Album of the day (#4296): Parklife by Blur

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  • #1
  • Posted: 09/23/2022 20:00
  • Post subject: Album of the day (#4296): Parklife by Blur
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Today's album of the day

Parklife by Blur (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1994.
Country:
Overall rank: 212
Average rating: 81/100 (from 1304 votes).



Tracks:
1. Girls & Boys
2. Tracy Jacks
3. End Of A Century
4. Parklife
5. Bank Holiday
6. Badhead
7. The Debt Collector
8. Far Out
9. To The End
10. London Loves
11. Trouble In The Message Centre
12. Clover Over Dover
13. Magic America
14. Jubilee
15. This Is A Low
16. Lot 105

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.
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HoldenM
To Pedantically Split Infinitives


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  • #2
  • Posted: 09/23/2022 21:56
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A tiny bit bloated but a really damn good album.

Track picks
1. Girls & Boys
2. Tracy Jacks
4. Parklife
9. To The End
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DommeDamian
Imperfect, sensitive Aspie with a melody addiction


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  • #3
  • Posted: 09/24/2022 08:39
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Once-in-a-lifetime masterpiece. Nothing like it either in sound nor pure quality.
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kokkinos





  • #4
  • Posted: 09/24/2022 19:38
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I've always found it curious that it's their highest ranked album here. I mean, it's my favourite of theirs and that's by some distance, but I thought their alternative rock ventures - also known as 13 - would be more BEA-friendly than the pure Britpop of Parklife.
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MadhattanJack
I mean, metal is okay, but...


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  • #5
  • Posted: 09/24/2022 20:22
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kokkinos wrote:
I've always found it curious that it's their highest ranked album here. I mean, it's my favourite of theirs and that's by some distance, but I thought their alternative rock ventures - also known as 13 - would be more BEA-friendly than the pure Britpop of Parklife.


Bah, 13 was a charmless album. It had little or no impact on the popscene at the time, it would cause the death of any party you played it during, and frankly it didn't entertain me. Whereas, Parklife... I've got it ranked at #38 all-time, and I was even thinking of bumping it up a notch or two! Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, since tomorrow is Sunday Sunday.

I might even go so far as to say that the BEA "system," by essentially forcing people to make charts for multiple decades in order to level up, tends to weed out people who don't appreciate multiple genres, given that your favorite genre might not have existed at all in an earlier decade. Though I couldn't say if that really applies in this case, because Parklife (at least in my opinion) is just so much more diverse-sounding and well-constructed than their other albums.
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kokkinos





  • #6
  • Posted: 09/25/2022 07:23
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MadhattanJack wrote:
Bah, 13 was a charmless album. It had little or no impact on the popscene at the time, it would cause the death of any party you played it during, and frankly it didn't entertain me. Whereas, Parklife... I've got it ranked at #38 all-time, and I was even thinking of bumping it up a notch or two! Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, since tomorrow is Sunday Sunday.

I might even go so far as to say that the BEA "system," by essentially forcing people to make charts for multiple decades in order to level up, tends to weed out people who don't appreciate multiple genres, given that your favorite genre might not have existed at all in an earlier decade. Though I couldn't say if that really applies in this case, because Parklife (at least in my opinion) is just so much more diverse-sounding and well-constructed than their other albums.

Charmless? I thought that was The Great Escape (charmless man Mr. Green )
Joking aside, I can tell you've put a lot of thought into BEA-mechanics and you are raising an interesting point, though I'm not sure "diverse-sounding and well-constructed" are the main reasons for Parklife's placement. As I was saying the other day when BEA's and RYM's top-100 were discussed, I think cultural impact is a major factor in BEA's overall chart. I mean, Oasis have two albums ranked higher than Parklife.
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Yann



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  • #7
  • Posted: 09/25/2022 13:36
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kokkinos wrote:
I've always found it curious that it's their highest ranked album here. I mean, it's my favourite of theirs and that's by some distance, but I thought their alternative rock ventures - also known as 13 - would be more BEA-friendly than the pure Britpop of Parklife.

Thanksfully BEA still can recognize a true classic !
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DommeDamian
Imperfect, sensitive Aspie with a melody addiction


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  • #8
  • Posted: 09/25/2022 16:47
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Imo calling anything by Blur charmless would be like calling Radiohead not RYM or BEA-friendly or Mount Everest for a small hill. Simply put, Blur is easily one of the most charming bands I have ever listened to. Every album has its own charm (but really). Albeit I think 13 isn't trying to have charm (except classics like Tender, Coffee & TV, Mellow Song) as much as express different kinds of devastating emotions. Parklife is highly charmful with its diversity, childlike goofiness and musical aspects. Though if I should consider a Blur album charmless it would be Think Tank as it is just an album (and an average at that).

Also the counterpoint of not making impact on the popscene and the death of a party ( Mr. Green ), not only is 13 very anti-pop music but pretty much anything on BEA's and RYM's top charts that isn't MJ, Bowie, up-beat Beatles, Zeppelin, Nirvana, few songs from Doors, Kanye, few songs from Kendrick, Arctic Monkeys, Prince would most likely cause major damage to the party too. Comparing 13 it to what it would sound like at a party is really doing it a disservice, borderline disrespecting what it conveys. Laughing
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MadhattanJack
I mean, metal is okay, but...


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  • #9
  • Posted: 09/25/2022 20:41
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DommeDamian wrote:
Also the counterpoint of not making impact on the popscene and the death of a party ( Mr. Green ), not only is 13 very anti-pop music but pretty much anything on BEA's and RYM's top charts that isn't MJ, Bowie, up-beat Beatles, Zeppelin, Nirvana, few songs from Doors, Kanye, few songs from Kendrick, Arctic Monkeys, Prince would most likely cause major damage to the party too. Comparing 13 it to what it would sound like at a party is really doing it a disservice, borderline disrespecting what it conveys. Laughing


I was just being facetious there, but it's also harder for me to be objective about a band like Blur because I was buying their albums as soon as they came out — i.e., in sequence, with plenty of time in between. So I associate albums like 13 and Think Tank with a strong feeling of disappointment after a long wait, because I'd been hoping for material that was more like Parklife and The Great Escape and didn't get it. Of course, that happened with a lot of bands in those days — probably the majority of the ones I was into, in fact.

I don't think it affects the order in which I rank albums by any particular band though, it just makes me more negative and bad-mouthy about whichever album is the "disappointment." I guess I could be wrong about that, though.
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theblueboy





  • #10
  • Posted: 09/26/2022 07:56
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I can never get enough listens of Tracy Jacks and To the End. Great album, but still one where I tend to go to particular tracks rather than the whole thing. As full albums, I like the flow of Modern Life and 13 best. Parklife is the most seminal though, no doubt.

Re: Charming Men.
Sure, Blur were charming (in spades), but they did flirt with being charmless. Great Expectations was just a bit too full of themselves and self satisfied. I think they realised this too- Albarn has dismissed the album in interviews. It has several incredible songs though. Modern Life has to be their most charming album. They still sound like a scrappy band trying to cut through. You can sort of tell they knew when making Parklife that they would be huge, which makes it a little harder to love.


Last edited by theblueboy on 09/27/2022 06:38; edited 1 time in total
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