Happiness in Magazines
2004 studio album by Graham Coxon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Happiness in Magazines is the fifth solo album by Graham Coxon. It was produced by Stephen Street who also produced Blur's first five albums and is Coxon's most commercially successful album to date. Happiness in Magazines reached 19 in the UK Albums chart and was certified Gold.
| Happiness in Magazines | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 17 May 2004 | |||
| Genres | ||||
| Length | 45:01 | |||
| Labels | Transcopic, Parlophone | |||
| Producer | Stephen Street | |||
| Graham Coxon chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Happiness in Magazines | ||||
| ||||
Production
Happiness in Magazines was produced by Stephen Street, accompanied by engineer Cenzo Townshend. It was then mastered by Bunt Stafford-Clark at Townhouse Studios in London. The artwork was designed by Alex Hutchinson, with images provided by Coxon.[1]
Alongside Coxon, additional musicians contributed to the recordings. Louis Vause performed organ and piano on “Bittersweet Bundle of Misery”, “All Over Me”, “Hopeless Friend”, “Are You Ready?”, “Bottom Bunk”, and “Ribbons and Leaves”. Angie Pollock provided backing vocals on “Bittersweet Bundle of Misery” and backing vocals and Marimba on “Don’t Be a Stranger”. The Duke Street Quartet performed strings on “All Over Me”, “Hopeless Friend”, and “Are You Ready?”. Marcus Bates, Pip Eastop, and Phillip Woods performed French horns on “Ribbons and Leaves”. John Metcalf arranged the string and horn parts.[2]
Singles
Four singles were released from Happiness in Magazines.
- "Freakin' Out", released 8 March 2004 - charted at #37
- "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery", released 3 May 2004 - charted at #22
- "Spectacular", released 26 July 2004 - charted at #32
- "Freakin' Out" / "All Over Me", released 25 October 2004 - charted at #19
Reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 77/100[3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| Pitchfork | 7.5/10[5] |
| PopMatters | 7/10[6] |
| Q |  [7] |
| Rolling Stone | [8] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | [9] |
| Uncut | [10] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [11] |
Happiness in Magazines was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 77, based on 23 reviews.[3]
Track listing
All lyrics and music written by Graham Coxon.[1]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Spectacular" | 2:48 |
| 2. | "No Good Time" | 3:21 |
| 3. | "Girl Done Gone" | 3:57 |
| 4. | "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery" | 4:53 |
| 5. | "All Over Me" | 4:16 |
| 6. | "Freakin' Out" | 3:42 |
| 7. | "People of the Earth" | 3:04 |
| 8. | "Hopeless Friend" | 3:22 |
| 9. | "Are You Ready?" | 4:42 |
| 10. | "Bottom Bunk" | 3:16 |
| 11. | "Don't Be a Stranger" | 3:29 |
| 12. | "Ribbons and Leaves" | 4:11 |
| Total length: | 45:01 | |
Personnel
Personnel per booklet and sleeve.[1][2]
|
Musicians
|
Production and design
|