Blur, one of Britain's premier bands, presents all the videos from the band's 10 year history in chronological order, including their biggest U.S. hit, "Song 2." Songs: She's So High, There's No Other Way, Bang, Popscene,... more » For Tomorrow, Chemical World, Sunday Sunday, Girls And Boys, To The End, Parklife, End Of A Century, Country House, The Universal, Stereotypes, Charmless Man, Bettlebum, Song 2, On Your Own, M.O.R., Tender, Coffee And Tea, No Distance Left To Run.« less
This is an instructional video. "How to make a Blur fan."
02/13/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Putting aside that the music is fantastic, as you would expect from Blur, the videos are very interesting both individually and collecitvely. It is enthralling to watch this band develop and mature over the 7-year time period encapsulated in this DVD. The confidence displayed in The Universal and To The End is rare and makes one lament even more the current state of American music. I don't think Matchbox 20 has the gumption to emulate Kubrick.Coffee and TV may be the best video ever made and the videos for For Tomorrow, Bang and A Chemical World succeed despite their relative simplicity because the songs are that good. That is why this DVD succeeds. Even when the videos are subpar (compared to others on the disc), the songs are more than enough to carry them and watching Damon Albarn grow into his role as front man for a world class band is one of the more interesting things for a fan to see.This is a fantastic collection of songs and videos from one of the best bands the world produced in the 90's. If you like Blur, you must own it. If you don't like Blur (yet) you must own it, because you will will like Blur. And you should."
Essential Historical Document For Blur Fans
sonicsuburbanite | Chattanooga TN USA | 01/29/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For years, Blur fans in the US have had to get Blur videos by taping them from scarce MTV appearances or by trading tapes. Now we can finally have all 22 promo videos in chronological order, free from static and annoying station IDs. There's ten years of great English pop music here - you can watch the band go through all their phases in less than two hours, and very entertaining it is too. The videos themselves range wildly in quality ("she's so high" and "girls & boys" being low points) but there's some great stuff here, from the frenetic "popscene"- the obvious predecessor of the more well-known bouncing-off-the-walls "song 2" video, the charming black-and-white view of london in "for tomorrow",the bleak futurism of "the universal" and the strangely heartwarming (not to mention hilarious) "coffee & TV." Classic."
Excellent, complete retrospective well packaged...
sonicsuburbanite | 04/24/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Perhaps the best enjoyment of this complete video compilation is the 90's britpop nostalgia. These are some of the freshest, catchy tunes from the past decade put over film of variable quality. The bigger gems, 'Parklife', 'The Universal', 'Charmless Man', 'Song 2', 'M.O.R.' and 'Coffee & TV' make this a must have DVD for any Blur fan. The remaining videos are fairly lower peg, but are still great because they allow the viewer to see Blur progress and age as a band. Sure, some reviewers have slagged videos like 'Boys & Girls', but it brings back memories; I can remember what was going on in my life by the Blur videos in rotation at that time. The DVD is excellently packaged with an incredible menu allowing you to get pertinent information about the singles and videos, a video picker disguised as advertisements on brick walls, and the cover of each single prominently displayed before the video. Over all, very inventive and thorogh. If you like Blur this DVD is a must buy."
Fantastic dvd for any music fan
cornchips | Sydney, NSW Australia | 01/12/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I bought this DVD as a new fan of Blur and was not disappointed-just as i had a feeling that their songs were quite special, alot of their filmclips are also great as well...my favourites are 'Charmless Man' which is funny just because the band keep following the charmless man around, 'To the end' is a perfect filmclip for a very nice song as well as the impeccable 'Coffee and TV' which will have you bopping along in no time...i think Damon Albarn is a great actor in terms of making his filmclips and Graham Coxon is very cute (espec in coffee and tv!)...all in all a really nice musical dvd for any collection. I highly recommend buying it even if you have the slightest liking for any of the blur filmclips because chances are you'll like the band and their music even better after viewing it. As a final tip, buy the best of Blur cd too as it obviously has all their best stuff plus the fantastic 'This is a low' which is not avaliable on the dvd!"
Comprehensive collection of the best UK band of the 90s
Michael Topper | Pacific Palisades, California United States | 06/21/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Blur were the UK's best band of the 90s and also made some of
the best videos of that decade; their character observations made
for good visuals, and lead singer Albarn was a formidable screen presence. As mentioned by others here, this DVD moves in chronological order and charts their progress from the low-budget
look for videos like "She's So High" (still a great psych-pop song) through their acclaimed Britpop period (where they achieved a very classy update of the Kinks/Small Faces sound on tracks like "Sunday Sunday", "For Tomorrow" and "Parklife"), through their one US hit "Song 2" and onto the edgier later material. Each video was unique, with striking imagery that expertly parodied other film styles, such as "Last Year At Marienbad" ("To The End"), "A Clockwork Orange" ("The Universal"), gangsta rap videos ("On Your Own"), concert footage ("End Of A Century") and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" ("Country House"), along with some innovative new ideas (such as the intimate, eerie sleep session in "No Distance Left To Run").As a huge Blur fan, I found myself singing along to every song; there's not really a duff one in the bunch, although the real
masterpieces include "She's So High", "Popscene", "For Tomorrow", "Parklife", "Stereotypes", "The Universal", "Song 2",
"Tender" and "No Distance Left To Run". The video for "Coffee + TV" is a scream, and won many awards at the time. The group never stood still and watching them progress is a delight, and their success was well-deserved. Albarn was the true heir to Ray Davies' sophisticated lyrical vision and his vocals were infinitely better than his contemporaries (Oasis, anyone?); when combined with his teen-idol looks the package was complete. "The Best Of Blur" is highly recommended and gives one a taste of the best of mainstream UK pop music in the last 15 years: it doesn't get much better than this. Wooh-hoo!"