Recorded for the “Best Of” album, but the label decided the b-side Music Is My Radar would be more radio friendly.

The song slowly builds and has a tension and a spirit that can only be rivaled by Tender. Damon shouting “give me my soul, give you my soul” and Graham’s disjointed noisy guitar it represents everything that is amazing about blur.

Also I wanted to add that Midlife is worth picking up even if you own all the blur records because it has alternate mixes that are quite different than the originals. For Tomorrow and Chemical World stand out the most. These are not the mixes that appear on the American (more guitars) or UK versions of Modern Life.

It’s sullen and sedate, a perfect middle ground between the soaring pop of “For Tomorrow” and the over-stylised “Chemical World”, all housed on album which captured the band in a state of metamorphosis between baggy chancers and the Next Big Thing. Often the best songs on Blur albums weren’t the singles, this gem in particular, which is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. For the first timer, the deep end looms large — “Blue Jeans” tests the water.

There’s obviously the Kinks sentiment that others above have mentioned and the song wouldn’t be out of place in the Davies Bros. time honoured tradition of taking the piss out of Brit society.
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But it also touches deeper than simple satire and there’s lots to love in little things. The way they stretch out the “terminally” in the first verse., etc.

I guess I choose this song because its one of my favourite Blur songs to sing a long to. ANd if you’re indoctrinating someone whose previous familiarity is probably limited to Song #2 I thought it would be wise to trade one sing a long for another.

-G.

Honestly, it was either For Tomorrow, Coffee and TV or End of a Century and I had to give it to Parklife in the end.

I’m going to start with their most promintent song: “Song 2″ simply because its the only one I know and it will act as a gateway song. Following that 2.5 assault on my eardrums I’m going to pick up the record that appeared on and listen to that all the way through and see where that will take me on my quest for Blur.

It’s the one that I’d always throw on a mix-tape when I was making them (that and To The End) and it strikes the perfect balance of Bowie and The Kinks that they seemed to be aiming for at that point in time in their career…

I know that they aimed for “epic” elsewhere in their career, but they never got it quite this right!

I think it encapsulates so much of the band’s sound – the swagger and almost carnival sound of the keyboard, the soaring vocals not just pigeon-holing Blur as a basic Brit Pop band, and the gently gorgeous song-writing. A near perfect song… and most people will know the “Woo Hoo” of Song 2, so this shows them why Blur mattered even though their most famous song was a pretty obvious send up of the genre it was written in – and an almost complete 180 from that sound.