13 Blur

Food Records was a British rock record label set up in 1984 by David Balfe, who later took on Andy Ross as his partner. Originally formed as an independent record label with distribution going through Rough Trade Distribution, Food also licensed acts through WEA Records, before becoming closely associated with the EMI group's Parlophone label. EMI invested in the label and then in 1994 EMI gained complete control and folded it into Parlophone in 2000. Food was sold to EMI by David Balfe in 1994. Andy Ross continued running Food as a sub-label of EMI, where it was the record label of Blur, Idlewild, Jesus Jones, Dubstar, The Supernaturals, Octopus and Grass Show.

To open this oddball supergroup's debut, Paul Simonon hints at "Guns of Brixton," and when Tony Allen's flex rhythms come in, there's a shadow of Fela Kuti, too. Then Damon Albarn's slow grit of a voice enters–framed by Simon Tong's flecked guitar. And collectively, The Good, the Bad, & the Queen is quickly sui generis, adamantly different than anything you think you've heard. A band with this much power has at least two options: to cut loose raucously or to mute their overt power for a more covert, dub-inflected atmospheric potency. Smartly, Albarn and his crew opt for the half-light of elastic bass lines, the clouds between the parentheses of drums–the covert. It's not until "Kingdom of Doom," the erstwhile 'single' of the album, that motion expands beyond the languorous. And even then, Tony Allen largely sits out. You get the full flush of Simonon and Allen on "Three Changes" shuffling time even while holding the tempo to a dubbish gait. It's not Blur, the Clash, Fela, the Verve, or Gorillaz. It's more than just names on albums.

Chronological development of popular music from 1960 to 1997, the impact of social change on the text and style of music. Immerse yourself in a nostalgic trip, remember how it was different before. For the older generation it - a memory, a wonderful meeting with the youth and for the young - a unique opportunity to hear music that is virtually nowhere is not sound.

This compilation of 39 tracks, rather arrogantly titled The Album, offers a good mix of current guitar-based pop, rock and indie with the bonus of Fatboy Slim's housey "Star 69" and Roni Size's "Dirty Beats" tacked on the end. This is the sort of album you could expect to hear down the student union bar with a range of songs to cover all bases for even the most fussy of compilation critics. CD2 holds the indie-rock lighter in the air with Coldplay's "Trouble" and David Gray's "Late Night Radio" sandwiched between tracks by likely lads Supergrass ("Movin'") and Blur ("Coffee & TV"). Less obvious inclusions are alt.country masters Grandaddy ("The Crystal Lake") and gentle folkies the Kings of Convenience ("Toxic Girl"). CD1 is the less easy-listening of the two with some rock guitar riffing from the Manics ("You Stole The Sun…"), JJ72 ("Oxygen") and perfectly hip Placebo's "Taste In Men". If you're not into dance and the latest compilation from clubland isn't your cup of tea, then this could well be The Album before a good night out.

A compilation boasting 101 songs and proclaiming them all as ''classics'' is always leaving itself open to ridicule, and it's human nature to be sceptical, but I have to say that this bumper five CD box from EMI in 2009 really is fantastic set. What's rare for a compilation offering so many tracks is just how very few of them are filler. In fact, I don't think that there are any, their all 'indie'' more or less, and the majority of them were big hits.