Blur

Not Kinks, just Small Faces; not miniaturists, just small. Reduced to a tuneful 18-song essence that watches too much television, their mildness seems diverting and their Englishness definitive. Damon Albarn's accent--at once Cockney and civilised, with the laddish music-hall "Parklife" for instructive contrast (and a shot of life)--evokes the classless nowhere their genially opportunistic concept of pop aspires and succumbs to. They're alienated, sure--this is the modern world they sing about. But they're never depressed--melancholy is all. Change the world? All they care about changing is their sales strategy. (Grade: A-)