Customer Reviews

Happiness in Magazines

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It might be sad, it might not, but the best Blur album since 'Parklife' is probably Graham Coxon's new album 'Happiness in Magazines.' It's a guitar frenzy of 3 minute pop songs that make his contributions to Blur extraordinarily obvious--he wasn't just guitar riffs, he was also melody and movement.

Graham's solo albums up until now have been indie-rock experiments with only a nod or two to his populist past, though you could feel him starting to become comfortable with actually recording "songs" on his last one, 'The Kiss of Morning.' But now that he's officially out of Blur and Damon's smoking a ton of weed and fooling around with drum machines, Graham isn't afraid to cut away the fat and stake a claim to the legacy by hiring Stephen Street to polish up some (dare I say?) "fun" guitar jaunts like the roller coaster melodic "No Good Time" and the driving-rock-yell-the-chorus-from-the-rafters anthems "Spectacular" and "Freakin' Out." And "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery" will have you smiling and singing along while reaching for the coffee and TV. Graham's having a lot better time being an ex-member of Blur than he had as a member of the post-Britpop-borderline-art-rock band who recorded '13'--I mean, who would have thought the miserable looking sod would end an album by singing "Life, I love you...?"

Graham one-man-band's it on the majority of tracks but the sound is tighter than "Song 2"--his voice has gained confidence and strength and his guitar playing is loud and raucous without being stupid and reminds you of why even NOEL FREAKIN'GALLAGHER said that Graham was one of the best of his generation (hopefully John Squire is paying attention after forgetting to play guitar and attempting to "sing" on his recent solo albums.) Graham is retro without being sad, reminiscent without being cloying, rock that rolls without selling it's soul to the new garage trend. 'Think Tank' was a bong load of tomorrow coming today, 'Happiness in Magazines' is an old friend that you didn't realize you missed until they sit down and steal your cigarettes.

Where Graham Coxon, former Blur guitarist, returns to writing simple songs and learns that writing simple songs isn't so simple but kind of succeeds anyway. After three solo outings where Coxon chafed at the pop accessibility Blur perverted yet flaunted, Coxon decided it was time to return to basics, so he hired Blur producer Stephen Street to help out and penned a bunch of three-minute punk-pop ditties.

God bless Coxon! The world needs fewer six-minute dirges and more three-minute pop songs. Elvis knew this, the Beatles knew this, and the Ramones did, too. "Spectacular," with its Elastica-like rapid-fire guitar riff is a noisy straightforward rocker. "No Good Time" features catchy verses that target poseurs of all sorts. "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery," the first single, combines Velvet Underground rhythm guitar with a bubbly chorus. On "Freakin' Out," Coxon sounds a bit like Johnny Rotten as Greenday frontman. "All Over Me" and "Are You Ready?" are somber, string-laden, 60's-style pop ballads. Not every song flies, but most feature a strong hook or two or three.

(...)

Happiness In Magazines is without question Graham Coxon's best album yet, and shows him writing songs that sound similar to the work he did while in Blur. Trust me, every song is good on this album. "Spectacular" starts things off right as is a tight rocker with great catchy lyrics. "No Good Time" is a great tune as well, which bashes many different types of people. "Girl Done Gone" has a very bluesy sound, and some of Graham's best guitar playing on the album. "Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery" is an awsome song, with Graham singing with mixed feelings about a girl. "All Over Me" is a slow ballad, but still very good. "Freakin' Out" and "People Of The Earth" are aggressive songs with great guitar work. "Helpless Friend" is a very Blur-sounding tune, with great lyrics. "Are Your Ready?" is one of the most interesting songs of the album. It is a shadowy sounding ballad, with great lyrics and Middle-Eastern strings in the background. "Bottom Bunk" and "Don't Be A Stranger" are also very Blur-like, which is a good thing, and feature some great guitar playing. The final track "Ribbons And Leaves" is a powerful and haunting song with great piano playing and haunting lyrics. Happiness In Magazines is one of the best albums i've heard in a long time, and I can't wait to hear what Coxon does next.

Inane lyrics, punked up guitars,crap singing......what more do you want? Coxons latest effort is british punk pop at its late 70`s zenith and is absolutely fantastic. The libertines need to give themselves a bit of a shake and get down to HMV for a copy of this little gem if they really do want a carrer in this business. Coxon is the english equivalent of the strokes and Damon could do with calling round for a friendly chat with his old mate. This album deserves to sit alongside Never Mind The Bollocks, Ace Of Spades and Definately Maybe and stamped made in Britain.

This is not another foray into experimentation by Mr. Coxon. It is a demonstration of skilled guitar pop which Blur sadly missed on the last CD. Many good songs here and a pleasure to listen the whole way through. Worth the import price (if this will not see a domestic US release).

Don't read that other miserable blokes/anoraks review.This is a great album. It's terrific. Where are Oasis? I left Oasis after "Be here now",but, Blur have just given us their greatest album (Think Tank) and Coxon has done the same. My two fave guitarists? Coxon and Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead.Thankgod that Damon Albarn and Coxon have just entered their period of great experimentation? Mature new direction?. I cherish and look forward to new releases by both Blur and Coxon. Rock on!

The confusion continues. Who was the pop one in Blur? One would have always assumed it was Damon Albarn, but now Coxon returns with an accessible, tuneful album that sounds like Parklife gone punk. Christ. His previous solo efforts have been highly disappointing, so hopes not too high for this one. He's not helped one bit by the fact that his voice is barely distinguishable from Albarn's, and this is in evidence on album opener 'Spectacular', a drivingly catchy punk-pop anthem with big, silly guitars and a "Britpop" aesthetic. Unfortunately its an all too dated sound, despite a fair amount of bounce, chiefly due, again, to the Mockney vocals.

First single 'Freakin' Out' was genuinely unexpected: a 1977-style punk track where the Mockney vocals sound less Britpop and more Johnny Rotten. And strangely enough, its pulled off, though its clearly not exactly a revolution. 'People Of The Earth' opens like King Crimson, before exploding, again, into an almost punk-metal style. Full marks for unpredictability; but if this wasn't Graham Coxon, it would be significantly less interesting, despite some enjoyably inane lyrics: "you ain't cool/you eat hamburgers and go to school!" Coxon even experiments with blues riffing on 'Hopeless Friend'. He's back on more familiar territory on closer "Ribbons and Leaves", a piano-driven, ramshackle indie-folk ballad, and particularly on the "Coffee and TV"-esque strum of 'Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery' (Coffee and TV, of course, was originally sung by Coxon - not that you'd be able to tell from the vocal similarity to Albarn).

Overall, this album is surprisingly eclectic, and has a certain personality to it, but lacks much originality or any particular fantastic melody, and is not going to be an album remembered for years to come. As Blur plough on towards unchartered territories, Coxon seems worryingly stuck in the past, and although this is, after some dire efforts, his closest to a good solo album, he still isn't there yet.