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The Best of Blur is something I've been waiting for for a long time.
I was pleased to see the CD in the shops and even more so when I discovered
all the videos had been made available on a DVD as it provides the best
quality around for music videos along with the near-instant track access
that a CD can provide for the audio equivalent.
Highlights for many people include the popular hits There's No Other Way,
the one with the initially-hard-to-remember chorus, Girls and Boys,
Phil Daniels appearing in Parklife, the No.1 that stopped Oasis hitting
the top with their dire Roll With It in the battle of the two Britpop
bands, Country House, the raucous football game anthem, Song 2
and the award-winning video for Coffee + TV, which depicts a day in
the life of a milk carton and how it, briefly, finds love. Aah!
The early tracks also stand out just as well as they did originally and
classic slower tunes include To the End, End of a Century, the
Clockwork Orange-esque The Universal and last year's No.2,
Tender.
I'm also glad all these tracks have been placed in chronological order since
some bands would've placed all their big hits at the front and certainly would
not have led with a track which barely scraped the Top 50, however good it
was.
I should say "nearly all", though, since someone's slipped up and juxtaposed
Parklife and To The End, despite what the back of the box says,
but that's not a major deal.
Any fans of the recent single, Music Is My Radar, should note that
this hasn't been included here, although a snippet of the track is played
over the main menu.
Their singles chart history to October 2000 is as follows :
Oct 90 No.48 She's So High
Apr 91 No. 8 There's No Other Way
Aug 91 No.24 Bang
Apr 92 No.32 Popscene
May 93 No.28 For Tomorrow
Jul 93 No.28 Chemical World
Oct 93 No.26 Sunday Sunday
Mar 94 No. 5 Girls and Boys
Jun 94 No.16 To the End
Sep 94 No. 2 Parklife
Nov 94 No.19 End of a Century
Aug 95 No. 1 Country House
Nov 95 No. 5 The Universal
Feb 96 No. 7 Stereotypes
May 96 No. 5 Charmless Man
Feb 97 No. 1 Beetlebum
Apr 97 No. 2 Song 2
Jun 97 No. 5 On Your Own
Sep 97 No.15 M.O.R.
Mar 99 No. 2 Tender
Jul 99 No.11 Coffee + TV
Nov 99 No.14 No Distance Left To Run
Oct 00 No.10 Music is My Radar
When it comes to picture quality, all of the music promos look fantastic.
Many of them are in standard 4:3 fullscreen, while others are shot at a
matted widescreen ratio, the widest being the near 2.35:1 for Coffee +
TV. My only complaint is that none of those at 16:9 or wider are
anamorphic, not that I really expected them to be.
The average bitrate is 4.93Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound is first rate. All tracks are in Dolby Digital 2.0, which are
mainly stereo, but will have an element of surround sound leaking into the
rear speakers by default.
Extras. :
The only extra, as such, is a discography, stating the chart positions
of each single on the DVD. It also includes the date of release, although
a number of these differ when compared with their subsequent chart entry in
the Guinness Book of Hit Singles.
The full track listing is as follows :
1. She's So High
2. There's No Other Way
3. Bang
4. Popscene
5. For Tomorrow
6. Chemical World
7. Sunday Sunday
8. Girls and Boys
9. Parklife
10. To the End
11. End of a Century
12. Country House
13. The Universal
14. Stereotypes
15. Charmless Man
16. Beetlebum
17. Song 2
18. On Your Own
19. M.O.R.
20. Tender
21. Coffee + TV
22. No Distance Left To Run
Overall, despite the lack of real extras this is a must-buy for any Blur fan,
especially if they were contemplating the CD. Also - and quite importantly -
all the videos are shown completely with no editing out the start/finish
with band logos like the recent
The Very Best of Elton John
DVD release. A picture of each single sleeve is also shown preceeding its
respective video.
I'm not sure if the blurring-out of corporate logos in the Beetlebum
video is something that has been done for this compilation or whether it
was originally like that.
Check back in 2010 when we hope to have a review of The Best of Blur 2,
although it remains unclear whether it'll be available on DVD, HD-DVD or if
it will be pumped directly into the cerebral cortex...
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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
