The Great Escape (Blur album)

The Great Escape is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Blur. It was released on 11 September 1995 on Food and Virgin Records.

The album continued the band's run of hit singles, with "Country House", "The Universal", "Stereotypes" and "Charmless Man" all reaching the top 10 of the UK singles chart. "Country House" was Blur's first number one hit in the UK, beating Oasis' "Roll with It", in a high-profile chart rivalry dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".

Released at the height of Britpop and the band's popularity in the UK, the album was a major commercial success in the UK and Europe, becoming the band's second consecutive album to debut at number one on the UK Albums Chart and being certified triple platinum in the UK in less than a year. The album received widespread critical acclaim upon its initial release, with praise for its songwriting and eclectic themes, though some retrospective reviews have been more negative, viewing it as a less cohesive, uninspired follow-up to Parklife (1994).

The Great Escape is often considered to be the final album of a trio of Britpop albums released by Blur in the mid-1990s, after Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) and Parklife (1994). With Blur's 1997 self-titled album, the band would change direction and move away from Britpop in favour of a more lo-fi and alternative rock sound.