The Great Escape

Excellent cd

Seemingly the album in Blur’s discography that has faired the worst in escaping the confines of Britpop and the 90s (perhaps apart from leisure), it should still be remembered as a pinnacle of songwriting and instrumentation from Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree. The opening track, ‘Stereotypes’, sets the pace and grand scale of the album with an opening riff from Graham Coxon and a spiralling set of synth notes. A fun, fast paced and energetic track to kick things off culminating in one of Blur’s best openers. And now onto ‘Country House’, the track that looms over all the other songs. It is to put it quite simply: bad. The chart battle that killed Blur’s momentum despite them winning. Unfortunately all the other brilliant tracks are overlooked just because of this song. We then get the slower, methodical and catchy ‘best days’, followed by the track that has likely aged the worst of the lot: Charmless man. You may be able to describe it as cheesy or irritating, but it is undeniably a well crafted and written, catchy pop song. As this review maybe going on a little long, let’s do a quick fire round of some other tracks of note. Fade Away - one of Blur’s more underrated and well written tracks, Mr Robinson’s Quango - a bouncy, cinematic ska track, It could be you - again following the fast paced, fun pop mould of many other tracks on the album, Globe alone - More indicative of where blur would later go and finally, Dan abnormal - a fascinating character study. Now onto what I consider the two best tracks of the album: ‘The Universal’ and ‘He thought of Cars‘. ‘The Universal’ is undoubtably a masterpiece and earns its place as one of the best tracks in Blur’s discography, but you most likely already know that. Instead I’d like to highlight what I consider to be Blur’s most wrongfully overlooked and underrated track: ‘He thought of cars’. A melodic, grand track that leaves such a magnificently haunting and isolating impression that earns it a place amongst my favourite Blur songs. In Short: when you listen to this album you won’t get a timeless classic like you do with Parklife; but instead you’ll get a fun, enjoyable collection of songs worthy of high praise that you’ll find yourself revisiting for years to come.

As my review title suggests, this is a truly underated album, and I was suprised to see some earlier negative reviews. Truth of the matter however, is that this is one of the best Brit Pop albums i've owned, and it takes a fabulous satirical look at modern day England.You don't even need to listen to the album to see the theme that oozes through it. A glance through the inner booklet has funny examples of the things were used to - a competition poster on the first page for a typical modern 'Barretts' home, and a basketballer copying some sort of sports advertisement.Of course, the music is the main focus, and sounds fantastic on a cool summers evening. Possibly one of the reasons people may have been dissapointed with the album is because it sounds quite different to other material they've produced, but at the end of the day, this is vintage blur. The song Stereotypes starts off the album with some good lyrics, reflecting the 'Vicky Pollards' we see in out and about etc etc. Country House has always been a stand out track, and that probably applies for every fan, with its fun lyrics (and video, if you've seen it!). Charmeless Man follows this route, as does Top Man, and well, many other tracks! Universal was a nice track to include, and though I can't remember too well the rivalry between Oasis and Blur during the 90's, this track demonstrates the lyrical and instrumental genious they could produce. I'm not saying Oasis were a bad band, but for, Blur have always had more purpose with their music.As the album leads towards the end, there are admittedly a few slow tracks, but since the quality of the rest of the cd is so good, this can be let off. I myself bought the album because of its cover - silly, I know, but thats clever marketing. And to be honest, the cover does some justice - it does sound bright and fun, and 'The Great Escape' probably reflects the desire to escape from the fast lives we live.Their are few better albums out their that will capture our modern day lives as good as this, and if your unsure, just remember that Blur are not that the type of band to release duff albums - all the songs have lots of meaning. 9/10

I loved this back in 1995 or was it 1996. Some say Blurs worst album but it had some great singles. Go to entertain me....some bass 🔊

The trouble when it comes to the great escape is it was eclipsed by oasis what's the story morning glory.I think people's opinions are clouded to say the least.I always have thought oasis are a better band but blur are the second biggest band of the so called brit pop era and even there weaker work is better than most bands best work.The trouble with this album is it is too long by about 3 songs.The album is great up until song 8 or 9 but then the quality dips and the last 5 or 6 songs are boring and not there best.I do think this album will get the praise it deserves one day instead of being compared to morning glory two different bands with very different styles.

Well packaged, sounds great, very happy with purchase

I bought this album YEARS ago and lost it... I picked it up again and it is still exceptional. A fantastic piece of pure Blur, social satire and fantastic tunes, with a little touch of madness. It can be a bit of a grower but it's worth every listen.

It is the second time I buy this album. I lost it when I was young and now I buy it again not so young.Perfect.