The Great Escape (Blur album)

Concept

On 17 June 1995, James and Albarn 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. Damon 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, whilst "It Could Be You" was the last, in May 1995. 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, though the lyric itself refers to gambling in only the most oblique ways.

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

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.

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 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.

Reception and legacy

The Great Escape evoked "critical euphoria", and met with widespread acclaim. David Cavanagh in Select called it "a funny, brave and heartbroken record" that "has everything you could want", 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." A Melody Maker critic awarded the album an unconventional 12/10 and deemed it superior to highly acclaimed predecessor Parklife, while noting that "Blur understand the geometry of the song, and the basic principles of pop, better than anyone today". Less enthused was Spin journalist Chuck Eddy, who felt the LP ranged from "wonderful" to "detached and emotionally stiff". The Great Escape was named as one of the 10 best records of 1995 in Melody Maker, NME, Q magazine, 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; it has been suggested that allegiances shifting to rival band Oasis played a prominent role in this revaluation. Q magazine would issue an apologia for their five-star review of the record, while Graeme McMillan in Time remarked that it lacks the "breadth and heart" of Parklife, feeling "cynical and uninspired in comparison". Blur frontman Damon Albarn also grew critical of the album, calling it a "bad" and "messy" release. 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." Other journalists retained an unapologetically favourable stance: the album was described by AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "a vibrant, invigorating record", and by Brian Doan in PopMatters as a "masterpiece".

Select named the record the 34th best of the 1990s, while Pitchfork placed it 70th. It was ranked by BuzzFeed as the sixth-best LP of the Britpop era. The Great Escape also placed at #725 in the book, All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Track listing

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

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.