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Dom Robinson reviews
EMI Chrysalis
- Cert: E
- Cat.no: 7243 4 92433 9 2
- Running time: 90 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 22
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
- Languages: English
- Lyrics: None
- Ratio: varies
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Discography
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 discoveredall the videos had been made available on a DVD as it provides the bestquality around for music videos along with the near-instant track accessthat 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 hittingthe top with their dire Roll With It in the battle of the two Britpopbands, Country House, the raucous football game anthem, Song 2and the award-winning video for Coffee + TV, which depicts a day inthe 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 andclassic slower tunes include To the End, End of a Century, theClockwork Orange-esque The Universal and last year’s No.2,Tender.
I’m also glad all these tracks have been placed in chronological order sincesome bands would’ve placed all their big hits at the front and certainly wouldnot have led with a track which barely scraped the Top 50, however good itwas.
I should say “nearly all”, though, since someone’s slipped up and juxtaposedParklife 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 thatthis hasn’t been included here, although a snippet of the track is playedover the main menu.
Their singles chart history to October 2000 is as follows :
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 amatted 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 areanamorphic, 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 aremainly stereo, but will have an element of surround sound leaking into therear speakers by default.
Extras. :The only extra, as such, is a discography, stating the chart positionsof each single on the DVD. It also includes the date of release, althougha number of these differ when compared with their subsequent chart entry inthe Guinness Book of Hit Singles.
The full track listing is as follows :
- 1. She’s So High2. There’s No Other Way3. Bang4. Popscene5. For Tomorrow6. Chemical World7. Sunday Sunday8. Girls and Boys9. Parklife10. To the End11. End of a Century
12. Country House13. The Universal14. Stereotypes15. Charmless Man16. Beetlebum17. Song 218. On Your Own19. M.O.R.20. Tender21. Coffee + TV22. 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/finishwith band logos like the recentThe Very Best of Elton JohnDVD release. A picture of each single sleeve is also shown preceeding itsrespective video.
I’m not sure if the blurring-out of corporate logos in the Beetlebumvideo is something that has been done for this compilation or whether itwas 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 ifit will be pumped directly into the cerebral cortex…
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLCheck out theOfficial Blur site.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.