Blur versus Oasis

Parklife versus Definitely Maybe

These 2 albums are probably the quintessential Britpop albums, both from the same year (1994 - separated by 4 months), and is pretty much where the media starting wetting itself about "it's The Beatles vs The Stones again".  No it wasn't it, it was 2 bands - one from the north, one from the south - releasing their statements which chimed with the times and the public lapped it up.
So ...

Blur started life as a bit of a baggy-copyist band riding on the wave of Happy Mondays-esques indie-dance stuff.  They scored a hit with "There's No Other Way" followed by a relatively disappointing album 'Leisure'.
In some debt, they released "Popscene" (the record where Britpop started?) followed by the album "Modern Life Is Rubbish" - an album bathed in the Britpop aesthetic and celebrating their culture in the face of Grunge.  Sadly for Blur, Nirvana and Pearl Jam proved to be slightly more popular, and "Modern Life ..." didn't do the business.
Still being in debt did not obviously dent Blur's creativity, and the next album was written and recorded relatively painlessly and relatively quickly - although record label boss Dave Balfe though it was an error, and not a great album.
The public obviously disagreed and 'Parklife' debuted at number one and hung around the consciousness for the best part of 2 years.

Meanwhile, somewhere up north ...

A small-time rehersal room band are joined by the singers older brother.
He's got a couple of songs for them to try, and a vision for how the band should operate.
They tag along with a friends band to Glasgow and blag their way onto the bill.  Alan McGee is in the audience that night and is impressed.
Their first recording (proper) was a white label demo of "Columbia" sent out to journalists and radio stations to some acclaim.
The lead single followed ("Supersonic") in April 1994 - just as 'Parklife' hit the shelves - and the album - 'Definitely Maybe' - came in August 1994.
Too much too quick?  Could they keep it up?
Fortuitously they had hit a rich seam of crowd-pleasing anthemic songs perfectly in tune with the collision of Britpop, Cool Britannia and Lad Culture.  This particular wave was going to be surfed ...



"Girls & Boys" vs "Rock n Roll Star"
"Girls & Boys" is really lightweight - it smacks of "there you go, the hit single you were asking for Mr Record Company".
"Rock n Roll Star" meanwhile comes storming out full of attitude, sneering and over enunciated lyrics, backed up with a wall of noise.
When Liam says: "Tonight, I'm a Rock n Roll Star" you believe him.
One Nil to the Mancs.
Blur 0 Oasis 1

"Tracy Jacks" vs "Shakermaker"
Like his (obvious?) influences in the Great Britsh songbook - Ray Davies, Paul Weller, Ian Dury ... - the storytelling-songwriter has a few "character" songs in their armoury, and this is one of Damon's finest.
"Shakermaker" contains a direct lift from The New Seekers, but is dripping with attitude.
But not enough attitude to beat the story of a middle-aged banker (with a girl's name) having a bit of a crisis.
Blur 1 Oasis 1

"End of a Century" vs "Live Forever"
The Blur track starts on a wistful acoustic type mood, and rises to an anthemic crowd pleaser - probably with one eye on continued use 6 years later to mark the millennium (sadly, they never really got the better of the popular media's obsession with Europe's 'The Final Countdown').
"Live Forever" screams as a hymn for current belief an immortality - "hope I die before I get old"?  not these boys.
Blur 1 Oasis 2

"Parklife" vs "Up in the Sky"
Mockney Geezer-ish narrative versus (with the best will in the world) Oasis-By-Numbers - very good Oasis-By-Numbers, it just "needs" something else to lift it after that opening triumvirate.
Yes, "Parklife" is overplayed, but it's still a great track.
Oi Oi - it's the equalisier
Blur 2 Oasis 2

"Bank Holiday" vs "Columbia"
"Bank Holiday" is Blur's finest punk statement (before 'Song 2') - all thrash and abandon with shouty vocal.  And ordinarily, Punk (for me) would win, but this is "Columbia" - one of the finest things in the Oasis catalogue - no wonder it got 20 odd plays on Radio 1 in it's first week of delivery as a white label demo.
Blur 2 Oasis 3

"Badhead" vs "Supersonic"
The thing about the 'Parklife' album is that it contains a bit of diversity - "Badhead" is one of those different tracks. You feel you've heard it before, and then it sounds all so fresh again, then reminiscent - all in the space of 16 bars.  There's also a certain yearning and/or apology in the vocal delivery.
"Supersonic" is cut from the same cloth as other tracks - it is a very fine, head splitting track.  But, I have to call-out the terrible rhyming couplets here - "I'm feeling supersonic, give me gin and tonic" is not a great lyric
Blur 3 Oasis 3

"The Debt Collector" vs "Take Me Away"(B-side of "Supersonic" (1st single from the album))
Every album should have one track of accordian-driven oompah music somewhere on it.  Maybe not, but Blur obviously didn't get the memo.  It's not a bad track, just a bit throwaway.
"Take Me Away" didn't even make the album, and was stuck on the B-Side of debut single "Supersonic".
It proves Oasis can do subtle acoustic-y things rather than just straight bombast.  I get why it never made the album, but it is one of Noel's under-rated tracks and deserves more than a partially forgotten B-Side.
Blur 3 Oasis 4

