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 continued the band's run of hit singles, with "Country House", "The Universal", "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man" reaching the top 10 of the UK singles chart. "Country House" was Blur's first song to reach number one, beating Oasis' "Roll with It", in a high-profile chart rivalry dubbed "the Battle of Britpop".

Released at the height of Britpop and the band's popularity in the UK, the album was a major commercial success in the UK and Europe, becoming the band's second consecutive album to debut at number one on the UK Albums Chart and being certified triple platinum in the UK in less than a year. The album received widespread critical acclaim upon its initial release, with praise for its songwriting and eclectic themes, though some retrospective reviews have been more negative, viewing it as a less cohesive, uninspired follow-up to Parklife (1994).

The Great Escape is often considered to be the final album of a trio of Britpop albums released by Blur in the mid-1990s,

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; "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 of "Damon Albarn").

Songs

"Mr. Robinson's Quango" was the first song recorded for the album 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.

"Yuko and Hiro" was originally titled "Japanese Workers",

One song on the album, "Ernold Same", features then-MP Ken Livingstone. He is credited in the sleevenotes as "The Right-On" Ken Livingstone.

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. "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

The Great Escape was initially met with widespread acclaim from critics. David Cavanagh in Select called it "a funny, brave and heartbroken record" that "has everything you could want", Less enthused was Spin journalist Chuck Eddy, who felt the LP ranged from "wonderful" to "detached and emotionally stiff". NME, Q, Raw and Select. NME readers voted it the third-best album of the year.

Support from the music press soon tapered off, however, and The Great Escape gained many detractors. The greater commercial success of rival band Oasis is seen to have played a role in this revaluation; 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". while Graeme McMillan in Time remarked that it lacks the "breadth and heart" of Parklife, feeling "cynical and uninspired in comparison". 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."

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's debut album Leisure).

Select named the record the 34th-best of the 1990s, while Pitchfork placed it 70th. It was ranked by BuzzFeed as the sixth-best album of the Britpop era. The Great Escape also placed at number 725 in the 2000 edition of the book, All Time Top 1000 Albums. In October 2023, the Official Charts Company revealed that The Great Escape was the twenty-first most streamed album from the 1990s in the United Kingdom.

Commercial performance

The Great Escape continued the commercial success of previous album Parklife. While the latter was more of a sleeper hit, The Great Escape registered strong first-week sales of 188,000. In its first year, the album sold 68,000 copies in the US. By late 1996 the album had sold approximately 600,000 units in continental Europe.

Track listing

All lyrics by Damon Albarn.

All music by Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree.

"Yuko and Hiro" ends at 3:50. After 30 seconds of silence, at 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.

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

Blur

Damon Albarn – vocals, piano, organ, synthesiser, handclaps
Graham Coxon – electric and acoustic guitar, banjo, backing vocals, saxophone, handclaps
Alex James – bass guitar, handclaps, backing vocals on "Top Man"
Dave Rowntree – drums, handclaps, backing vocals on "Top Man"

Additional musicians

The Kick Horns
Simon Clarke – saxophone
Tim Sanders – saxophone
J. Neil Sidwell – trombone
Roddy Lorimer – trumpet
The Duke String Quartet
Louise Fuller – violin
Rick Koster – violin
John Metcalfe – viola
Ivan McCermoy – cello
Ken Livingstone – narration on "Ernold Same"
Teresa Jane Davis – backing vocals on "The Universal"
Angela Murrell – backing vocals on "The Universal"
Cathy Gillat – backing vocals on "Yuko and Hiro"
Stephen Street – handclaps

Technical personnel

Stephen Street – production
John Smith – engineering
Tom Girling – engineering assistance
Julie Gardner – engineering assistance
Tom King – cover photography
Nels Israelson – band photography

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

!Chart (1995)

!Peak<br/>position

!scope="row"|Danish Albums (Hitlisten)

| 10

!scope="row"|Estonian Albums (Eesti Top 10)

|align="center"|8

!scope="row"|European Albums (Music & Media)

| style="text-align:center;"|14

!scope="row"|Icelandic Albums (Tónlist)

|align="center"|1

!scope="row"|Irish Albums (IRMA)

| 15

!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)

| 5

!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (AFYPE)

| style="text-align:center;"|8

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"

! Chart (1995)

! Position

!scope="row"|European Albums (Music & Media)

|align="center"|61

!scope="row"|Swedish Albums & Compilations (Sverigetopplistan)

|align="center"|55

!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)

|align="center"|10

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"

! Chart (1996)

! Position

!scope="row"|UK Albums (OCC)

|align="center"|76

Certifications

References

External links

The Great Escape at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)