Midlife is a new compilation album from Blur, with music from 'Leisure', their debut album released in 1991, to their last, 'Think Tank', released in 2003, with five others in between. Originally formed in 1989, they are an alternative rock band that helped to popularise the Britpop genre. They also had a famous rivalry with Oasis, called 'The Battle of Britpop'.
However, in 2003 the band split up, with guitarist, Graham Coxen, following a solo career, singer, Damon Albarn, writing and performing in the band 'Gorillaz', and bassist, Alex James, becoming a cheese farmer. But in July, they will reunite to perform in Hyde Park and after the tickets sold out in less than two minutes, announcements were made of an extra show, with promises of even more performances in the future. So it's probably no coincidence that this album has been released less than a month before the shows.
Blur have already released a compilation album in 2000, titled 'Blur: The Best Of', which featured many of the band's singles. However, this new one is made up of more than just the singles, containing some of the songs that Blur's biggest fans, and even the band itself, would call their favourites.
Although it contains some of their biggest and most famous hits, such as 'Song 2', 'Girls and Boys', and 'Parklife', it also has some less well known (but just as good) songs, for example, 'This Is A Low', and 'Trimm Trabb', which you wouldn't have heard if you have only listened to Blur on the radio.
Even though this compilation was made to show off some of the bands lesser known work, it was a big surprise to find that it does not include 'Country House', one of their biggest hits, which went into direct competition with Oasis's 'Roll With It' when both singles were released on the same day. 'Country House' got 58,000 more sales than 'Roll With It'.
If you already have all of the Blur albums, apart from 'Popscene', which has previously never been released on an album, there won’t really be anything new for you. However, if you are new to Blur, but can't afford to buy all of their albums, this compilation CD, with 25 songs over two discs will give you a good idea of what Blur were, or maybe still are, all about.
Daniel Garlick
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