Blur - Parklife

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