The Great Escape (Blur album)

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The Great Escape is the fourth album by English alternative rock band Blur, released on 11 September 1995. The Great Escape received glowing reviews and was a big seller in its initial release, reaching #1 in the United Kingdom album chart (outselling the rest of the Top 10 put together) and was their first to crack the US charts reaching #150. The album was certified triple platinum in UK.

The album continues the run of inventive hit singles: "Country House" (their first #1 single, which notably beat Oasis's "Roll With It" in a singles chart face-off), "The Universal", "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man".

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 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"), and admitted that the album should have been a musical. 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. Albarn himself stated in 2007 - "I've made two bad records. The first record, which is awful, and The Great Escape, which was messy."

Album history

Main article: The Battle of Britpop

Track listing

UK Release

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. Robinsons' Quango" – 4:02
9. "He Thought of Cars" – 4:15
10. "It Could Be You" – 3:14
11. "Ernold Same" – 2:07
12. "Globe Alone" – 2:23
13. "Dan Abnormal" – 3:24
14. "Entertain Me" – 4:19
15. "Yuko and Hiro" – 5:24

French Release

1. "Stereotypes"
2. "Country House"
3. "Best Days"
4. "Charmless Man"
5. "Fade Away"
6. "Top Man"
7. "The Universal"
8. "Mr. Robinsons' Quango"
9. "He Thought of Cars"
10. "It Could Be You"
11. "Ernold Same"
12. "Globe Alone"
13. "Dan Abnormal"
14. "Entertain Me"
15. "Yuko and Hiro"
16. "To The End (la comedie)"

Japanese Release

1. "Stereotypes"
2. "Country House"
3. "Best Days"
4. "Charmless Man"
5. "Fade Away"
6. "Top Man"
7. "The Universal"
8. "Mr. Robinson's Quango"
9. "He Thought of Cars"
10. "It Could Be You"
11. "Ernold Same"
12. "Globe Alone"
13. "Dan Abnormal"
14. "Entertain Me"
15. "Yuko and Hiro"
16. "Ultranol"
17. "No Monsters in Me"

Production Credits

• All tracks produced by Stephen Street
• except "To the End (la comedie)" produced by Stephen Hague, Blur and John Smith

Trivia

• "Stereotypes" debuted at a secret gig at the Dublin Castle in London. It was considered for the first single, but "Country House" got a bigger reaction from fans.
• "Mr. Robinson's Quango" was the first song recorded for the album.
• The narrator on "Ernold Same" is "The Right-On", as he is credited, Ken Livingstone, then an MP and Mayor of London between 2000 and 2008, while the character seems to have been named for Pink Floyd's Arnold Layne .
• Alex and Damon spoke on BBC Radio 1 on the 17th June 1995 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 Damon. "We've been trying to get 'life' into it, but nothing was very good – 'Wifelife', 'Darklife', 'Nextlife'," added Alex.
• In March 1995 Blur re-recorded "To The End" with Francoise Hardy at Abbey Road Studios. The result is later released as a single in France.
• "It Could Be You" was the last track to be finished for the album, in May 1995, it also featured in the film Dude, Where's My Car?.
• "The Universal" was first attempted during the Parklife sessions as a ska number and was resurrected by Alex, who says in his autobiography, Bit of a Blur, that they had almost given up on getting it to work when Damon came up with the strings.
• "Yuko & Hiro" was originally called "Japanese Workers".
• Unusually for an album, the liner notes contains guitar chords for each of the songs as well as lyrics.