The Great Escape (Blur album)

The Great Escape is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Blur. It was released on 11 September 1995 on Food and Virgin Records. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and charted in the top 10 in more than ten countries around the world. Less than a year after the album was released, it was certified triple platinum in the UK.[1] The album received near-universal acclaim on release, although its critical standing has since diminished.

The Great Escape
Studio album by
Blur
Released11 September 1995 (1995-09-11)
RecordedJanuary–May 1995
StudioMaison Rouge and Townhouse, London
GenreBritpop
Length56:56
Label
ProducerStephen Street
Blur chronology
Parklife
(1994)		 The Great Escape
(1995)		 Live at the Budokan
(1996)
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 only)

The album continued the band's run of hit singles, with "Country House", "The Universal", "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man" all reaching the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. "Country House" was Blur's first number one hit in the UK, beating Oasis' "Roll with It", in a chart rivalry dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".[2]

The Great Escape is often considered to be the final album of a trio of Britpop albums released by Blur in the mid-1990s,[3] after Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) and Parklife (1994). With Blur's 1997 self-titled album, the band would change direction and move away from Britpop in favour of a more lo-fi and alternative rock sound.

Background and recording

Concept

On 17 June 1995, lead singer Damon Albarn and bassist Alex James spoke on BBC Radio 1 about coming up with a title for the album;[4] "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. Albarn subsequently revealed that much of The Great Escape is about himself (e.g. "Dan Abnormal" is an anagram for "Damon Albarn").

Songs

"Mr. Robinson's Quango" was the first song recorded for the album,[5] whilst "It Could Be You" was the last, in May 1995.[6] The title of the latter was taken from the original advertising slogan of the United Kingdom's multimillion-pound-prize National Lottery, which had drawn much public interest after its inception the previous year.[7]

"Yuko and Hiro" was originally titled "Japanese Workers",[8] 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.[8]

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".[5]

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.[5] "Country House" gave the band their first number-one 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 four-track single, featuring B-sides recorded live at the Budokan.

Reception and legacy
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
The Guardian[10]
Los Angeles Times[11]
Melody Maker12/10[12]
NME9/10[13]
Pitchfork8.2/10[14]
Q[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[16]
Select5/5[17]
Spin6/10[18]

The Great Escape was met with widespread acclaim from critics.[19][20][21] David Cavanagh in Select called it "a funny, brave and heartbroken record" that "has everything you could want",[17] while NME reporter Johnny Cigarettes wrote: "The Great Escape is so rammed with tunes, ideas, emotions, humour, tragedy, farce, and edgy beauty that it's utterly beyond contemporary compare."[13] Melody Maker's Paul Lester awarded the album an unconventional 12/10 and deemed it superior to celebrated predecessor Parklife, while noting that "Blur understand the geometry of the song, and the basic principles of pop, better than anyone today".[12] In response to "album of the decade" claims from Melody Maker, J. D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun said: "The Great Escape may not be the defining work of the ‘90s, but it is the best Brit-rock release this year."[22] Less enthused was Spin journalist Chuck Eddy, who felt the LP ranged from "wonderful" to "detached and emotionally stiff".[18] The Great Escape was named as one of the 10 best records of 1995 in Melody Maker,[23] NME,[24] Q,[25] Raw[26] and Select.[27] NME readers voted it the third-best album of the year.[28]

Support from the music press soon tapered off, however, and The Great Escape gained many detractors. It has been suggested that the commercial success of rival band Oasis played a role in this revaluation;[19][20] BBC Music writer James McMahon recalled how the "critical euphoria" surrounding the album lasted "about as long as it took publishers to realise Oasis would probably shift more magazines for them".[19] Q would issue an apologia for their five-star review of the record,[29] while Graeme McMillan in Time remarked that it lacks the "breadth and heart" of Parklife, feeling "cynical and uninspired in comparison".[30] Drowned in Sound reporter Marc Burrows felt the LP had been overrated and then underrated, writing: "Reality is somewhere in between... The Great Escape reveals itself as flawed, melancholy, occasionally stunning and utterly bonkers."[20] Other journalists retained an unapologetically favourable stance: the album was described by AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "a vibrant, invigorating record" that "bristles with invention",[9] while Brian Doan of PopMatters dubbed it a "masterpiece" whose content examines the costs of "trusting in stasis".[3]

Damon Albarn has expressed distaste for the album in later interviews, describing it as "messy" and one of the two "bad records" he has made in his career (the other being Blur debut album Leisure).[31]

Select named the record the 34th best of the 1990s,[32] while Pitchfork placed it 70th.[33] It was ranked by BuzzFeed as the sixth-best album of the Britpop era.[34] The Great Escape also placed at number 725 in the 2000 edition of the book, All Time Top 1000 Albums.[35]

Commercial performance

The Great Escape continued the commercial success of previous album Parklife. While the latter was more of a sleeper hit,[36] The Great Escape registered strong first-week sales of 188,000.[37] In its first year, the album sold 68,000 copies in the US.[38] By late 1996 the album had sold approximately 600,000 units in continental Europe.[39] According to Food managing director Andy Ross, it "comfortably outsold Parklife everywhere except the UK. The total figure was up 400,000 and the balance came mainly from Europe and Southeast Asia." Sales in France up to late November 1996 were 125,000 units, compared with 69,000 for Parklife. In Italy, sales were 83,000 compared with 16,000 for Parklife.[39]

Track listing

All lyrics by Damon Albarn. All music by Damon Albarn/Graham Coxon/Alex James/Dave Rowntree.

No.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
16."Ultranol"2:41
17."No Monsters in Me"5:14

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

Disc 2: Blur 21 2012 bonus material
No.TitleLength
1."One Born Every Minute"2:18
2."To the End (La Comedie)" (featuring Françoise Hardy)5:05
3."Ultranol"2:43
4."No Monsters in Me"3:38
5."Entertain Me" (Live It!) (Remix)7:17
6."The Man Who Left Himself"3:22
7."Tame"4:47
8."Ludwig"2:24
9."The Horrors"3:18
10."A Song"1:45
11."St. Louis"3:13
12."Country House" (Live at Mile End)4:57
13."Girls & Boys" (Live at Mile End)5:03
14."Parklife" (Live at Mile End)3:43
15."For Tomorrow" (Live at Mile End)7:02
16."Charmless Man" (Live at Budokan)3:22
17."Chemical World" (Live at Budokan)4:12
18."Eine kleine Lift Musik"4:18
19."It Could Be You (Live at the Beeb)" (Japan bonus track)3:07

Bonus track notes

  • Tracks 1–2, 12–15 from the single "Country House", August 1995
  • Tracks 3–5, 19 from the single "The Universal", November 1995
  • Tracks 6–8 from the single "Stereotypes", February 1996
  • Tracks 9–11 from the single "Charmless Man", April 1996
  • Tracks 16–17 from the Japanese single "It Could Be You", May 1996
  • Track 18 from the War Child compilation Help, September 1995

Personnel

Charts and certifications

References
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