So, I was a bit of a double agent in the Britpop Wars. Outwardly at least, in my house, I was the Oasis fan and my sister was the Blur fan, but we both changed sides more often than a french Professor Snape. I first bought "Modern Life Is Rubbish" on cassette from the sadly missed Music Junction record shop in Tamworth in about 1995ish. My sister already had "Parklife" and I wanted to investigate further. "Modern Life Is Rubbish" is an album born from desperation. Blur had been backed into a corner by an indifferent public, outwardly hostile attention from the music press and worst of all, the burgeoning success of their arch rivals Suede. In addidition to all this the music industry in the early 90's was incredibly dominated by American music, and British bands attempting to sound American in response. This album was one of the main things to change that. Blur were at this point heavily influenced by The Kinks and The Small Faces and their English sounding pop songs abut suburban life were very important in putting the "Brit" in "Britpop".
Probably my favourite Blur album, When seeing them live recently, songs from "Modern Life Is Rubbish" have been hilights of the sets, not as overplayed as the singles from "Parklife" but stil retaining the same pop energy. Probably the best representation of the album is it's biggest single and opening track "For Tomorrow"...
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