The Best Of Blur

Greatest hits collection from one of the UK's best-loved bands, which demonstrates their ability for consistently writing super-catchy, radio-friendly singles. Features all their biggest tunes, from the debut album 'Leisure' right up to 1999's '13'.|

Its boring to point out omissions on hits compilations, especially when a collection is as generous as the 18-track The Best of Blur, but lets do it anyway. The Best of Blur largely bypasses the groups key album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, the record that invented Brit-pop, skewing in favor of the self-consciously experimental 13, which, for all of its attributes, wasnt a singles album. Plus, the group continues to punish the British record-buying public by not including the brilliant Pop Scene (to beat a dead horse, the single that invented Brit-pop), since nobody bought it at the time. So, without Pop Scene, Chemical World, or Sunday Sunday, a crucial chapter of Blurs history is missing from The Best of Blur -- the chapter where they essentially became Blur. Its to their immense credit that the album doesnt feel like its missing anything, since these singles (plus one album track) are dazzling on their own. Of course, the trick is that the record isnt assembled chronologically. Instead, it flows like a set list, complete with the set closer This Is a Low followed by a two-song encore that ends with the new song (the good, not great, Music Is My Radar), which not only gives it a momentum of its own, but draws attention to the songs themselves. And dazzling isnt hyperbole -- based on these 18 songs, Blur arent just the best pop band of the 90s, with greater range and depth than their peers; they rank among the best pop bands of all time. The Best of Blur illustrates that, even as it misses some of their best moments -- omissions that prevent it from being the flat-out classic it should be. Even so, its pretty damn terrific, particularly for the unconverted. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine