Happiness in Magazines cover

Happiness in Magazines

Released

Blur guitarist Graham Coxon’s previous solo albums had largely been an exercise in venting his alt-rock fury outside of the day-job. Two years after being ejected from Blur, however, his fifth found him knuckling down and producing a set of songs that delivered precisely the sort of scruffy power pop that his estranged bandmates, and an increasingly Gorillaz-focused Damon Albarn, had largely abandoned. Spiky opener Spectacular and The Skids-indebted Freakin’ Out both could have been shoo-ins for Blur singles, while Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery was essentially his own Coffee & TV Mk.2.

Chris Catchpole

Recommended by

Suggestions
Turn Blue cover

Turn Blue

The Black Keys
The Hard Quartet cover

The Hard Quartet

The Hard Quartet
Flood cover

Flood

They Might Be Giants
No Dice cover

No Dice

Badfinger
Modern Nature cover

Modern Nature

The Charlatans
Zuma 85 cover

Zuma 85

Allah-Las