20 years of The Great Escape

dparrott · Post by **dparrott** » 12 Sep 2015, 15:32

Lt Pinkerton wrote:This is Blur's worst album after Leisure. That's how fucking great they are.

...which are my top favorite albums!

rich · Post by **rich** » 12 Sep 2015, 20:44

NME gave it a pretty ecstatic review at the time

http://www.vblurpage.com/articles/albums/escape_nme.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

AdvertBreak · Post by **AdvertBreak** » 12 Sep 2015, 23:24

Q gave it 5/5 stars, and later re-rated it to 3/5. They did the same with Be Here Now. Such is public Zeitgeist-informed media.

I never skip Top Man. I've always liked it.

Mallard No. 22 · Post by **Mallard No. 22** » 14 Sep 2015, 08:53

It was well received at the time. Favourite tracks of mine are 'Country House' and 'Yuko & Hiro'.

3d · Post by 3d » 14 Sep 2015, 10:31

always had a soft spot for yuko + hiro, it's adorable...

some really nice songs on this album, singles aside (which were pretty strong efforts... the universal didn't make #1???) best days, he thought of cars..niiice..... looking back would probably sub (from available songs) fade away, topman, ernold same & dan abnormal for the man who left himself, a song and eine kleine lift musik maybe, similar role to debt collector) then just leave it as 13 songs or whatever:

- stereotypes
- country house
- best days
- charmless man
- the man who left himself
- the universal
- mr robinson's quango or eine kleine lift musik
- he thought of cars
- it could be you
- a song
- globe alone
- entertain me
- yuko + hiro

TripleJay97 · Post by **TripleJay97** » 14 Sep 2015, 10:34

I would have loved to hear I Hope You Find Your Suburb and Saturday Morning on the album, had they been finished.

Lt Pinkerton · Post by **Lt Pinkerton** » 14 Sep 2015, 22:22

TripleJay97 wrote:I would have loved to hear I Hope You Find Your Suburb and Saturday Morning on the album, had they been finished.

This, especially HYFYS. Outstanding song.

Pavlich · Post by **Pavlich** » 15 Sep 2015, 08:48

It's bloated, over long, all over the place, and full of some of their worst moments.

But it also has some of their finest moments, when those bombastic elements work. They were at some sort of confidence high or something, really feeding off that britpop sound and essentially mastering it the album before. In some ways I respect some of the misses (Ernold Same) but the others are just really, really phoned in and lacking any sort of heart (Mr Robinson) and songs like It Could Be You aren't fantastic for a band at their peak, but they're still pretty Blur-like and weirdly part of the charm of this album.

Never minded Top Man, seems like a part II to Girls & Boys. Fuck I hate the term "part two."

Yuko & Hiro really reminds me of some stuff on 13 and Think That. Seemed the start of their experimentation kind of crept in here. You can hear that a little in Best Days too, which I've always found a great song... reminds me of Pulp.

Stereotypes and Country House and Chamless Man are still absolute tunes. They'd be great fun to hear at any Blur show. You can't say the chart battle was a negative either, pretty immature and lame but it really seemed like the winding up and last time that rock musicians had that sort of hold on the public.

He Thought of Cars... special... The Universal? One of their best. Not like "yeah, that's one of Blur's best songs hey!" I mean, it's one of the finest songs of Britpop, the 1990s, Damon Albarn, Blur, living.

TripleJay97 · Post by **TripleJay97** » 15 Sep 2015, 09:13

Pavlich wrote:the others are just really, really phoned in and lacking any sort of heart (Mr Robinson)

dparrott · Post by **dparrott** » 15 Sep 2015, 13:46

Pavlich wrote: but the others are just really, really phoned in and lacking any sort of heart (Mr Robinson)

That song is a variety of genres in itself! Hardly "phoned in".

Pavlich wrote: Never minded Top Man, seems like a part II to Girls & Boys. Fuck I hate the term "part two."

Um, sure you don't mean Entertain Me? I would say that song is a bit "phoned in".

AstronomyD81 · Post by **AstronomyD81** » 15 Sep 2015, 14:31

I love TGE, Ok it's not Blur self title, parklife 13 or MLIR but is still great... there are some songs that didn't do for me but has an amazing songs too like the universal, best days, he thought of cars...

thespider · Post by **thespider** » 15 Sep 2015, 15:50

I've often wondered how/if Blur's later albums would have come about if The Great Escape had met commercial expectations.

It was supposed to be the record that took them to the level of Led Zeppelin fame worldwide and it didn't quite happen.

101reykjavik · Post by **101reykjavik** » 15 Sep 2015, 17:48

I still think they would have skewed off into a less mainstream direction, it may have just taken an album longer to do so. May have further ramped up inter-band tensions though, as the commercial pressure would have mounted to follow up a hugely successful TGE with more of the same, instead of the creative re-birth S/T actually represented.

miko · Post by **miko** » 15 Sep 2015, 17:51

Gosh, it's been 20 years already?! Man they are old aren't they?

Not my favourite Blur lp as a whole but it gave us a lot of very good songs, as some of you guys mentioned already, so that's really worth celebrating.

sara-m-a · Post by **sara-m-a** » 16 Sep 2015, 01:03

=) god bless that kid I had a crush on, that introduced me to the great escape
Too bad he got ugly... but the album's still kicking ass in 2015!

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