Parklife
You'd have to stretch back to 1967 to London's psychedelic underground  (a time and a place that Blur is admittedly fond of) to find a band that revels  as much in its Britishness. And on its third album, Blur takes 30 years of cool  English rock, throws it into an art-punk Cuisinart, and ends up with a  masterpiece of timeless hooks and Cockney attitude. Like the Kinks at their  satirical best, Blur paints warm and funny portraits of quintessentially English  characters ("Tracy Jacks," "Parklife," "The Debt  Collector"), delivering them with early Small Faces swagger, wiggy Syd  Barrett-via-Julian Cope production, XTC circa "Respectable Street"  vocal hooks ("ooh-we-ooh"), and a cynical Buzzcocks detachment. The  band members are mods, of course, borrowing fashion tips from the pre-glam David  Bowie, tempos from the Jam, and actor Phil Daniels (the star ofQuadrophenia!) for a vocal cameo. "Magic America" is the best  bored with the U.S.A. song since the Clash, Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier sings  backing vocals, the Pet Shop Boys remixed the single, and the members of Blur  love Wire so much that they hired that band's old road manager. But enough namedropping:Parklifeis the album on which Blur proves that it's a  force to be reckoned with on its own terms, described by front man Damon Albarn  as a nocturnal travelogue of London; the only time the album leaves the  Motherland is on its lead track, the unbearably catchy single, "Girls &  Boys," which follows randy English youth on holiday to Greece.--Jim  DeRogatis