![]() At the time, there was a lot of (deserved) sniping at the class tourism of the album. That impression only increased when I got my hands on the album, Parklife, which is the urtext of Britpop. I argued with schoolfriends about one lyric: was it “Love in the 90s / Is paradise” or (my take, informed by a faux-worldly knowledge of the Aids crisis and STDs) “Love in the 90s / Is paranoid”? When I found out I was right, I knew Blur were the band for me. “Looking for girls who want boys who like boys who do girls who do boys like they’re girls who do girls like they’re boys,” chants singer Damon Albarn, rounding off sardonically with: “Always should be someone to really love.” The song is a celebration of the randy pick’n’mix of the classic 18-to-30 holiday. What I recognised, from the first squelching bars of “Girls and Boys” in 1994, was something brash, knowing and crucially saucy, which is different to sexy and definitively British. But I would have done, and I understand what’s absurd about that time as the things that were appealing then, not that I’d have known it as such. Also they’re all called Sarah and the first single they bought was “Girls and Boys” by Blur and the first proper gig they went to was Blur’s Mile End concert in 1995.Īctually I don’t resemble the type perfectly - I’m marginally too young, and couldn’t vote for New Labour in 1997. Now they’re in their forties or fifties, confounded by a world that has failed to live up to their theories. They laughed at the idea of the “end of history”, but were surprised when it turned out they didn’t live there. They reclaimed the Union Jack, but they never saw Brexit coming. Noel Gallagher at Number 10 with Tony Blair. The charge sheet against the so-called Britpoppers is this: they were caught up in that mid-nineties moment when the UK, half-ironically and also not, reclaimed its pomp. They were caught up in that mid-nineties moment when the UK, half-ironically and also not, reclaimed its pomp ![]() ![]() Number one, how dare you and number two, I’m not even sure you understand what Britpop was. I am a tolerant woman (this is a lie) with a healthy sense of humour about myself (also a lie), but I was roused to uncharacteristic fury recently when I saw that the word “Britpopper” had been adopted as a political insult (another lie, I have usually made myself livid about half a dozen trivial things by the average lunchtime). ![]() Parklife lyric full#To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issue for just £10. This article is taken from the May 2021 issue of The Critic. ![]()
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