Track Listing

1. Beetlebum
2. Song 2
3. There's No Other Way
4. Universal
5. Coffee and TV
6. Parklife
7. End of a Century
8. No Distance Left to Run
9. Tender
10. Girls and Boys
11. Charmless Man
12. She's So High
13. Country House
14. To the End
15. On Your Own
16. This Is a Low
17. For Tomorrow
18. Music Is My Radar

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15256 in Music
• Released on: 2000-11-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
Scanning the track listing of this album, it's hard not to conclude that Blur aren't a little embarrassed by their early work. Opening with the chart one-two of "Beetlebum" and "Song 2" (from their eponymous 1997 watershed album) rather than the baggy groove of their debut single, "She's So High," it's apparent that they desire to accentuate their more recent efforts. Running order aside, it's hard to fault the 18 songs which chart the life and times of one of Britain's smartest, most inventive bands. From the tuxedoed ballad "The Universal" through the cartoon Brit-pop of numbers such as "Parklife" and "Country House" to the freshly recorded indie-influenced "Music Is My Radar," their searching intelligence and deft hooks are never less than admirable. --Mike Pattenden

Customer Reviews

why a greatest hits cd?
i don't believe that this "album" is worth 4 stars, but i gave it that score because it's impossible to ignore the quality of the songs here. every one of these is intelligent, catchy, and innovative, which makes blur stand out amidst all these good british bands that have suddenly come out of nowhere. blur is one of the best because they made cohesive, good albums, which is no small feat nowadays. the problem with this collection is that it does not do the songs justice. if you don't own "parklife" or "blur", you will miss the point of these tracks. the songs mean so much more in their proper context, which makes a good greatest hits record an impossible task for a band like blur. the same can be said for radiohead, pink floyd, etc... if you're really into their music, then you're better off owning the albums; however, if you're a casual listener, and are mostly concerned with the hits, maybe this will suit you. the bonus live disc probably isn't worth it even to serious fans, unless you simply love live recordings.

A Great Place to Start (and an Equally Bad Place to Stop)
Blur is both a great singles band and a great albums band. The Best Of Blur focuses on their prowess as a singles band, and in this regard might more correctly be called "Blur's Greatest Hits." (If I may split hairs, it seems to me that a CD called "Greatest Hits" should include pretty much only hit singles, while one titled "Best Of" should more fully represent the artist's "best" material, including hit singles and album tracks.) Nit-picking aside, The Best Of Blur serves as a perfect model for a worthwhile (and worth the money) compilation. First, with 18 tracks, it features about three-quarters of the singles that charted in the US and UK, plus one well-chosen album cut and a new song for good measure (the fact that about a half-dozen chart singles are missing is indicative of what a successful band Blur was in the 90s). Moreover, the content of this disc leaves no question as the overall quality of Blur's output. Finally, while this can only be realized in hindsight, The Best Of was released at an ideal time, as the recording of Blur's 2003 release Think Tank would mark the beginning of a new era for the band.

The most obvious shortcoming of this disc is that it slights Blur's superb second CD, Modern Life Is Rubbish, by including only one of its tracks, "For Tomorrow". The most inexplicable omission would be the the proto-Britpop single "Popscene", but the singles "Chemical World" and "Sunday, Sunday" are also missing. As it happens, however, this weakness is turned into a strength by leaving room for the inclusion of three tracks from their more experimental (ie, less poppy, more personal) sixth CD 13. Here's how that works: "For Tomorrow" serves as a great teaser for the Modern Life CD, which is brimming with great tracks, and should be owned by anyone who likes what they hear on The Best Of. Moreover, 13 is not the place to start for someone who is being introduced to Blur. Hence, the disc both whets the listener's appetite and fills his plate. If the tracks from 13 don't quite click with him (but there is no reason why they shouldn't), at least he will have three of the best tracks from that CD here. And the absence of the singles from Modern Life gives him all the more reason to buy that CD, which anyone with more than a passing interest in the band - or in good music in general - should do anyway.

From Blur's other discs, you basically get all the singles: two of the three from Leisure, all four from Parklife (plus the album track "This Is A Low"), three of the four from both The Great Escape and Blur, and all three from 13. (Two of the missing singles, "Stereotypes" - from The Great Escape - and "M.O.R." - from Blur - are included in live versions on a limited 2-CD edition.) Also included is a decent new track,
"Music Is My Radar", which sort of foreshadows - for better and for worse - the direction Blur would take on their next studio album. While some of the hits are better than others, none of them are sub par as songs, and they all belong on what is likely to be the first Blur purchase for many listeners, especially American ones. And while some may complain about the non-chronological order of the songs, the sequencing actually does a very good job of accentuating both the variety and continuity of Blur's catalog.

The bottom line is that a compilation should be practical: it should serve as an introduction to encourage you to buy more by the artist, or it should be comprehensive enough to prevent you from having to buy anything else. That said, The Best Of Blur is unlikely to save you any money, but it will make you happy to spend the extra that you do. If this is the place you start, it is unlikely to be the place that you stop. There are simply too many terrific songs on the band's studio discs for any compilation short of a box set to be truly comprehensive. All the same, this is a great compilation to have even if you own the other discs, as it puts almost all of their hits in one place. (I had four other Blur CDs when I bought The Best Of. Modern Life, Parklife, and The Great Escape are also great places to start.)

Clearly, The Best Of Blur succeeds at being a model compilation. Now, does this model compilation contain great songs? In a word, yes. For the most part, it is catchy, distinctly British pop, with sophistication, some keen social commentary, and an impressive amount of variety considering that it contains music recorded in a span of less than a decade. The songs are alternately entertaining and poignant, and usually both. In short, this disc is an essential chapter in the history of British popular music. Sure, the lyrics may not always be terribly profound, and there may be one too many "na na na" or "la la la" sections to fill space, but if that were a crime in pop music, then many artists would have to plead guilty. But reviews of the individual records is the place to talk about the songs, and if you are interested in checking out Blur for the first time, I assume that you are reading those as well. At the same time, however, you are probably wondering if this compilation is worth investing in. Put it this way: the songs on The Best of Blur are the ones that made this group one of the most popular British bands of the 90s. As a whole, they suffice to show that while Blur may not be as great as The Kinks or The Jam (and that is too tall of an order for any band to fill), they are truly their worthy heirs.

Long Live Blur!

Why did I wait so long to buy a Blur CD?!
Having seen my brother buy album after album from these blokes, I got a really good sense of Blurs' sound. And yet, I could never be bothered to purchase one for my self. It's not that I didn't like them, my tastes in muzik were bringing me in different directions. Well, no more. I saw The Best Of in the store for [price], looked at the track listing and saw some songs that I knew I liked; Boys and Girls, Charmless Man, Parklife, Song 2(sans Intel advert) so on and so forth.

Long story short, this album is fantastic.

And, as a newcomer, so to speak, what better place to start than the tried and tested best tracks? (Currently grooving to Music is My Radar). Now to go and bolster my collection with all their albums. I am hooked.

As a funny foot note, I can remember the days of Oasis endlessly bagging on Blur. Really in the most rude and vile of ways. "I hope they get AIDS", and much worse. Well, those battles are long over, and Oasis has slipped into the kind of obscurity that the former Soviet Union now enjoys. Can you even give away an Oasis album these days?