![]() Truth be told, it was much more tongue-in-cheek than most people thought. With lyrics like, "I put my trousers on, have a cup of tea, And I think about leaving the house," many people thought "Parklife" was a celebration of British life and culture. Damon Albarn bragged that "Parklife" would redefine British music.īefore the record even came out, Albarn boasted, "When our third album comes out, our position as the quintessential English band of the '90s will be assured." It came close to doing so in the U.K., but across the pond…not so much. Ironically, this poppy, cloying track is not representative of Blur on the whole their diverse catalogue is much broader and more complex, as U.K. single…ever.įor better or for worse, "Girls & Boys" – the album's lead single – remains Blur's highest charting song in the U.S. "Girls & Boys" was Blur's highest charting U.S. They look deranged, just longing to kill, and there’s a bizarre look in their faces."ģ. “We centered in on the greyhounds because they had an aggressiveness we liked," Coxon explained in an interview. Buckingham Palace was also a contender, but the dogs won out in the end. It's hard to imagine something other than the muzzled, viscous-looking racing greyhounds on the cover of "Parklife," but it nearly featured something much tamer – a picture of a fruit and vegetable stall in London's Portobello Road. The Blur boys almost named the album "Soft Porn." "Sport" was in the running too, but they settled on "Parklife" after much deliberation. "Parklife" was almost called something much racier. To celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, here are 10 fascinating facts about "Parklife":ġ. Blur is still sporadically active, headlining the Coachella Festival in 2013 and touring Japan earlier this year, but it's 1994's "Parklife" that put them on the map. Twenty years later, lead singer Damon Albarn has gone on to front Gorillaz and The Good the Bad & the Queen, wrote an opera and is about to release a solo album, while bassist Alex James became a gourmet cheese maker ( seriously!), guitarist Graham Coxon released several solo albums, and drummer Dave Rowntree ran for political office. It also stoked the flames of the band's legendary rivalry with Oasis. Credited with ushering in a new era of British music known as Britpop that paid homage to iconic pop bands such as the Kinks while intelligently satirizing British culture, "Parklife" cemented Blur's status as post-grunge heroes, spawned four hit singles (including the bouncy "Girls & Boys," for which they're best known in the U.S.) and went triple-platinum in Blur's native U.K. Blur's landmark third album, "Parklife," turns 20 this week.
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