Graham Coxon - Happiness In Magazines (CD 2004)

I like to take time and write reviews as i enjoy it and i like to think that others find them helpful. So, with that in mind:

Don't buy this CD.

I bought it in the hopes that the rest of the CD would sound like the single "Freakin Out" (track 6). I'll be honest, Freakin out is a truly brilliant song and i love it.

Sadly, the rest of the album sounds tuneless and experimental to me. As his fifth album in 6 years up to then (released 2004), I would have hoped it would be better. After all, he left Blur to experiment - surely he'd have found out what he was looking for by album 5?! Evidently not. Or, perhaps, he was just at theat annoying stage where he decided he was good enough to play whatever he wanted as he'd done all the popular stuff he needed to do in order to establish hilself as a solo artist - I've no idea - this was his first and, as a result, last album I bought.

True, I didn't expect Blur when I bought it (Coxon was Blur's guitarist on their first 6 albums) and, having never heard any of his prior solo work, I won't judge the fella as a whole. It's just that I bought this album for all the wrong reasons - because I heard and liked one track.

Laugh if you must but be honest - we've all done it. And we never learn.

Freakin out is excellent and the reason this CD gets "below average" instead of "poor" as a rating, but, if you don't have Freakin Out, buy the single, not the album.

A splendid offering from Coxon who has shown himself to be a post Blur talent in his own right, easily on par with Albarn albeit less obvious! Freakin' out is probably the most notable song on the album. Put it on and whack it UP! go on, I dare you! ;@)

Brilliant album. Buy it!!! If you do not, you are missing out on one of the the greatest and most underated records in recent years. So buy it.

Finally! The album Coxon always promised to make, having written all the interesting bits in Blur (one listen to 'Think Tank' proves this) and then fiddled about for years on a four track, he wakes from slumber and leaps into the limelight armed with proper tunes like 'Freakin' Out' and 'Spectacular'. Go get 'em Graz!