This Is a Low

Recorded between August 1993 and January 1994 with Stephen Street producing, it began life as We Are the Low. Albarn wrote the lyrics on 4 February 1994, before a hernia operation, using a handkerchief map of shipping forecast regions that James had given him. The words are a fantasia on the BBC Shipping Forecast with a nod to Sailing By. It was issued as a promotional single in January 1995.

It closed the Mile End show in 1995 and was played at Glastonbury in 1994. It was the song Albarn and Coxon played at the 2009 NME Awards, their first performance together as Blur since the split. It was the encore at the 2012 Brits and closed the main set at Wembley on 8 July 2023.

Music writer John Harris called it the key masterstroke of Parklife, and in 2014 NME ranked it number 198 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.