Modern Life Is Rubbish - Aftermath and Legacy

Aftermath and Legacy

In August 1993, Blur set off on the Sugary Tea tour of the UK to promote Modern Life Is Rubbish. Named after a lyric in "Chemical World", the tour was a success, as Blur reclaimed some of their popularity. A key performance was at that year's Reading Festival which, according to David Cavanagh, was "brilliant". On the tour, Blur performed a number of songs that would end up on the group's follow-up album, Parklife (1994).

Parklife saw Blur expanding upon the themes and sounds they had first explored on Modern Life Is Rubbish; the NME described it as " 'Modern Life Is Rubbish's' older brother – bigger, bolder, narkier and funnier". Parklife debuted at number one on the UK charts, and helped Blur emerge as one of Britain's most popular acts. As Jim Shelley wrote in The Guardian, "a year after Blur were dismissed as too mannered, too retrograde and too English, Parklife was embraced for exactly the same reasons". Modern Life Is Rubbish and Parklife, along with The Great Escape (1995), formed what would be later referred to as the "Life" trilogy of Blur albums revolving around British themes.

Modern Life Is Rubbish remains highly regarded by critics, and is seen as one of the early, defining releases of Britpop, a genre that would dominate British pop music in the mid-1990s. Writing for The Guardian, John Harris called the album "one of the 1990s' most influential records". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic felt that "Modern Life Is Rubbish established Blur as the heir to the archly British pop of the Kinks, the Small Faces, and the Jam" and that it "ushered in a new era of British pop". Mark Redfern wrote in Under the Radar magazine that following Modern Life Is Rubbish, " whole wave of Britpop bands followed in footsteps, and for a while, it was cool to be British again".