"This Is a Low" is a song by English rock band Blur for their third studio album, Parklife.
Originally titled "We Are the Low", the song began life as an instrumental during the Parklife sessions.
[1] According to bassist Alex James, Damon Albarn was finding it hard to write lyrics.
In his autobiography, A Bit of a Blur, he revealed that "for Christmas I bought him a handkerchief with a map of the shipping forecast regions on it ... you can never tell where the muse is going to appear.
"[1] On 4 February 1994, the penultimate day of official recording, Albarn was due to go into hospital for a hernia operation.
The lyrics are based on the Shipping Forecast, with references made to the various areas surrounding the country.
Music writer John Harris described the lyrics as "a fantasia centred around the shipping forecast – [an] inexplicably calming institution that soundtracks the switching-off of the UK's night-lights – narrated as if the writer was gazing at the whole of The British Isles.
[5] John Harris described the song as Parklife's "key masterstroke" and "close to perfection".