| Product: |
Happiness In Magazines - Graham Coxon |
| Date: |
29.09.04 (98 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: His best solo album, glad to see that leaving Blur had a positive effect on him
Disadvantages: The album doesn't fit into just one genre, however this is quite a good thing as it gives it qwider appeal so erm None
During the mid to late 90’s Blur were one of the bands of the moment. The on going feud with Oasis rumbled on in the background, even though it was only created to sell magazines. They started to take a new direction towards the end of the 90’s and into the early part of the 00’s. The driving force behind the new direction was guitarist Graham Coxon. Eventually he fell out with Damon Albarn and Graham decided the time had come to draw a line under his Blur career, leaving the band to carry on without him.
All the time he was in Blur, Coxon has been releasing the odd solo album here and there. Every time they sounded totally different to Blur’s album of the times. He never released anything that did that well until this, his 5th outing as a solo artist. As his time with Blur had drawn to a close it gave Coxon more time and a better reason to make a go of his solo material. Again it sounds different to anything he did with Blur but you can certainly hear his influence over his former bands more recent material.
The result of the split has seen Coxon take a new direction with his solo material. He recruited the help of former Blur producer Steven Street, who worked on both Parklife and The Great Escape albums. It seemed that Coxon wanted a more commercial sound, whilst still staying true to his musical roots. The overall sound of the album benefits from Coxon’s new lease of life and the result of this is a fantastic fifth album. I hadn’t been aware that Coxon had released so many albums but from what I’ve heard this is his best to date.
You can hear from the start of the album a musical similarity with certain Blur tracks, which really is no bad thing. It’s not just the similarities to his old bands work that make this such a good album though. Coxon has used the work he did with Blur as a basis for his solo material but has developed each track individually. This has given the album a unique sound, whilst still sounding vaguely familiar.
From a musical point of view its obvious that Coxon has a great deal of talent. It was in evidence during his days with Blur and now shines through from his solo material. The pace of the album is constantly changing with a good mixture of fast and slow songs. The guitars stay constant throughout the album and are often the driving force behind a lot of the songs. It’s a testament to Coxon’s skills that he’s been able to write an album as good as this, when many expected him to fall flat on his face.
It’s not just musically that the album impresses. Accompanying the great guitar riffs and strong drumbeats are sublime lyrics. The album seems to be a real expression of Graham personally and lets him show off a side that never really got a chance to shine before. He seems to be really enjoying music again and the split from Blur seems to have given him a new creative edge. This album really showcases a number of styles of music from simple Indie tunes to Indie pop and even a slight hint of rock. It certainly strikes me as Graham’s best album yet.
There really isn’t a weak track as such on the album. The styles of music are varied with tracks like “Girl Done Gone”, which sounds very much like The White Stripes, and “No Good Time”, which is a very Indie pop driven song are probably the best examples of the differences. My own favourite would have to be “Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery”, which draws heavily on a track Graham wrote for Blur. The similarities with “Coffee and TV” are immense and the result is a thoroughly enjoyable track.
There have been a couple of single releases but they didn’t seem to get much airplay and as a result didn’t get the exposure they deserve. That said Graham seems to have received a lot more exposure recently, what with a headline appearance at Reading Festival and a large number of Blur fans picking up copies of the album. The lack of exposure hasn’t hurt Graham as badly as it might other artists as people, like myself, seem to be curious what he’s been up to since he left Blur. There’s a lot more good music to come and thankfully creative differences wont be able to get in the way anymore.
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