The Best of Blur

Disc 1
1	Beetlebum 5:05
2	Song 2 2:02
3	There's No Other Way 3:13
4	The Universal 4:00
5	Coffee and TV 5:18
6	Parklife 3:07
7	End of a Century 2:46
8	No Distance Left to Run 3:26
9	Tender 7:41
10	Girls and Boys 4:18
11	Charmless Man 3:33
12	She's So High 3:49
13	Country House 3:57
14	To the End 3:51
15	On Your Own 4:27
16	This Is a Low 5:02
17	For Tomorrow 6:02
18	Music Is My Radar 5:29
Disc 2
1	She's So High Live 5:24
2	Girls and Boys Live 4:21
3	To the End Live 4:08
4	End of a Century Live 3:00
5	Stereotypes Live 3:27
6	Charmless Man Live 3:31
7	Beetlebum Live 6:09
8	M.O.R. Live 3:09
9	Tender Live 6:20
10	No Distance Left to Run Live 4:08

Barnes & Noble

Over the past decade, Blur have evolved from a run-of-the-mill indie-dance act to bastions of Brit pop and, ultimately, to that rare band whose best songs owe more to art than to the hit parade. Eschewing chronological presentation, and wisely shortchanging the early years, this well-sequenced program will hammer home to casual fans what diehards have known for years: Damon Albarn and company craft concise gems that are thought-provoking without inducing head-scratching. In this context, cuts that were never obvious chart fare -- the sweeping ballad "To the End," the gospel-inflected "Tender," and the desolate "No Distance Left to Run" -- sound better than ever. The new song, "Music Is My Radar," a clutch of quirky, disparate sounds (harmonium, rickety percussion, fuzz guitar) in need of a melodic hook to anchor them, can't match the polish of the band's best, but otherwise, this is a greatest-hits package with an emphasis on the greatest. Kurt B. Reighley

All Music Guide

It's boring to point out omissions on hits compilations, especially when a collection is as generous as the 18-track The Best of Blur, but let's do it anyway. The Best of Blur largely bypasses the group's key album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, the record that invented Britpop, skewing in favor of the self-consciously "experimental" 13, which, for all of its attributes, wasn't a singles album. Plus, the group continues to punish the British record-buying public by not including the brilliant "Pop Scene" (to beat a dead horse, the single that invented Britpop), since nobody bought it at the time. So, without "Pop Scene," "Chemical World," or "Sunday Sunday," a crucial chapter of Blur's history is missing from The Best of Blur -- the chapter where they essentially became Blur. It's to their immense credit that the album doesn't feel like it's missing anything, since these singles (plus one album track) are dazzling on their own. Of course, the trick is that the record isn't assembled chronologically. Instead, it flows like a set list, complete with the set closer "This Is a Low" followed by a two-song encore that ends with the new song (the good, not great, "Music Is My Radar"), which not only gives it a momentum of its own, but draws attention to the songs themselves. And "dazzling" isn't hyperbole -- based on these 18 songs, Blur isn't just the best pop band of the '90s, with greater range and depth than their peers; they rank among the best pop bands of all time. The Best of Blur illustrates that, even as it misses some of their best moments -- omissions that prevent it from being the flat-out classic it should be. Even so, it's pretty damn terrific, particularly for the unconverted. Stephen Thomas Erlewine