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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

Blur, one of Britain's premier bands, presents all the videos from the band's 10 year history in chronological order, including their biggest U.S. hit, "Song 2." Songs: She's So High, There's No Other Way, Bang, Popscene, For Tomorrow, Chemical World, Sunday Sunday, Girls And Boys, To The End, Parklife, End Of A Century, Country House, The Universal, Stereotypes, Charmless Man, Bettlebum, Song 2, On Your Own, M.O.R., Tender, Coffee And Tea, No Distance Left To Run.

Japanese edition of new album features the single 'Beetlebum' and the U.K. B-side 'Dancehall' as a bonus track. 15 tracks total. Other 13: 'Song 2', 'Country Sad Ballad Man', 'M.O.R.', 'On Your Own', 'Theme From Retro', 'You're So Great', 'Death Of A Party', 'Chinese Bombs', 'I'mJust A Killer For Your Love', 'Look Inside America', 'Strange News From Another Star', 'Movin' On' and 'Essex Dogs'.

By early 1997, British pop had become less a scene than a competition, so with this album, Blur's frontman Damon Albarn basically announced that he was withdrawing from the race, in favor of exploring other kinds of rock he'd been getting into. Most of Blur finds the band discovering the clipped structures and oblique words of American indie rock (the best hook on the album goes "woo-hoo!"), and that's a liberating strategy. Without having to exemplify England's Dreaming, Albarn can be tuneful and playful, and even when he cribs directly from his favorite records ("M.O.R." is pure Bowie, and "You're So Great" tries for Guided by Voices-style non-production), his gift for texture puts his stamp on these songs. --Douglas Wolk

Japanese Version Featuring A Bonus Track: "Girls & Boys (Remix)".

You'd have to stretch back to 1967 to London's psychedelic underground (a time and a place that Blur is admittedly fond of) to find a band that revels as much in its Britishness. And on its third album, Blur takes 30 years of cool English rock, throws it into an art-punk Cuisinart, and ends up with a masterpiece of timeless hooks and Cockney attitude. Like the Kinks at their satirical best, Blur paints warm and funny portraits of quintessentially English characters ("Tracy Jacks," "Parklife," "The Debt Collector"), delivering them with early Small Faces swagger, wiggy Syd Barrett-via-Julian Cope production, XTC circa "Respectable Street" vocal hooks ("ooh-we-ooh"), and a cynical Buzzcocks detachment. The band members are mods, of course, borrowing fashion tips from the pre-glam David Bowie, tempos from the Jam, and actor Phil Daniels (the star of Quadrophenia!) for a vocal cameo. "Magic America" is the best bored with the U.S.A. song since the Clash, Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier sings backing vocals, the Pet Shop Boys remixed the single, and the members of Blur love Wire so much that they hired that band's old road manager. But enough namedropping: Parklife is the album on which Blur proves that it's a force to be reckoned with on its own terms, described by front man Damon Albarn as a nocturnal travelogue of London; the only time the album leaves the Motherland is on its lead track, the unbearably catchy single, "Girls & Boys," which follows randy English youth on holiday to Greece. --Jim DeRogatis

Three years of candid camera on the road with Blur, from Reading 1991 through the dark ages of the EEC in 1992 and then on to Modern Life. This 126 minute tour film features live footage including scenes from Glastonbury ’92, the Heineken Music Festival ’94 in Nottingham, and festivals in Germany, Denmark and Sweden. It is a fascinating rockumentary about the early days of one of the most influential bands of the 1990s.

Australian exclusive version of the brit-pop act's highly acclaimed 1999 album '13' which includes a bonus 3 track VCD with the videos for 'Tender', 'Coffee & TV' and 'No Dis tance Left To Run'. Clear slipcase combines 2 standard jewel cases. 1999 release.

One man's loss is our gain. On 13, lead singer Damon Albarn feeds his lyrics with the pain from his breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Elastica's Justine Frischmann. From the down-home hymnal "Tender" to the eerily psychedelic stagger of "Swamp Song," Blur, graced with the cohesive strength of William Orbit's production, take the high road, avoiding the woe-is-me drudgery of self-pity and presenting Albarn's varying shades of grief with a collection of melancholic, disturbed achievements. --Beth Massa

Unlike many English pop bands, Blur have always defied convention. When the neopsychedelic swagger of their debut single "There's No Other Way" caught on in 1991, the band shifted gears, adopting a playfully classic British rock sound reminiscent of the Kinks. When that clicked two years later, Blur turned all slack and noisy, garnering their first real American hit with "Song 2." So, does 13 follow in the same tradition as their last disc? Of course not. Subordinating melody for atmosphere, 13 is a diverse, subversive odyssey forsaking worn paths to explore roads less traveled, such as country-gospel ("Tender"), combustive glam ("Bugman"), and expansive space-dub ("Battle," "Trimm Trabb"). Lyrically, vocalist Damon Albarn is consumed with his breakup with Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann, but while the songs on 13 are often moody and melancholy, Blur are far too musically adventurous to ever resort to mere self-pity. --Jon Wiederhorn

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