many genres, such as the synthpop-influenced hit single "Girls & Boys", the instrumental waltz interlude of "The Debt Collector", the punk rock-influenced "Bank Holiday", the spacey, Syd Barrett-esque "Far Out", and the fairly New Wave-influenced "Trouble in the Message Centre". Journalist John Harris commented that while many of the album's songs "reflected Albarn's claims to a bittersweet take on the UK's human patchwork", he stated that several songs, including "To the End" and "Badhead" "lay in a much more personal space".[6]

Title and cover

The album was originally going to be entitled London, and the album-cover shot was going to be of a fruit-and-vegetable cart. Albarn stated, "That was the last time that Dave Balfe was, sort of, privvy to any decision or creative process with us, and that was his final contribution: to call it London".[7] The cover refers to the British pastime greyhound racing.[8] Most of the pictures in the CD booklet are of the band in the greyhound racing venue Walthamstow Stadium, although the actual cover was not shot there.[9] The album cover for Parklife was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010.[10][11]

Release

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[12]
BBC(highly positive)[13]
NME(9/10)[14][15]
PopMatters(highly positive)[16]
Robert Christgau(choice cut)[17]
Rolling Stone[18]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[19]

Parklife remains one of the most acclaimed records of the 90s, released in April 1994, debuted at number one on the UK Album Charts. The album stayed on the chart for 90 weeks.[20] However, the album only charted at number 6 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers album chart in the United States.[21] Johnny Dee, reviewing Parklife for NME, called it "a great pop record", adding "On paper it sounds like hell, in practice it's joyous."[15] Rolling Stone gave the album four out of five stars. Reviewer Paul Evans wrote, "With one of this year's best albums, [Blur] realize their cheeky ambition: to reassert all the style and wit, boy bonding and stardom aspiration that originally made British rock so dazzling."[18] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented: "By tying the past and the present together, Blur articulated the mid-'90s zeitgeist and produced an epoch-defining record."[12] Conversely, Robert Christgau stated that the only good song on the album was "Girls & Boys".[17]

Awards, Accolades and Legacy

Parklife has been receiving accolades since its official release and is largely seen not only as one of the best albums of 1994 and its decade, but of all time. The album was nominated to the 1995 Mercury Prize, but it lost to M People's Elegant Slumming.[22] Blur also won four awards at the 1995 Brit Awards, including Best British Album for Parklife.[23] The album was listed as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[24]

In 2006, British Hit Singles & Albums and NME organised a poll of which, 40,000 people worldwide voted for the 100 best albums ever and Parklife was placed at #34 on the list.[25] The album has been hailed as a "Britpop classic".[26] Parklife influenced a number of British guitar bands, including Oasis, Pulp, The Boo Radleys, Supergrass, Gene, Echobelly and Menswear.[27] According to Acclaimed Music, Parklife is the 164th most critically acclaimed album of all time, the 28th best release of the 90s, and the 4th most acclaimed album of 1994.[28]

Publication Country Accolade[19] Year Rank
Alternative Press US The 90 Greatest Albums of the 90s 1998 27
Pitchfork Media US Top 100 Albums of the 1990s 2003 54
Mojo UK The 100 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime 1993–2006 2006 72
NME UK Top 100 Albums of All Time 2003 50
Spin US The 125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years 2010 101
Q UK The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever 2000 22
Melody Maker UK All Time Top Albums 2000 13

Track listing

All music by Blur and all lyrics by Albarn, except "Far Out" written by James.