"Far Out" vs "Bring It on Down"
You remember that diversity thing about 'Parklife'?  Here's another example - a Syd Barrett-esque whimsy on the Planets.  Fine in the context of the album, but unlikely to become a live favourite (note: if nothing else, it proves Alex James has a half decent singing voice).
"Bring It On Down" suffers from that Oasis-By-Numbers problem, but it is somehow vital Oasis-By-Numbers
Blur 3 Oasis 5

"To the End" vs "Cigarettes & Alcohol"
Franglais Europop lines up against a T.Rex knock-off.
That old diversity thing is on show again producing a song that evokes 60s pop, and very probably featured the vocal work of Francois Hardy (in fact, she did record a version later).
"Cigarettes and Alcohol" can be taken as a theme song for lad culture, and has been used for a series of compilations celebrating football and going out on the p*ss (often to a soundtrack mostly seated in 1979 power pop).  It is a fine, pummeling track, and even the extra points gained for the intonation and lengthening of vowels ("Imgagin-aaaa-shun", "Sun-she-iine" etc), can't stop victory for the southerners.
Blur 4 Oasis 5

"London Loves" vs "Fade Away" (B-side of "Cigarettes & Alcohol" (last single from the album))
The Blur track is all fine and dandy, but never really goes anywhere.  The Oasis track is proof positive that Noel kept back all the best tracks for B-Sides.
Blur 4 Oasis 6

"Trouble in the Message Centre" vs "Digsy's Dinner"
"Message Centre" sits fine in the context of the album, but is unlikely to be considered as an essential track.  Plenty going on, unmistakably Blur, great bass, drums an guitar.  But all a bit filler-y.
In the midst of all the Beatles copyists accusations, let us not forget that Oasis may also be the prime Slade copyists of the 90s too.  And with this track they've never really sounded more Slade-ish.  A rare trick - to sound like someone else, and still be unrecognisably yourselves.
Blur 4 Oasis 7

"Clover Over Dover" vs. "Slide Away"
Blur continue to try and be a bit different with a song (seemingly) based on a Medieval madrigal.  Lyrically it's a bit banal, with some levered in rhyming that Noel would be proud of.  Like "Message Centre" above, this track does feel more like it's filling a gap on the album rather that an intrinsic part of it.
"Slide Away" is perhaps the most under-rated track on the Oasis offering.  The wall of sound is here and topped off with Liam's strained vocal just makes it something a bit special (maybe not "deep" or "innovative" - just "special")
Blur 4 Oasis 8

"Magic America" vs "Married with Children"
'Parklife' suffers from a bit of Side 2 tiredness, and "Magic America" is no different - nice enough but not really pushing the album forward anymore.
"Married With Children" shows an unexpected mellower side to Oasis.  And if you hadn't heard "Take Me Away", this would be the first time you realise there's a bit more to Oasis than guitars on 11 and Liam sneering at you.
Blur 4 Oasis 9

Authors Note: Due to the mismatch in the number of tracks, I have added some B-Sides from the lifted singles by Oasis.  Still being 3 tracks short, I have now added the "Whatever" single (released December 1994).
This is (I think) also around the time the Media started to take notice and draw up the Blur vs Oasis (made up) battle lines

"Jubilee" vs "Whatever"
Blur combine Punky thrash and a character song with a quite mad shouty chorus.  It's a good track with some fine Graham Coxon guitar playing.
"Whatever" is the point Oasis start doing the big orchestral epic thing.  With the opening strings reminiscent of Neil Innes's "How Sweet To Be An Idiot", this track was the subject of an ironic plagiarism case where current-day Beatles copyists (Oasis) now have to pay royalties to someone who was responsible for producing a whole albums worth of (almost perfect) Beatles pastiches.
Blur 4 Oasis 10

"This Is a Low" vs "(It's Good) to Be Free"
On first hearing, "This Is A Low" just sounds like a recitation of the hipping Forecast mixed with bad rhymes.  But oh no, this is where Blur get a bit epic.  It's best consumed live for full goose-bump effect, but is equally good on record.
"It's Good To Be Free" is an Oasis B-Side - unfortunately it's not one of those "Good Enough To Be An A-Side" tracks.  Nice enough, but falls just short
Blur 5 Oasis 10

"Lot 105" vs "Half the World Away"
More of Blur's diversity on show, but this is 1 minute 15 seconds of seaside organ silliness with a side order of Music Hall.
"Half The World Away" is a reflective acoustic track expressing a yearning to be elsewhere.  It came to the attention of a wider audience when used as the theme for "The Royle Family"
(funny, but not so funny when you've experienced your ex-in laws playing out many of the scenarios for real)
Blur 5 Oasis 11


This is Blur's defining moment, and they've been trounced by five oiks from Manchester.  Maybe Dave Balfe was right, but 5 million punters can't all be wrong.
Blur would soon move on - the follow-up 'The Great Escape' showed Blur to be more than just another guitar band and had a desire to be a bit different (even if the public, or the media, weren't quite ready for it) whilst Oasis would refine (and some say "perfect") Britpop with 1995s 'Morning Glory'.
After that though, and I say this as a fan of Oasis, it all got a bit "stodgy", whereas Blur at least stayed interesting, almost re-inventing themselves with every release.
In this case, Oasis won the battle, but Blur probably won the War.


Oasis - "Rock n Roll Star"

Blur - "This Is A Low"