Blur, Parklife

Blur, Parklife, is a truly classic mid-nineties Britpop album. While not my favourite Blur record (this would have to be either Modern Life Is Rubbish or the eponymous 1997 release), this record practically summed up everything that was good and bad about Britpop and contains some pretty good pop tunes to boot. Where it succeeds is in its cleverness and its entertaining lyrical descriptions of the mundane and everyday as well as in the strange and quirky musical arrangements. Where it fails is in the certain smug character that Damon Albarn's songwriting can often take where it's hard to tell if he sympathises with his subject matter or he is mocking it. At least one of his peers criticised Albarn for being a middle class art school student being condescending to the working class in such a way that not many people realised that he was being naughty and not nice. Even if this spectre casts a certain shadow over the record, it still is a wonderful slice of indie pop that sounded nothing like anything else around at the time and does showcase the talents of Blur as musicians, putting them in a league with bands such as The Kinks and The Jam.