Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur

Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur is a two-disc compilation album by Blur, released by EMI Records on 15 June 2009 (2009-06-15). It is Blur's second retrospective collection, succeeding 2000's Blur: The Best Of and coincides with the band's 2009 reunion performances.[10]

Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur
Greatest hits album by
Blur
Released15 June 2009 (UK)[1]
28 July 2009 (US)[2]
Recorded1990 – 1998; 2002
GenreBritpop, alternative rock
Length107:46
LabelEMI
ProducerStephen Street, William Orbit, Ben Hillier, Steve Lovell, Steve Power
Blur chronology
Think Tank
(2003)		 Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur
(2009)		 All the People... Blur: Live at Hyde Park
(2009)
Damon Albarn chronology
Journey to the West
(2008)		 Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur
(2009)		 All the People: Blur Live at Hyde Park
(2009)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(86/100)[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Digital Spy[5]
musicOMH[6]
Pitchfork Media(9.4/10)[7]
Rolling Stone[8]
Uncut[9]

Background

Spanning the breadth of Blur's recorded history from its inception, Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur features a larger sampling of material from 1993's Modern Life Is Rubbish (including the single-only "Popscene" from the same era) than on Blur: The Best Of, in addition to material from 2003's Think Tank, Blur's second most recent studio release, coming out before 2015's The Magic Whip.

Track listing

All songs written by Blur (Albarn/Coxon/James/Rowntree), except for "Out of Time" and "Good Song", which were written by Albarn/James/Rowntree.

Disc one
No.TitleOriginal albumLength
1."Beetlebum"Blur5:04
2."Girls & Boys" (single edit)Parklife4:19
3."For Tomorrow" (Visit to Primrose Hill extended version)Modern Life Is Rubbish6:00
4."Coffee & TV" (single edit)135:19
5."Out of Time"Think Tank3:52
6."Blue Jeans"Modern Life Is Rubbish3:53
7."Song 2"Blur2:02
8."Bugman"134:51
9."He Thought of Cars"The Great Escape4:16
10."Death of a Party" (7″ remix)Blur4:15
11."The Universal"The Great Escape3:59
12."Sing"Leisure6:01
13."This Is a Low"Parklife5:00
Disc two
No.TitleOriginal albumLength
1."Tender"137:42
2."She's So High" (single edit)Leisure3:50
3."Chemical World" (radio edit)Modern Life Is Rubbish3:53
4."Good Song"Think Tank3:06
5."Parklife"Parklife3:07
6."Advert"Modern Life Is Rubbish3:44
7."Popscene"Non-album single3:15
8."Stereotypes"The Great Escape3:11
9."Trimm Trabb"135:37
10."Badhead"Parklife3:28
11."Strange News from Another Star"Blur4:03
12."Battery in Your Leg"Think Tank3:20

Personnel

Musicians
  • Damon Albarn – vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar
  • Graham Coxon – guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Coffee & TV", co-lead vocals on "Tender" (not featured on "Out of Time" or "Good Song")
  • Alex James – bass
  • Dave Rowntree – drums

Other personnel
  • Blur – Producer
  • Jack Clark – Mixing Assistant
  • Al Clay – Mixing
  • Jason Cox – Engineer
  • Tom Girling – Assistant Producer
  • Stephen Hague – Producer, Engineer
  • Ben Hillier – Producer, Mixing
  • Jeff Knowler – Assistant Engineer
  • Damian leGassick – Programming
  • Steve Lovell – Producer
  • Gerard Navarro – Assistant Engineer
  • William Orbit – Producer, Engineer
  • James Oliver – Design
  • Steve Power – Producer
  • Iain Roberton – Assistant Engineer
  • Andy Ross – Engineer
  • John Smith – Producer, Engineer
  • Sean Spuehler – Programming
  • Stephen Street – Producer, Engineer

Charts and certifications

References
  1. Michaels, Sean (21 May 2009). "Blur to release comeback compilation" – via The Guardian.
  2. Archived 31 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Midlife: A Beginner's Guide To Blur by Blur".
  4. Allmusic review
  5. "Blur: 'Midlife: A Beginner's Guide To'". 19 June 2009.
  6. "musicOMH review".
  7. "Blur: Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur Album Review - Pitchfork". pitchfork.com.
  8. "Midlife: A Beginners Guide to Blur".
  9. "Album review: Blur - Midlife: A Beginner's - Review - Uncut.co.uk". 5 December 2010. Archived from the original on 5 December 2010.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. "Capitol/EMI to Release Career-Spanning Blur Collection, 'Midlife: A Beginner's Guide To Blur,' on... – HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 26 /PRNewswire/". California, England: Prnewswire.com. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  11. "ミッドライフ／ブラー-リリース-ORICON STYLE-ミュージック" [Highest position and charting weeks of Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur by Blur] (in Japanese). oricon.co.jp. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  12. "Blur > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  13. "British album certifications – Blur – Midlife". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Midlife in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
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