Hi all,
Blur will shortly be releasing a box-set entitled "21". After fearing they would never see the light of day, I notice that one of the disks of bonus material contains three of the aborted Andy-produced songs from the "Modern Life Is Rubbish" sessions. Finally, we get a chance to compare and contrast, and decide for ourselves whether Dave Balfe was correct in pulling-the-plug. I, for one, am looking forward to it!
Cheers,
Dom

Sounds great... but I just checked amazon.uk and it's

(wait for it)


£401.20!?!?!?

I hope this is a mistake... it has to be.

It mightn't be. That kind of thing is why I ignored the recent Smiths box set. Well, that and I realised that Morrissey was like someone I was friends with back in high school, but now find myself completely unable to relate to, because they hadn't matured or changed in the intervening years.

So, '21' hey. It seems to follow the usual box set pattern:

- The seven albums I'd already own if I liked Blur enough to buy this, (of which I own two), most likely remastered with the most up-to-date technology to sound great on your mobile phone speaker;

- The B-Sides, which were already compiled on a previous box set, which you'd probably already have as well if you'd buy this;

- Hardcover book with interviews on their career, if you're dying to hear ancedotes from Alex James about working with Betty Boo;

- 3 DVDs;

- an exclusive 7 inch 'previously-unreleased' vinyl record, which is excluded from the 21: Vinyl Box, thereby negating its own claims of being 'definitive';

- the 4CDS of unreleased ephemera that wasn't good enought to be released at the time, (a time during which English bands were scraping to fill two or three cds with ephemeral tracks for each confusingly-named 'Single' release, to try to drive their songs higher in the charts by exploiting fan's collector mentality).

Of course they're not going to release the rarities on their own - they're trying to guarantee you'll pay premium price for the release because You're Older Now and supposedly have the disposable income to splurge on a shrine to your fading youth. Yeah, it's maybe worth it if you don't already own the albums, but I'll just wait for some richer-bastard-than-me to inevitably YouTube the tracks in question. Given people's love of XTC and Blur, nothing could ever match expectations. I expect it will end in tears, (though not the sublime Lilac Time one).

That's a glorious reply, Len, a most eloquent critique of the 21 project, and you've persuaded me to save my pennies (not that I needed much persuading, in fact almost none). But can you really not bring yourself to splash out on the Smiths box set? Seems to me that's an entirely different kettle of ball games. I think the slimmed down version of that release is very reasonably priced, and surely worth the price of admission just to hear that those golden M&M favourites in all their pristineness. Let's say I'm definitely teetering.

As for Lilac Time's It'll End In Tears... sublime? Well, I do think they got sublimier than that, but that's just my angle. What I do hear on that track is some very Dukesy (Vanishing Girl-esque) backing vocals. An AP production I guess. That would explain all.

Like I say, great critique, man.

Sorry, edited for uncharitability...

So how many copies do you get for the best part of a monkey?

...now I'm all interested in what you originally said, you man of mystery you!

I have the vast majority of what being touted, but nabbing all the b-sides collected together would be nice and the chance to check out the aborted Partridge sessions is compelling- bit pricey though...

Bimble! Were you expressing disparaging sentiments regarding Alex James? If so then I think this is currently acceptable due to the following mortifying reason...


...unforgivable (great bassist though!)

No I wasn't. I, strangely, quite like Alex James, but then I do like a bit of cheese, MXYZPTLK lad! Perhaps he's smiling as he's let off a great big farty guff just upwind of them and he's waiting for it to reach them? I have also to confess that, despite his objectionable views on many aspects, I find Jeremy Clarkson funny as fuck. I like to think that at home he's a Guardian-reading, slightly left-leaning nice man who puts on that arsehole character when at work. Yeah, I know.

Cameron, however, is an irredeemable cvnt.

Yeah, Jezza doesn't wind me up that much, it's more the unfortunate papoosed Cameron & Clarkeson sandwich that Alex has stumbled into- it could be worse, they could all be laughing like hyenas over some private joke but this would inevitably usher in a rain of frogs, plague of locusts and the rapture...


....or something.

Parklife

ALL THE PEOPLE, SO MANY PEOPLE!

I just checked back with amazon.uk and the price is down to a much more reasonable - and I found quite amazing really - £120.37. I pre-ordered it right away, and my reciept says I got it for £100.31 - even better! Add on £3.08 shipping and I think I just got the deal of the year (so far).
Now, I have to the end of July to save up for it

So, has anyone else got this yet?
Mine arrived yesterday from amazon.ca... $123.28 and free shipping (so much better than the £401.20 I first reported back in April). I'm starting at the beginning and I'm just through Leisure and MLiR (and their bonus discs) and the remastering is superb. Not to mention the overall packaging - really well done...
If I continue listening chronologically, it will be the weekend before I get to the Andy Partridge produced tracks though.
But it will be a most enjoyable ride getting there!

(from Facebook)

The Independent - Blur 21: The Box

"But it's the tracks produced by XTC's Andy Partridge that are the most exciting, particularly a take of "Coping" as edgy and thrilling as a 1960s psych-rocker, and a version of "Sunday Sunday" with a Beatlesque tone, in the parochial-rococo manner of Magical Mystery Tour."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertai...nd-7979271.html