Ooh, here’s an interesting one. Released in 2004, this wasn’t Coxon’s first solo album, but it was the first to be released after he’d been dumped by Blur (who had gone on to release Think Tank without him). Pretty well acclaimed on its release, it didn’t make him a solo star, though it remains his best known work outside Blur.
It’s not a bad listen seven years on, though it’s rather inconsistent. Its greatest strength is also something of a handicap – the best songs sound like early Blur which is all well and good, but a bit of a regression at the time, and in stark contrast to what Damon Albarn was up to.
So what are the good bits? ‘The Good Time’, ‘Bottom Bunk’ and ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’ would all have sat nicely on ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’. ‘Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery’ works well as a sequel to ‘Coffee + TV’ and is a definite highlight. ‘Freakin’ Out’ and ‘Spectacular’ are undeniably simple, but they work well. Weak points? ‘Are You Ready?’ is a bit dirgey, and ‘People Of The Earth’ is horrendous – like a bad studio in-joke that ended up on the album by mistake.
Coxon does a good job of restraining his guitar through the album. He’s one of the best guitarists of his generation I’d say, so it would have been easy to self-indulge on this front. It’s also a downside as his guitar work is far better than his voice – he struggles to carry some of the material here. There are also some real lyrical clunkers throughout the record – ‘Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery’ only just manages to get away with rhyming ‘beautiful’ and ‘really cool’ – if the tune wasn’t so good, it’d be virtually unforgiveable.
Ultimately, when the history of Blur is written, ‘Happiness In Magazines’ will be nothing but a footnote, but not a bad footnote. Could be worse – it’s not like his career doesn’t contain a lot to be proud of.
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