Happiness in Magazines

by

Graham Coxon

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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.

(...)