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You are one of the most successful alternative bands in English history and although seen as Britpop’s poster-child your career was actually multi-faceted ranging from madchester lite pop, to mining the best British rock from the ’60s to ’90s with addtional excursions into post-grunge and art-rock.

However you face a dilemma. Whilst you’ve buried the hatchet and various members of the band have either sold millions with a cartoon pop-hop act, written a tell all autobiography or put a promising law career on ice, for a slew of mega outdoor festivals and concerts you haven’t actually got anything new to peddle. The answer? Simply do what every other band has done since the birth of the record industry and release another best of. Will anyone remember that a pretty decent greatest hits album was released nine years previously (but only one album before the last studio one)? Probably, but out of earshot out of mind as they say. Besides you can never own too many big houses in the country, can you?

To further this (to the) end Blur are releasing Midlife: A Beginner’s Guide To Blur, which will include 25 tracks spanning the band’s career of seven studio albums on June 15 (UK), June 26 (Aus) and July 28 (US) through EMI.

Midlife: A Beginner’s Guide To Blur tracklisting:

CD1

1. Beetlebum
2. Girls & Boys
3. For Tomorrow
4. Coffee & TV
5. Out Of Time
6. Blue Jeans
7. Song 2
8. Bugman
9. He Thought Of Cars
10. Death Of A Party
11. The Universal
12. Sing
13. This Is A Low

CD2

1. Tender
2. She’s So High
3. Chemical World
4. Good Song
5. Parklife
6. Advert
7. Popscene
8. Stereotypes
9. Trimm Trabb
10. Badhead
11. Strange News From Another Star
12. Battery In Your Leg

For a Britpop compilation that doesn’t feature Blur (or for Oasis for that matter) but whose artists really could use the royalties try Common People – Brit Pop The Story (22 June). Compiled by St. Etienne’s Bob Stanley (and former Melody Maker scribe) Common People looks to be a broad and all encompassing box set concentrating on British pop in the years 1993 to 1997. From the big guns (Pulp, whose track provides the set with its title, The Stone Roses, James, Elastica, Supergrass) to the mid-level bands that had a surprisingly lengthy run (Gene, Divine Comedy, Placebo) to the one album/one hit wonders  (Powder, Menswear, Rialto, Longpigs) this should serve as either a great introduction to the time or alternatively provide a few hours of dewy eyed nostalgia as you reminisce about making eye contact with that cute boy/girl during the playing of Sleeper’s “Inbetweener” at the local indie club. Ah, those were the days.

CD1

The Auteurs – ‘Lenny Valentino’
Elastica – ‘Stutter’
Gene – ‘Be My Light, Be My Guide’
The Stone Roses – ‘Love Spreads’
James – ‘Laid’
Dodgy – ‘Staying Out For The Summer’
Saint Etienne – ‘You’re In A Bad Way’
Dubstar – ‘Stars’
Blake Grape – ‘In The Name Of The Father’
Duffy – ‘London Girls’ (Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy, not the current soul songtress)
Marion – ‘Sleep’
These Animal Men – ‘Speeed King’
S*M*A*S*H – ‘Shame’
Cast – ‘Alright’
Bluetones – ‘Slight Return’
Perfume – ‘Lover’
The Boo Radleys – ‘Wake Up Boo!’
Menswear – ‘Daydreamer’

CD2

Pulp – ‘Common People’
Supergrass – ‘Alright’
Sleeper – ‘Inbetweener’
Echobelly – ‘Great Things’
Powder – ‘Afrodisiac’
Northern Uproar – ‘Rollercoaster’
Paul Weller – ‘Thechangingman’
The Divine Comedy – ‘Something For The Weekend’
Babybird – ‘You’re Gorgeous’
My Life Story – ’12 Reasons Why’
Denim – ‘It Fell Off The Back Of A Van’
Kula Shaker – ‘Tattva’
Mansun – ‘Wide Open Space’
Salad – ‘Drink The Elixir’
Placebo – ‘Nancy Boy’
Longpigs – ‘She Said’
Ocean Colour Scene – ‘The Riverboat Song’
Shed Seven – ‘Chasing Rainbows’

CD3

Super Furry Animals – ‘God! Show Me Magic’
Suede – ‘Trash’
Kenickie – ‘In Your Car’
Theaudience – ‘A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed’
Catatonia – ‘Mulder And Scully’
Space – ‘Female Of The Species’
Embrace – ‘All You Good Good People’
Gomez – ‘Whippin’ Piccadilly’
Geneva – ‘Into The Blue’
Rialto – ‘Monday Morning 5:19′
The Seahorses – ‘Love Is The Law’
Hurricane #1 – ‘Step Into My World’
Monaco – ‘What Do You Want From Me’
Spearmint – ‘Sweeping The Nation’
Lodger – ‘Always Round Here’
Earl Brutus – ‘SAS And The Glam That Goes With It’
Stereophonics – ‘The Bartender And The Thief’
Gay Dad – ‘Oh Jim’