The Great Escape? Is it really that bad...?

boy, i must hear that track again.

I can't remember the exact details, but IIRC they were a load of regional semi official organistations, many of which were shut down by thatcher in the eraly '80's as a kind of populist move, b/c qango had become synonymous w/profigat govt spending at that point.

Yes. Three times, like St. Peter.

This is also true.

http://www.nme.com/news/blur--2/59677

This may well be the best Blur album ever.

nice to hear about that! man, I love this album so much, though I can understand why people find it too obnoxious, over-the-top etc. Damon Albarn at his most sarcastic, I guess.

'The Great Escape' is a good album. I don't think Blur ever made a great one - the closest that they came was 'Parklife' IMHO. Most of their albums suffer from being at least quarter of an hour/three or four songs too long. Tracks which, if they were cut, would have made the albums just that little bit stronger. I've never had a problem with the 'The Great Escape' though. When it's 'on' (which it is most of the time), it's fabulous. When it's 'off', it's the pits.

"Best Days" is an obscenely fantastic song, I will say that much. There is some rather slight stuff on the album as well, though.

Country House seems to define a moment; in the middle of all this ironic Benny Hill 90s lads comedy, and that great scribble of a guitar solo, it all stops while the singer tells us how depressed he really is. Then its back to the page 3 girls and the coke...

Pretty much every track has something going on musically, a great riff, killer hook, good idea in the arrangement, to recommend it, and almost every song is catchy as hell. But there are some awful, awful, hateful lyrics and vocals.

^^^^ yep

Has anyone ever hated humanity as much as Damon did on this album?

Damn, twenty years old.

xpost, yes, Damon Albarn now.

Pretty much every track has something going on musically, a great riff, killer hook, good idea in the arrangement, to recommend it, and almost every song is catchy as hell. But there are some awful, awful, hateful lyrics and vocals.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 18 March 2012 22:37 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

100x yes. It would be such a great record if it hadn't been for the lyrics.

In a weird sequence of events, we decided to watch The Krays movie the other night, which promptly lodged the lyrics to 'Charmless Man' in my head. The next day, we sang it as we walked up the hill to a pub quiz where, during the music round they played 'Charmless Man' in reverse. To add to the coincidence, just as I was writing this post, I went to Google something completely unrelated and the first result was about the Kray Twins, but not what I was looking for.

Did anyone see B-Roads *finally* leaked yesterday? Maybe it was a private obsession for us Blur forum vets but it's rather like Carnival of Light has come out.

People were very weird about this. Mods demanding it must not be discussed. Show-offs who had somehow seen it informed the rest that it wasn't much cop and no one else needs to see it, yet describing every scene in great detail

B-Roads? What's that?

Late 1995 tour film / documentary, mentioned in the music press as something that was in the works. The band decided they didn't want it to come out and was quietly shelved. There wasn't too much fanfare/hype about it to begin with, but it slowly became something of a holy grail. The version that leaked could be just a rough cut, not sure

Wow. Thanks for this. I had Starshaped on video back in the day. It's odd seeing Matt Lucas in the tour party.

https://vimeo.com/774782708

on YouTube too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYX7s_5MnTY

Links seem to keep getting yanked all the time. At least it's out there now

Oh wow you couldn’t even *mention* it on the old Blur forum without the mods getting their knickers in a twist. It’s meant to be really boring.

It’s a fun piece of fluff. I like the scene with Alex James splayed out on the floor of their green room and Damon’s deadpan encounter with a local news reporter. It veers into some Song Remains the Same territory, but it doesn’t feel like a real glimpse into their minds a la True Stories or Return to Waterloo

I really quite love it, it's a real curate's egg. The Best Days bit is genuinely quite poignant.

Pretty good tbh. Refreshing actually, after all the hyper-curated retrospective docs of recent years, to see a contemporaneous effort like this, warts and all.

I found the endless aestheticised poverty kind of gross, but the lack of easy Camden/London-stuff is quite appealing. It’s a lovely document of “what things looked like”.

Graham is the good looking one it turns out (when he’s not wearing his glasses)

Wow yeah I was expecting it to be pretty lairy but this is really quite sweet, especially considering what a collective headfuck they must have been experiencing at the time. The interviews with the public remind me a bit of Pulp’s mini documentary about the making of the This Is Hardcore video, that was also shot on film, possibly by the same people. The Best Days bandstand bit is great yeah, I love that song, and Damon’s bit about the rings at the hotel was a bit of an unexpected choker. Baffling this was blocked/banned for so long.

This film sounds interesting. I know nothing about it but hope to watch some time.