Blur - Parklife

I don’t have enough examples to prove this, but it seems like a lot of British songwriting in the 90’s was focused on basically observing British stuff happening in British places. Lyrics like “walking down the street, there’s a man over there, he’s waiting on a bus with a hole in his umbrellarr” that sound like something you’d write in your journal when you’ve got complete writer’s block. I’m reminded of the Who song “In Tune,” which musically is great but lyrically is one of the most annoying songs ever written in my humble opinion. The song starts:

“I'm singing this note 'cause it fits in well with the chords I'm playing
I can't pretend there's any meaning hidden in the things I'm saying”

It’s nonsense, filler, fluff, and the Who at least seem ashamed enough to admit it. It’s like how every literary novelist writes characters who are also novelists and love libraries and books and cozy cups of hot coffee - another huge pet peeve of mine. I love those things too, but come on, authors could at least pretend they’re not writing just to meet a word count quota instead of having something real to say. The only good example I can think of where the songwriter is songwriting about songwriting is “25 or 6 to 4”, but that song is still carried by the incredible musical arrangement, not the lyrics, which are catchy nonsense. Anyway, rant over. On to Parklife.

Parklife has a lot of that observational, “guy meandering around the park” kind of songwriting, but for some reason I found myself enjoying it far more than other examples I’ve found in the past. Maybe it’s because there’s more of a concept to this album than other examples - sure, Blur is engaging in some observational lyric writing, but it’s not like they’re pretending there’s a deeper meaning to the music like, say, Oasis seems to do. The protagonist wandering around (and sleeping in) the park is the whole point. And it’s also upbeat, without the gray dreariness I also associate (perhaps unfairly) with British observational alt rock songs. The protagonist (is Tracy Jacks the protagonist? In my head he is) has had some bad times, sure, but he’s bopping along with a little electro-pop beat in his head and things feel on the verge of looking up. It’s more “I woke up in a Soho gaol where a policeman knew my name” than “I’m in tune”, like a jaunty rock ‘n roll slice of life story for the alt-rock-but-slightly-electropop-at-times genre.

From the roundup Jamwise #47 - Best Albums of 1994, pt. 2.