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Biography
Other uses|Parklife (disambiguation)Infobox album| Name = Parklife| Type = studio| Artist = Blur (band)|Blur | Cover = BlurParklife.jpg| Released = 25 April 1994| Recorded = August 1993 – January 1994 at Maison Rouge in London| Genre = Britpop | Length = 52:39| Label = Food Records|Food , SBK Records|SBK | Producer = Stephen Street | Last album = Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)| This album = Parklife (1994)| Next album = The Great Escape (Blur album)|The Great Escape (1995)| Misc = Extra chronology| Artist = Damon Albarn | Type = albums| Last album = Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)| This album = Parklife (1994)| Next album = The Special Collectors Edition (1994) Singles| Name = Parklife| Type = studio| single 1 = Girls & Boys (Blur song)|Girls & Boys | single 1 date = 2 February 1994| single 2 = To the End (Blur song)|To the End | single 2 date = 30 May 1994| single 3 = Parklife (song)|Parklife | single 3 date = 22 August 1994| single 4 = End of a Century | single 4 date = 7 November 1994 Parklife is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Blur (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 (Blur song)|Girls & Boys ", " End of a Century ", " Parklife (song)|Parklife " and " To the End (Blur song)|To the End ". Certified quadruple platinum in the United Kingdom, http://www.bpi.co.uk/platinum/platinumright.asp? rq=search_plat& r_id=20817 Platinum Awards Content. BPI.co.uk. Retrieved on 9 September 2008. 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.Cavanagh, David; Maconie, Stuart. "How did they do that? - Parklife". Select . May 1995 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.Harris, p. 97 Blur met at the Maison Rouge recording studio in August 1993 to record their next album. 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 .Harris, p. 139
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 (novel)|London Fields as a major influence on the album.Moody, Paul. "We Can Be Eros Just For One Day". NME . 5 March 1994. The songs themselves span many genres, such as the synthpop -influenced hit single " Girls & Boys (Blur song)|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 music|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 (Blur song)|To the End " and "Badhead" "lay in a much more personal space".Harris, p. 140
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 David Balfe|Dave Balfe was, sort of, privvy to any decision or creative process with us, and that was his final contribution: to call it London ". Essential Albums of the 90s: Blur - Parklife BBC/6music. Aired on 10 November 2010. The cover refers to the British pastime greyhound racing.cite web |url= http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/1278/Blur-Parklife/ |title=Blur - Parklife (album review) |date=16 January 2005 |publisher= Sputnikmusic |accessdate=24 January 2012 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.cite web |url= http://www.nme.com/news/blur/36730 |title=Dog track that inspired Blur's 'Parklife' album art to close |work= NME |date= 20 May 2008 |accessdate=24 December 2011 The album cover for Parklife was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamp s issued in January 2010.cite web| title=Classic Album Covers: Issue Date – 7 January 2010| url= http://www.royalmail.com/portal/stamps/content1? catId=32300674& mediaId=112400790 | publisher= Royal Mail | accessdate = 8 January 2010cite news| url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/08/coldplay-album-stamp-approval | title=Coldplay album gets stamp of approval from Royal Mail | publisher= The Guardian |date=8 January 2010| accessdate = 8 January 2010 | location=London | first=Sean | last=Michaels
Release
Reception
Album reviews| rev1 = Allmusic |rev1Score = Rating|5|5 | rev2 = BBC |rev2Score = (highly positive)Daryl Easlea (23 April 2007). http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/q94h BBC review BBC . Retrieved 4 December 2011. | rev3 = NME |rev3Score = (9/10)Johnny Dee (April 1994) http://www.vblurpage.com/articles/albums/parklife_nme.htm NME review NME . Retrieved 4 December 2011. | rev4 = PopMatters |rev4Score = (highly positive) http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/115391-15-years-later-blur-parklife/ 15 Years Later: Blur's 'Parklife' PopMatters . Retrieved 4 December 2011. | rev5 = Robert Christgau |rev5score = Rating-Christgau|cutcite web |url= http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php? name=Blur |title= Robert Christgau: CG: Blur |author=Robert Christgau |publisher=Robert Christgau website |accessdate=24 January 2012 | rev6 = Rolling Stone |rev6Score = Rating|4|5 | rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide |rev7Score = Rating|4.5|5
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.Harris, p. 142 However, the album only charted at number 6 on the Top Heatseekers|Billboard Top Heatseekers album chart in the United States.cite web |url= http://www.allmusic.com/album/parklife-r202255/charts-awards |title= Parklife - Blur - Charts & Awards |work= Allmusic |accessdate=4 December 2011 Johnny Dee, reviewing Parklife for NME , called it "a great pop music|pop record", adding "On paper it sounds like hell, in practice it's joyous."Dee, Johnny. "Blur - Parklife". NME . April 1994 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."cite web | url= http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/parklife-19940630 | title=Parklife | last=Evans | first=Paul | publisher= Rolling Stone | date=30 June 1994 | accessdate=24 May 2012 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."cite web | url=Allmusic|class=album|id=r202255|pure_url=yes | title=Parklife > Overview | accessdate = 1 November 2007 | author=Erlewine, Stephen Thomas | publisher= Allmusic Conversely, Robert Christgau stated that the only good song on the album was "Girls & Boys".
