Modern Life Is Rubbish

A bloated nothing of an album. The only song worth listening to was Chemical World which was instrumental. 1/5

OK album, but felt very long. Didn't listen to the whole second disc that Spotify had as part of the album as it was just extras and I didn't really enjoy this enough to continue listening to more. 2.5/5

I got this as a teenager and always felt like I'd bought the wrong Blur album because it just didn't connect at all. A couple decades letter, I can appreciate it a bit more, though primarily as a historical touchstone. It's a foundational bit of Britpop that draws on tradition of UK powerpop for tight melodic songwriting and some of the sounds of the era's alt/indie rock for its fuzzy energy. Rejected by America, they delve deep into Briticana with ironic art-school eccentricity and authentic ecclecticism. It's well crafted and put together, sounds great, cool use of effects, lots of clever song-writing tricks and catchy melodies. It's wry and whimsical, serious about musicality but uninterested in the dark gloomy depression of grunge, instead creating the definitive Britpop mood of optimistic nostalgia. But it's also got too much annoying stuff and none of it is as good as their next two albums. The foundation rather than the pinnacle of this 60s-yearning brand of 90s guitar pop. Can't help but feel Blur would be better represented as a Best Of band not an albums band.

Whoever keeps making these double-length special issues the default on Spotify is not doing anyone a favor - just give me the original tracklist FFS! Not some bloated monstrosity full of unwanted extras and bonus tracks and remixes and outtakes.

Favorites: For Tomorrow, Colin Zeal, Oily Water

It was a fine showing, fun songs, good instrumentation

Have never really listened to more than a few of their tracks. Really fun album. Really creatively punky. Loved it.

Modern Life Is Rubbish, along with Parklife, is the most British album i think i have ever heard. Everything about this album just screamed England from the title to Damon's voice to a lot of the musical ideas and i really like this album for that. The album generally sounds great with some well done guitars and fun musical offshoots which don't get distracting which really helped this album in the long run. I like this album more than Parklife since there was never a point in the album which was distractingly different from the rest of the album. The self-titled album may still be better but i still think this album is really good.
Best Song: Turn It Up
Worst Song: Miss America
Side note: Since i reviewed every Blur album on this project, I'm gonna do what i did with Simon & Garfunkel and rank all their albums on this project so, here goes
1. Blur
2. Modern Life Is Rubbish
3. Parklife

A double album that really didnt need to be a double album, and the Maggie May cover was awful

This is probably my second favorite Blur album. It's very strong, start to finish. Has been on my playlist since the 90s and will continue to be. Great album.

This album is kind of rubbish. I just don't see the appeal yet. How is it that these guys were the rivals of Oasis? How is this album any better or more important than any of the million other Brit rock albums this list has?

Most of the songs sound the same, but they are okay to run in the background

I love some of Blur’s later work, especially 13. But like many Americans I was unaware that they had any albums before Parklife, which makes sense, because while this one is okay with some very cool moments, overall it’s just a bit too British for my taste.

I'm still Team Oasis 30 years later, Modern Life Is Rubbish? Well, yeah, and so is this album...

meh.

It's good, but not great. Lyrics miss the mark, even though the subjects are interesting. Musically the album starts off very strong with the first couple of songs, but then fizzles a bit to the end. It's about 20 minutes too long.

I don’t love Albarn’s voice, but goddamn, I really like just about everything else. Really cool stuff. Excited to check out more.

4/5

Sehr interessantes Album mit durchweg spannender Kombination aus klassischen E-Guitar Elementen und experimentellen Soundeffekten. „Sunday Sunday“ und „Blue Jeans“ sind gelungene Beispiele - aber es sind auch einige Songs vorhaben die überexperementiert sind 😉.

I am surprised I like this more the Parklife, as that is generally considered the better album by the band, but there was just something here I enjoyed a lot more. I think the british-ness of it all isn't too overwhelmingly annoying, more Supergrass-esque, less Oasis. Nothing mind blowing, but this one was good. Went on too long, though, and that's removing the two hidden tracks seemingly not apart of modern digital releases.

I liked it, but not as much as self-titled & Parklife

This ain’t a bad album, but Blur have better albums on this list, I don’t think this one needs to be here.

Although this does mean they get one over on Oasis with their 3 albums vs Oasis’s 2 albums on the list. But a 2-2 draw would of be a fairer result, in-line with their other Brit pop contemporaries Pulp, Suede and the Verve.

Easy-Listening-Britpop. Ik word er gewoon wel relaxted van. Zelfs een vriendje (9) van mijn zoontje ging er even lekker voor zitten. Het doorstaat de tand des tijds dus prima. En ook de album-titel lijkt mij prima houdbaar...