"Country House"
CD single cover
Single byBlur
from the albumThe Great Escape
B-side	"One Born Every Minute"
Released	14 August 1995 (1995-08-14)
Genre	Britpop
Length	3:57
Label	Food Parlophone
Songwriters	Damon Albarn Graham Coxon Alex James Dave Rowntree
Producer	Stephen Street
Blur singles chronology
"End of a Century" (1994) "Country House" (1995) "The Universal" (1995)
Music video
"Country House" onYouTube

"Country House" is a song by Englishrock bandBlur. It was released as the lead single from the band's fourth studio album,The Great Escape (1995), on 14 August 1995 byFood Records andParlophone. Released on the same day as theOasis single "Roll with It" – in a chart battle dubbed the "Battle of Britpop" – "Country House" reached number one in theUK Singles Chart (the first of two Blur singles to reach number one, the second being 1997's "Beetlebum").^[1] The song is the band's best-selling single, with over 540,000 copies sold as of May 2014.^[2] Music magazinesMusic & Media andNME named it Single of the Week. The accompanying music video was directed byDamien Hirst and nominated for Best Video in the 1996BRIT Awards.

In an interview for theSouth Bank Show,Damon Albarn explained that it was inspired by former Blur managerDave Balfe, who left Blur's labelFood Records and bought a house in the country.^[3] Balfe moved toThe Bury^[4] in 1994 at Church End,Barton-le-Clay in southernBedfordshire off theA6. The house had four acres of land, nine bedrooms with five en-suite. He moved with his wife Helen and their children aged 2 and 4, when he was 36. The house was advertised in 2015 for £2m. It was Grade 2 listed in February 1975.^[5][6]

The song is about a man who retires to an expensivecountry house to escape the pressures of the city. The cover art features a horizontally-flipped image ofNeuschwanstein Castle inBavaria.^[7]

"Country House" received a great deal of media attention when Blur's labelFood Records moved the original release date to the same day asOasis's "Roll with It". TheBritish 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.^[8][9] Albarn himself was surprised that "Country House" topped the charts. He toldNME, "I sort of believed all the papers, includingNME, who told me Oasis were going to win."^[10]

David Stubbs fromMelody Maker felt the song "sounds at first to be taunting us with that oldBritpop standard, um, thingummy, the one that goesOur house is a very, very, very nice house/With two cats in the yard.. but turns out to be a cynical account of the miserable fat-rat city achiever attempting to find solace in the big rural pile of his dreams — a seemingly chirpy but ultimately very unsettling vignette hinting at Blur's darker edges."^[11] Pan-European magazineMusic & Media named it Single of the Week, adding, "Everything about this song makes you think ofMott the Hoople's laddish version ofDavid Bowie's 'All the Young Dudes'. Whatever, it has won them the UK championship at the expense ofOasis."^[12] Also Mark Sutherland fromNME named it Single of the Week, writing, "Yup, Blur's first new material since the epoch-shapingParklife LP is nothing short of a classic pop single. In the space of the time-honoured three-and-a-bit minutes, it manages to recall everyone fromMadness toThe Beatles to, um,Chas and Dave, craft the most infectious chorus of modern times and still squeeze in the astonishing lineHe's readingBalzac, knocking backProzac before tea-time. And you can't really ask for much more than that."^[13] AnotherNME editor, Johnny Cigarettes, described it as "feisty, upbeat singalong pop".^[14]Smash Hits gave 'Country House' a full score of five out of five, praising it as "a classic pop tune."^[15]

The music video for "Country House" was directed by English artist and art collectorDamien Hirst, who had attendedGoldsmiths, University of London, with members of Blur. It features the band and a businessman (played byKeith 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 actorMatt Lucas and modelsSara Stockbridge,Jo Guest and Vanessa Upton. It features pastiches of—or tributes to—Benny Hill (Lucas' doctor chasing scantily clad young women culminating in the entry of the milk van ofErnie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)) andQueen's 1975 video for "Bohemian Rhapsody". It was nominated for Best Video in the 1996BRIT Awards.

The external shots of the video are at Pyrton Manor,Pyrton, in eastOxfordshire, west of junction 6 of theM40, near the B4009 andWatlington. It is now home of Vogue writerLaura Bailey, and is the former home of the 1956High Sheriff of Oxfordshire. It is Elizabethan, built around the start of the 17th century.

All music was composed byAlbarn,Coxon,James andRowntree. All lyrics were written by Albarn.

• "Country House" and "Charmless Man" produced by Stephen Street
• "One Born Every Minute" produced by Blur and John Smith
• "To the End (la comedie)" produced by Stephen Hague, Blur and John Smith
• Damon Albarn: Lead vocals, keyboards, organ
• Graham Coxon: Guitar, saxophone, backing vocals
• Alex James: Bass guitar, backing vocals
• Dave Rowntree: Drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Additional brass by:The Kick Horns

The song was covered bythe Wurzels on their 2002 albumNever Mind the Bullocks, 'Ere is The Wurzels^[49] andOut of the Blue on their 2005 albumFreefall.^[50]

• 1995 singles
• 1995 songs
• Blur (band) songs
• Food Records singles
• Irish Singles Chart number-one singles
• Music videos shot in the United Kingdom
• Number-one singles in Iceland
• Number-one singles in Scotland
• Parlophone singles
• Song recordings produced by Stephen Street
• Songs written by Alex James (musician)
• Songs written by Damon Albarn
• Songs written by Dave Rowntree
• Songs written by Graham Coxon
• UK singles chart number-one singles
• Virgin Records singles
• Works by Damien Hirst
• Songs about anxiety

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