Leisure (1991)The debut
Blur album released in 1991. Featuring the track Sing,
which featured in the smash hit film Trainspotting.
It was an album that stank of Stone Roses and
Pink Floyd.
She's
So High struggled, but made it into the
top 50 in the UK chart.
There's
No Other Way was Blur's first top 10 hit
and set them up for a prosperous future. It was
very Stone Rosesesque and the public loved it. It is still
played in breaks at major festivals and at Indie nights
throughout the UK.
Bang,
like She's So High, failed to make much of an
impression on the UK public under the decline of
Indie music and did not chart well.
Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)
It's title came from a piece of graffiti sprayed
on a wall. The original MLIR should have been
released in 1992, but it was held back to be
refined. Most of the original tracks on it became
B-sides on the revised and released version. Its
highest chart position was No. 17.
For
Tomorrow was the first single released
off the album and charted top 20. It was an Indie
track and is to date one of the Blur
favourites.
Chemical
World was the follow up single. It
relates to the way Britain was at the time it was
released. It charted similarly to For Tomorrow
Sunday
Sunday was a taster of what was to
become a genre known as Brit-pop.
However, it is claimed that the band now hate the
song.
Parklife (1994)
Parklife
shot Blur to fame in 1994. It won the band 4 Brit
awards and was there first No.1 album. It went
triple Platinum.
Girls
and Boys still is one of Blur biggest
hits. It highlights British life. Girls and Boys
even did well over the sea in North America.
To
The End, This Is A Low
and End Of A Century also
charted well, but the main song on the album was Parklife.
Parklife
was released in the summer of 1994 and had people
across the country singing. It featured Phil
Daniels and made Blur the band of the
moment.
The Great Escape (1995)
The
Great Escape
was the follow up to the
highly successful Parklife album.
It too shot straight to No.1 in the album charts.
Country
House was the first release and had its
release date changed to coincide with Oasis' Roll
With It single. Country House
entered at No.1 and Roll With It
No.2. Blur had won that battle.
The
next single, The Universal,
never did as well as Country House and was only a
Top 5 hit whereas Oasis continued to rule the
charts. The Universal was a good track, but at the time Blur
could have killed Oasis off by releasing a track
such as Globe Alone.
Stereotypes
was another top 10 hit for Blur but was
overshadowed by the sudden adoration for Oasis
with their highly 'original' sound.
Charmless
Man was yet another Top 10 hit, but the
same situation occured as with Stereotypes.
Blur
(1997)
Blur was
released after the battle of the bands with Oasis.
Where Oasis continued producing similar sounding
music over and over, Blur moved back to their
roots with a Modern Life Is Rubbishesque album.
It was more Amercanised and featured, for the
first time, Graham Coxon singing lead vocals on a
Blur track.
Beetlebum
shot straight to No.1 and emphasized the fact
that Blur were back. It was different from any of
the Blur singles from previous years and had a
predominate Beatles sound to it.
Song
2 entered the UK charts at No.2, but sent
shockwaves across the planet. Song 2 (aka the Woo hoo song) was taken in by the American crowds who
are renound for liking simple music with mad
guitars. The song has since featured on many
adverts and is played each time a goal is scored
at Major Hockey games in America. Blur were
offered millions of pounds by the US Army to let
them use Song 2 to launch a new Stealth Jet. Blur
refused.
On
Your Own entered the UK top 5 and was easily one
of the best songs on Blur. It was fun and amusing
not unlike tracks from the Blur Britpop era.
M.O.R
caused Blur some trouble. They were 'apparently'
sued by David Bowie's record label because of how
similar it sounded to one of Bowie's hits. It
missed the top 10, but was a good song
nonetheless.
13 (1999)
13 was
Blur's much anticipated 6th studio album. It
followed on the lo-fi theme from the previous
self titled album, Blur. 13 was the first time
Blur had produced an album without veteran
producer Stephen Street. For this album they
opted to have Madonna producer William Orbit
produce the album.
Tender
shot into the charts at No.2 after an earlier
release mid0week due to demand. It was kept off
the top spot by Britney Spears' 'Baby One More
Time'
Coffee
and TV failed to make the top 10 due 40%
of its sales being delted by accident. This
infuriated the band, but Dave was quoted in
saying 'It's only a number'. The Coffee and TV
video has one many awards including one from NME.
No
Distance Left To Run was the final
release from the 13 album and again missed the
top 10. It's video featured the band sleeping and
was deemed 'too dull' by idle MTV chiefs who
refused to play it. The lack of interest in this
single showed in its chart placing. The singles B-sides
included Beagle 2, the song being sent in the
probe to Mars in 2003.
Think Tank (2003)
Possibly the last album Blur will release with Graham
Coxon on the credits. After being thrown out of the band,
Graham has concentrated more on his solo efforts. The Kiss Of
Morning was released a few months before Think Tank and was well
received by the critics. Graham expects to release his new album
in Spring 2004, which will feature the single "Freakin' Out".
With Think Tank Blur went experimental. Working with a
mixture of producers (including Fatboy Slim) tracks like
Crazy Beat were released. Also released were Good Song
and Out of Time, a track about the Iraq war.
