Parklife

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This article is about the album by Blur. For the song of the same name featured on the album, see Parklife (song).
Parklife
Parklife cover
Studio album by Blur
Released 25 April 1994
Recorded October 1993–January 1994
Genre Britpop
Length 52:39
Label Food
Producer Stephen Street
Professional reviews
Blur chronology
Modern Life Is Rubbish
(1993)		 Parklife
(1994)		 The Great Escape
(1995)

Parklife is the third album by English alternative rock band Blur released on 25 April 1994. After disappointing sales for their previous album Modern Life is Rubbish (1993), Parklife established Blur in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: "Girls & Boys", "End of a Century", "Parklife" and "To the End". The album was certified quadruple platinum in the UK. Although the album failed to chart in the United States, "Girls & Boys" became a minor hit there.

Contents

[edit] Recording

After the final recordings for Blur's 1993 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] After a number of European tours in which several new songs were previewed, and a slot playing the second stage at the 1993 Reading Festival, the band were ready to enter the studio.

Blur met at the Maison Rouge recording studio on August 11, 1993 to record their next album.[2] The recording was a relatively fast process, apart from the song "This Is a Low".

[edit] Music

Blur's sketches of British life among ordinary men and women prompted many reviewers to compare the band to The Kinks. The songs themselves span many genres, such as the Pet Shop Boys-esque hit single "Girls & Boys", the instrumental waltz interlude of "The Debt Collector", the Oi! punk of "Bank Holiday", the spacey "Far Out", and the hard rocking "Trouble in the Message Centre". At the time of its release it was well received in Britain, particularly in the context of the young middle classes' adoption of Estuary English. Several newspaper articles about this tendency appeared during the singles chart run of the album's title track.

[edit] Critical reception

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Johnny Dee, reviewing Parklife in April 1994 for NME, called it "a great pop record", adding "On paper it sounds like hell, in practice it's joyous."[1] All Music Guide'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."[3] In 2006 Q Magazine ranked Parklife as the 35th greatest album ever.

[edit] Track listing

All songs by Albarn, except "Far Out" by James. Music by Albarn, Coxon, James, Rowntree.

  1. "Girls & Boys" – 4:51
  2. "Tracy Jacks" – 4:20
  3. "End of a Century" – 2:45
  4. "Parklife" – 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

[edit] Personnel

  • Damon Albarn – vocals, Hammond, Moog, machine strings, harpsichord, melodica, vibraphone, recorder, some programming
  • Graham Coxon – backing vocals, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, clarinet, saxophone, percussion
  • Alex James – vocals on "Far Out", bass guitar, crowd noise
  • Dave Rowntree – drums, percussion, crowd noise, some programming

[edit] Additional musicians

  • Stephen Street – vintage keys, sound effects, some programming
  • Laetitia Sadier – singer
  • Phil Daniels – narration
  • Stephen Hague – accordion

[edit] String quartet

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

[edit] Duke strings

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

[edit] Kick horns

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Dee, Johnny. "Blur - Parklife". NME. April 1994
  2. ^ a b Cavanagh, David; Maconie, Stuart. "How did they do that? - Parklife". Select. May 1995
  3. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Parklife > Overview. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
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Damon Albarn · Graham Coxon · Alex James · Dave Rowntree
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