Blur - Could never make my mind up about them

Bought the greatest hits of Blur at a boot sale. A 2 disc set with the studio recordings on one and a good live set on the other. Could never make up my mind about Blur - at their bst - and we are talking the Parklife album - they could be witty and sharp and at their worst - the poor Country House album - they could be just awful. A brief wilkopedia history (below sets the scene).

Blur are an English rock band formed in Colchester in 1989. Originally named Seymour, they were comprised of vocalist/keyboardist Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, drummer Dave Rowntree and bassist Alex James. The band became one of the biggest bands in the UK during the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Blur's original influences on their debut album, Leisure, included contemporary British alternative rock trends such as Madchester and shoegazing. Following a stylistic change in the mid-1990s, influenced by 1960s English pop groups such as The Kinks and The Beatles, the band released Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape. As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a famous chart battle with Britpop rivals Oasis. By the late 1990s, with the release of their fifth album, Blur, the band underwent another reinvention, influenced by the indie rock and lo-fi style of American bands such as Pavement and R.E.M., in the process gaining an elusive American success with the single "Song 2". The final album featuring the band's original lineup, 13, found Blur experimenting with electronica and gospel music. In 2002, founding member Graham Coxon left the band early in recording sessions for Think Tank, the band's seventh and latest album. Blur continued in his absence, seeing both the album and a tour through. Since the end of their 2003 tour, the band has unofficially been on hiatus, as bandmembers are working on solo projects. Although Coxon had shown no interest in rejoining Blur, in recent months he has reportedly warmed to the idea, leading unconfirmed reports of his return to Blur to surface late in 2006.