"Country House" | ||||
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Single by Blur | ||||
from the album The Great Escape | ||||
Released | 14 August 1995 | |||
Format | CD single, 7" vinyl, cassette | |||
Recorded | 1995 | |||
Genre | Britpop | |||
Length | 3:57 | |||
Label | Food | |||
Songwriter(s) | Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree | |||
Producer(s) | Stephen Street | |||
Blur singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Country House" on YouTube |
"Country House" is a song by English alternative rock band Blur. It was released as the lead single from the band's fourth album The Great Escape on 14 August 1995. "Country House" was the first of two Blur singles to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart (the second being 1997's "Beetlebum").
In an interview for the South Bank Show, Damon Albarn explained that it was inspired by former Blur manager Dave Balfe, who left Blur's label Food Records and bought a house in the country.
The song is about a man who retires to an expensive country house to escape the pressures of the city. The cover art features a horizontally-flipped image of Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.
"Country House" received a great deal of media attention when Blur's label Food Records moved the original release date to the same day as Oasis's "Roll with It". The British media had already reported an intense rivalry between the two bands and this clash of releases was seen as a battle for the number one spot, dubbed the "Battle of Britpop". In the end, "Country House" won the "battle", attaining the No. 1 spot while "Roll with It" came in at No. 2.
In certain live performance, such as the performance during the "Singles night" Damon Albarn would jokingly announce the song as "Roll with It."
The music video for "Country House" was directed by artist Damien Hirst, who had attended Goldsmiths, University of London, with members of Blur. It features the band and a businessman (played by Keith Allen) in a flat with the band playing a board game called "Escape from the Rat Race" before they become trapped in the game where they are with farm animals and other people before appearing in the flat again. The band appears in the video alongside British comic actors Matt Lucas and and model Jo Guest. It features pastiches of - or tributes to - Benny Hill (Lucas' doctor chasing scantily clad young women culminating in the entry of the milk van of Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)) and Queen's 1975 video for "Bohemian Rhapsody". It was nominated for Best Video in the 1996 BRIT Awards.