Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur

Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur
Greatest hits album by Blur
Released	15 June 2009 (UK)[1] 28 July 2009 (US)[2]
Recorded	1990 – 1998; 2002
Genre	Britpop, alternative rock
Length	107:46
Label	EMI
Producer	Stephen 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
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(86/100)[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[4]
Digital Spy	[5]
musicOMH	[6]
Pitchfork Media	(9.4/10)[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Uncut	[9]

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). Designed as a sampler for casual listeners, and with a greater focus on the band's career highlights rather than their hit singles, it is Blur's second retrospective collection, succeeding 2000's Blur: The Best Of and coincides with the band's 2009 reunion performances.^[10]

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, except for "Out of Time" and "Good Song", which were written by Albarn/James/Rowntree.

Disc one

1. "Beetlebum" (from Blur) – 5:04
2. "Girls & Boys" [Single Edit] (from Parklife) – 4:19
3. "For Tomorrow" [Visit to Primrose Hill Extended Version] (from Modern Life Is Rubbish) – 6:00
4. "Coffee & TV" [Single Edit] (from 13) – 5:19
5. "Out of Time" (from Think Tank) – 3:52
6. "Blue Jeans" (from Modern Life Is Rubbish) – 3:53
7. "Song 2" (from Blur) – 2:02
8. "Bugman" (from 13) – 4:51
9. "He Thought of Cars" (from The Great Escape) – 4:16
10. "Death of a Party" [7" Remix] (from Blur) – 4:15
11. "The Universal" (from The Great Escape) – 3:59
12. "Sing" (from Leisure) – 6:01
13. "This Is a Low" (From Parklife) – 5:00

Disc two

1. "Tender" (from 13) – 7:42
2. "She's So High" [7" Edit] (from Leisure) – 3:50
3. "Chemical World" [Single Edit] (from Modern Life Is Rubbish) – 3:53
4. "Good Song" (from Think Tank) – 3:06
5. "Parklife" (From Parklife) – 3:07
6. "Advert" (from Modern Life Is Rubbish) – 3:44
7. "Popscene" (from Popscene single) – 3:15
8. "Stereotypes" (from The Great Escape) – 3:11
9. "Trimm Trabb" (from 13) – 5:37
10. "Badhead" (From Parklife) – 3:28
11. "Strange News from Another Star" (from Blur) – 4:03
12. "Battery in Your Leg" (from Think Tank) – 3:20

Personnel

Musicians

• Damon Albarn – vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar
• Graham Coxon – guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Coffee & TV", co-lead vocals on "Tender".
• 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

References

External links

• Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)
• Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur at Metacritic