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|M People's Elegant Slumming .cite news | url = http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/cries--whispers-1449544.html | work = The Independent | title = Cries & Whispers| first=Jack |last=Hughes |accessdate=10 June 2009|date=18 September 1994 Blur also won four awards at the 1995 Brit Awards , including Best British Album for Parklife .cite web |url= http://www.brits.co.uk/history/shows/1995 |title=The BRITs 1995 |publisher=The BRIT Awards |accessdate=4 December 2011 The album was listed as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die .cite web |url= http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/1001Albums.htm |title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |work=rocklist.net |accessdate=4 December 2011
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. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article670515.ece "Oasis album voted greatest of all time". The Times . 1 June 2006 The album has been hailed as a "Britpop classic".cite web |url= http://www.metacritic.com/feature/gorillaz-contributors-and-discography |title=Inside the Gorillaverse: A Look at Alt-Rock's Best Cartoon Band |author=Jason Dietz |date=2 March 2010 |publisher= Metacritic |work= CBS Interactive |accessdate=24 December 2011 Parklife influenced a number of British guitar bands, including Oasis (band)|Oasis , Pulp (band)|Pulp , The Boo Radleys , Supergrass , Gene (band)|Gene , Echobelly and Menswear (band)|Menswear .Allmusic |class=artist |id=p12405 |tab=biography |first=Stephen Thomas |last=Erlewine |accessdate=24 December 2011 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.cite web |url= http://acclaimedmusic.net/Current/Blur.htm |title=Acclaimed Music - Blur |accessdate= 4 December 2011
All music by Blur and all lyrics by Albarn, except "Far Out" written by James. #" Girls & Boys (Blur song)|Girls & Boys " – 4:50 #"Tracy Jacks" – 4:20 #" End of a Century " – 2:46 #" Parklife (song)|Parklife " (starring Phil Daniels ) – 3:05 #"Bank Holiday" – 1:42 #"Badhead" – 3:25 #"The Debt Collector" – 2:10 #"Far Out" – 1:41 #" To the End (Blur song)|To the End " – 4:05 #"London Loves" – 4:15 #"Trouble in the Message Centre" – 4:09 #"Clover Over Dover" – 3:22 #"Magic America" – 3:38 #"Jubilee" – 2:47 #" This Is a Low " – 5:07 #"Lot 105" – 1:17
tracklist| collapsed = yes | headline = Blur 21 Bonus Disc | writing_credits = no | title1 = Magpie | title2 = Anniversary Waltz | title3 = People in Europe | title4 = Peter Panic | title5 = Girls & Boys (Blur song)|Girls & Boys (Pet Shop Boys 12" Remix) | title6 = Threadneedle Street | title7 = Got Yer! | title8 = Beard | title9 = To the End (Blur song)|To the End (French Version) | title10 = Supa Shoppa | title11 = Theme From An Imaginary Film | title12 = Red Necks | title13 = Alex's Song | title14 = Jubilee (Acoustic) | title15 = Parklife (song)|Parklife (Acoustic | title16 = End of a Century|End of a Century (Cadena 40 Principales Acoustic Version)
Graham Coxon – backing vocals, guitar, clarinet, saxophone, percussion
Alex James (musician)|Alex James – vocals on "Far Out", bass guitar, crowd noise
Dave Rowntree – drums, percussion, programming, crowd noise
Additional musicians
Stephen Street – vintage keys, sound effects, some programming
Laetitia Sadier – vocals on " To the End (Blur song)|To the End "
Phil Daniels – narration on " Parklife (song)|Parklife "
Stephen Hague – accordion
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
Richard Edwards (musician)|Richard Edwards – trombone
Roddy Lorimer – flugelhorn, trombone
Tim Sanders (musician)|Tim Sanders – tenor sax, soprano sax
Simon Clarke – baritone sax, alto sax, flutecite web |url= http://www.allmusic.com/album/parklife-r202255/credits |title= Parklife - Blur - Credits |publisher= Allmusic |accessdate=4 December 2011
References
Harris, John. Britpop& #33; Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock , 2004. ISBN 0-306-81367-X
Notes
reflist|2 BlurUse dmy dates|date=March 2011 Category:1994 albums Category:Albums produced by Stephen Street Category:Blur (band) albums Category:Food Records albums Category:Concept albums
