Blur-Modern Life is Rubbish (1993)

Track Listing:

1. For Tomorrow

2. Advert

3. Colin Zeal

4. Pressure on Julian

5. Star Shaped

6. Blue Jeans

7. Chemical World

8. Intermission

9. Sunday Sunday

10. Oily Water

11. Miss America

12. Villa Rosie

13. Coping

14. Turn It Up

15. Popscene

16. Resigned

17. Commercial Break

18. When The Cows Come Home

19. Peach

Best Track: For Tomorrow

90's Life is Rubbish more like...

The "Britpop" scene of the 90's almost felt like a backlash to the Grunge explosion at the start of that decade, and certainly revisiting the style of The Beatles (in the case of Oasis) and The Kinks/Jam (in the case of Blur) felt like a welcome contrast to the musical movement going on across the Atlantic. Modern Life is Rubbish really feels like the vanguard of the Britpop explosion, paving the way for both Blur and Oasis to release even huger albums.

Modern Life is undoubtably a subtle tip of the hat to The Kinks, especially The Village Green Preservation Society. Blur also added a touch of The Jam's attitude and blended it all into a 90's pop atmosphere. This mixture provides the album opener For Tomorrow with it's guitar pop buzz and it's chorus that's reminscent of the 60's. It's incredibly simple but it's also very addictive; who thought singing la-la-lala-la could make the centerpoint of a great song? Not me for one, but Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree certainly had the right idea.

Advert is punk meets The Kinks (ahem...The Jam?) and Colin Zeal is a slightly annoying but plausible attempt at creating a song like David Watts or Mr Clean. Pressure on Julian is a small improvement on that format with a nice swirling vocal hook from Albarn. (Pressure on Julliiiaaaaannn...) The stronger drumbeat on Star Shaped bangs down under Albarn's high pitched harmonies providing a solid combo that carries the song well. Blue Jeans has that very mellow 90's dreampop effect around it with something that sounds like an organ echoing below an easy and sweet acoustic guitar sound.

Chemical World describes the not-quite-perfect English suburban dream that Britpop was always so fond of. (The landlord said she's out in a week/What a shame she was just getting comfy) And then Coxon provides a guitar swirl that sounds like it's been chemically affected or something. Perhaps this is just a another subtle nod to their 60's influences (this one being psychedelia), but this feels original and fitting. Intermission is a bit of pointless filler that is still listenable with it's light piano before heading into a distorted guitar and bass cloud. Sunday Sunday has a pumping brassy funk about it while Oily Water has a choppy guitar and fuzzy bass interplay that gives me images of The Bends-era Radiohead, two years before they even released it! The whole song isn't completely satisfying; distorting Albarn's vocals doesn't come out very well and the guitar/bass interplay becomes a little bit tired as the song wears on. But it's not offensive in any way, which is kind of a signature sign of Britpop I guess. (And also one of it's greatest strengths)

The mellow, dreamy sound of Blue Jeans is touched on again in the song Miss America. The Blur boys seem to be giving across this high/stoned vibe with the lazy guitar flushes and light percussion, which works despite it kind of going agianst the theme of the album. Think of it as another tribute to the psychedelia of Barrett-era Pink Floyd and the like. In fact this song might have worked alright with Syd singing come to think of it... Villa Rosie has nice guitar spirals that turn into stronger riffing leading into Albarn's so English 'singalong' vocals. Coping has a punk throwback intro before moving into better suited guitar pop-rock. The shuddering synths provide a nice diversion to the guitar dominated sound, without totally blocking out the guitars. This time however, the "la la la la" outro trick isn't quite as melodic and attractive.

Turn It Up continues the Britpop formula, but it's a less memorable version compared to earlier tracks. Horns and grungey guitars are combined on Popscene to decent effect, but the horns feel wanky and overblown. They block out a nice keyboard melody below them which is a pity. Toning down the horns may have been the way to go, but you can't fault these guys to much for wanting to add a little diversity. Resigned is a laidback album closer that keeps the style of the album right to the end. And then of course there is the guitar workout of Commercial Break that probably should have been cut off from the album. The version that I have also includes the easy going English countryside funk of When The Cows Come Home and a peach of song, interestingly also called Peach! A relaxing 'early evening' synthy background surrounds Coxon's lassez faire guitar fuzz. To be honest, Peach is quite an excellent album finisher as well. It could of and should have easily found a spot on the album proper over the Commercial Break and Intermission ditties.

It's a bit too long, a bit too repetitive and a bit too British (That's not a bad thing) but ultimately Modern Life fills it's brief well. It's a pity that not many bands can make pop-rock like they did nowadays.

12/15