- Year of release
- 1994
- Global sales
- 1.2 million million
- Genre
- Rock/pop
- Buy this album
- Buy CD
Undoubtedly the defining recording of the Britpop era, Blur's punchy, vivid third album harked back to the songwriting of Ray Davies of the Kinks and unravelled in a series of acutely observed 'slice of life' vignettes documenting mid-90s Britain.
Best tracks:
Parklife
Girls And Boys
End Of A Century
Top facts:
- On the keynote title-track the spoken word segments came from legendary British actor Phil Daniels, who also popped up in the video. The song was inspired by Martin Amis’s novel London Fields. Guitarist Graham Coxon played saxophone, while the sound of breaking glass was actually drummer Dave Rowntree smashing a plate.
- The small pleasures in the life of the 'common man' theme was immortalised in the cover shot of two racing greyhounds. Singer Damon Albarn had become such a fan of the sport that the album launch took place at Walthamstow Greyhound Stadium.
- Perennially conscious of their place in the scheme, and timeline, of British pop music, Parklife's success would lead Albarn to declare to Select magazine that "we killed baggy", the shambolic indie-dance movement that predated Britpop.
If you like this, try:
XTC: Black Sea
Elastica: Elastica
Pulp: Different Class
Supergrass: I Should Co Co