  1. "Girls & Boys" – 4:50
  2. "Tracy Jacks" – 4:20
  3. "End of a Century" – 2:46
  4. "Parklife" (starring Phil Daniels) – 3:05
  5. "Bank Holiday" – 1:42
  6. "Badhead" – 3:25
  7. "The Debt Collector" – 2:10
  8. "Far Out" – 1:41
  9. "To the End" – 4:05
  10. "London Loves" – 4:15
  11. "Trouble in the Message Centre" – 4:09
  12. "Clover Over Dover" – 3:22
  13. "Magic America" – 3:38
  14. "Jubilee" – 2:47
  15. "This Is a Low" – 5:07
  16. "Lot 105" – 1:17
Blur 21 Bonus Disc
No.TitleLength
1."Magpie" 
2."Anniversary Waltz" 
3."People in Europe" 
4."Peter Panic" 
5."Girls & Boys (Pet Shop Boys 12" Remix)" 
6."Threadneedle Street" 
7."Got Yer!" 
8."Beard" 
9."To the End (French Version)" 
10."Supa Shoppa" 
11."Theme From An Imaginary Film" 
12."Red Necks" 
13."Alex's Song" 
14."Jubilee (Acoustic)" 
15."Parklife (Acoustic)" 
16."End of a Century (Cadena 40 Principales Acoustic Version)" 

Personnel

  • Damon Albarn – lead-backing vocals, keyboards, hammond organ, moog synthesizer, machine strings, harpsichord on "Clover Over Dover", melodica, vibraphone, recorder, programming
  • Graham Coxon – backing vocals, guitar, clarinet, saxophone, percussion
  • Alex James – vocals on "Far Out", bass guitar, crowd noise
  • Dave Rowntree – drums, percussion, programming, crowd noise

Additional musicians

String quartet

  • Chris Tombling
  • Audrey Riley
  • Leo Payne MBE
  • Chris Pitsillides

Duke strings

  • Louisa Fuller – violin
  • Rick Koster – violin
  • Mark Pharoah – violin
  • John Metcalfe – string arrangement, viola
  • Ivan McCready – cello

Kick horns

References

  • Harris, John. Britpop! Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock, 2004. ISBN 0-306-81367-X

Notes

  1. ^ Platinum Awards Content. BPI.co.uk. Retrieved on 9 September 2008.
  2. ^ a b Cavanagh, David; Maconie, Stuart. "How did they do that? - Parklife". Select. May 1995
  3. ^ Harris, p. 97
  4. ^ Harris, p. 139
  5. ^ Moody, Paul. "We Can Be Eros Just For One Day". NME. 5 March 1994.
  6. ^ Harris, p. 140
  7. ^ Essential Albums of the 90s: Blur - Parklife BBC/6music. Aired on 10 November 2010.
  8. ^ "Blur - Parklife (album review)". Sputnikmusic. 16 January 2005. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  9. ^ "Dog track that inspired Blur's 'Parklife' album art to close". NME. 20 May 2008. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
  10. ^ "Classic Album Covers: Issue Date – 7 January 2010". Royal Mail. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  11. ^ Michaels, Sean (8 January 2010). "Coldplay album gets stamp of approval from Royal Mail". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  12. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Parklife > Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved 1 November 2007. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ Daryl Easlea (23 April 2007).BBC review BBC. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  14. ^ Johnny Dee (April 1994) NME review NME. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  15. ^ a b Dee, Johnny. "Blur - Parklife". NME. April 1994
  16. ^ 15 Years Later: Blur's 'Parklife' PopMatters. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  17. ^ a b Robert Christgau. "Robert Christgau: CG: Blur". Robert Christgau website. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
  18. ^ a b Evans, Paul (30 June 1994). "Parklife". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 24 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ a b "Acclaimed Music - Parklife". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  20. ^ Harris, p. 142
  21. ^ "Parklife - Blur - Charts & Awards". Allmusic. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  22. ^ Hughes, Jack (18 September 1994). "Cries & Whispers". The Independent. Retrieved 10 June 2009.
  23. ^ "The BRITs 1995". The BRIT Awards. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  24. ^ "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". rocklist.net. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  25. ^ "Oasis album voted greatest of all time". The Times. 1 June 2006
  26. ^ Jason Dietz (2 March 2010). "Inside the Gorillaverse: A Look at Alt-Rock's Best Cartoon Band". CBS Interactive. Metacritic. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
  27. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Parklife at AllMusic. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
  28. ^ "Acclaimed Music - Blur". Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  29. ^ "Parklife - Blur - Credits". Allmusic. Retrieved 4 December 2011.

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