The Great Escape (Blur album)

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The Great Escape
Blur thegreatescape.png
Studio album by Blur
Released 11 September 1995 (1995-09-11)
Recorded January–May 1995
Studio
Genre Britpop
Length 56:56
Label
Producer Stephen Street
Blur chronology
The Brit Pop Blur Box
(1994)The Brit Pop Blur Box1994		 The Great Escape
(1995)		 Live at the Budokan
(1996)Live at the Budokan1996
Singles from The Great Escape
  1. "Country House"
    Released: 14 August 1995
  2. "The Universal"
    Released: 13 November 1995
  3. "Stereotypes"
    Released: 12 February 1996
  4. "Charmless Man"
    Released: 29 April 1996
  5. "It Could Be You"
    Released: 22 May 1996 (Japan)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4.5/5 stars[1]
Christgau's Consumer Guide (neither)[2]
Drowned in Sound 7/10[3]
Los Angeles Times 3.5/4 stars[4]
NME 9/10[5]
Pitchfork Media 8.2/10[6]
Q 5/5 stars[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 4.5/5 stars[8]
Select 5/5 stars[9]
Spin 6/10[10]

The Great Escape is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Blur, released on 11 September 1995 on Food and Virgin Records. The album received glowing reviews and was a big seller on its initial release, reaching number one in the United Kingdom album chart (outselling the rest of the Top 10 put together)[citation needed] and was their first to crack the US charts reaching number 150.[11] Less than a year after the album was released, it was certified triple platinum in the UK.[12]

The album continued the band's run of hit singles, with "Country House", "The Universal", "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man". "Country House" was Blur's first single to chart at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, beating Oasis' "Roll with It", in a chart battle dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".

Background and recording

Concept

On 17 June 1995, James and Albarn spoke on BBC Radio 1 about coming up with a title for the album;[13] "We've got until this Wednesday, our record company inform us, to come up with it," said Albarn. "We've been trying to get life into it, but nothing was very good – Wifelife, Darklife, Nextlife," added James.

The album is in the style of a concept album, that is, most of the songs are linked by a similar theme—loneliness and detachment. Ten of the fifteen tracks have a distinct reference to being lonely. Damon Albarn subsequently revealed that most, if not all the songs on The Great Escape were about himself, in some form or another (e.g. "Dan Abnormal" is an anagram for "Damon Albarn"). He later admitted that the album would have made "a great musical"[citation needed]. However, dissension over musical direction between Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon would result in a change in style for the next release, 1997's Blur[citation needed]. Albarn himself stated in 2007, "I've made two bad records. The first album, which is awful, and The Great Escape, which was messy".[14]

Songs

"Mr. Robinson's Quango" was the first song recorded for the album,[15] whilst "It Could Be You" was the last, in May 1995.[16] The title of the latter was taken from the original advertising slogan of the United Kingdom's multi-million-pound-prize National Lottery, which had drawn much public interest after its inception the previous year, though the lyric itself refers to gambling in only the most oblique ways.[17]

"Yuko & Hiro" was originally titled "Japanese Workers",[18] whilst "The Universal" was first attempted during the Parklife sessions as a ska number. During the making of The Great Escape the song was resurrected by James, who notes in his autobiography, Bit of a Blur, that the band had almost given up on getting it to work when Albarn came up with the string section.[18]

One song on the album, "Ernold Same", features Ken Livingstone, then an MP and later the Mayor of London between 2000 and 2008. He is credited in the sleevenotes as "The Right-On" Ken Livingstone. The character seems to have been named after Pink Floyd's Arnold Layne.[15]

As with Blur's previous two albums, the liner notes also contain guitar chords for each of the songs along with the lyrics.

Singles

The album spawned four hit singles for the band with "Country House", "The Universal", "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man". "Stereotypes" made its debut at a secret gig at the Dublin Castle in London and was considered as the album's lead single, but "Country House" got a bigger reaction from fans.[15] "Country House" gave the band their first number 1 single, beating Oasis to the top spot. "The Universal" and "Charmless Man" both reached the top 5, whilst "Stereotypes" peaked at number 7. In Japan, "It Could Be You" was released as a 4-track single, featuring b-sides recorded live at the Budokan.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree. 

No. Title Length
1. "Stereotypes"   3:10
2. "Country House"   3:57
3. "Best Days"   4:49
4. "Charmless Man"   3:34
5. "Fade Away"   4:19
6. "Top Man"   4:00
7. "The Universal"   3:58
8. "Mr. Robinson's Quango"   4:02
9. "He Thought of Cars"   4:15
10. "It Could Be You"   3:14
11. "Ernold Same" (featuring Ken Livingstone) 2:07
12. "Globe Alone"   2:23
13. "Dan Abnormal"   3:24
14. "Entertain Me"   4:19
15. "Yuko and Hiro"   5:24
Japanese bonus tracks
No. Title Length
16. "Ultranol"   2:41
17. "No Monsters in Me"   5:14

4:21 into "Yuko & Hiro" is a minute long instrumental reprise of "Ernold Same". Although officially untitled, it is sometimes erroneously referred to as "A World of Change" because these words appear in a separate box below the track list in the booklet.

Personnel

Charts and certifications

References

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  12. ↑ BPI Certified Awards Search British Phonographic Industry. Note: reader must define "Search" parameter as "Blur".
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  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Select BLUR and click OK
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  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter The Great Escape in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Preceded by UK number one album
23 September 1995 – 6 October 1995		 Succeeded by
Daydream by Mariah Carey
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