Happiness in Magazines

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
Released17 May 2004 (2004-05-17)
Genre
Length45:01
LanguageEnglish
LabelTranscopic, Parlophone
ProducerStephen Street
Graham Coxon chronology
The Kiss of Morning
(2002)
Happiness in Magazines
(2004)
Love Travels at Illegal Speeds
(2006)
Singles from Happiness in Magazines
  1. "Freakin' Out"
    Released: 8 March 2004
  2. "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery"
    Released: 3 May 2004
  3. "Spectacular"
    Released: 28 July 2004
  4. "Freakin' Out / All Over Me"
    Released: 25 October 2004

Reception

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic77/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic      [2]
Pitchfork(7.5/10) [3]
PopMatters(7/10) [4]
Q      [5]
Rolling Stone      [6]
Tiny Mix Tapes      [7]
Uncut      [8]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music     [9]

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.[1]

Track listing

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All songs written by Graham Coxon.

  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
Bonus tracks
  • "Life It Sucks" (Japan)
  • "Right to Pop!" (United States)

Personnel

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  • Graham Coxon - lead vocals, all instruments except:
  • Louis Vause - organ and piano on tracks 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10
  • Angie Pollock - backing vocals on tracks 4 and 11; marimba on track 11
  • The Duke Street Quartet - strings on tracks 5, 8 and 9
  • John Metcalf - string arrangement on tracks 5, 8 and 9; horn arrangement on track 12
  • Marcus Bates - French horn on track 12
  • Pip Eastop - French horn on track 12
  • Phillip Woods - French horn on track 12
Technical
  • Stephen Street - producer
  • Cenzo Townshend - engineer
  • Alex Hutchinson - sleeve design

Singles

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Four singles have been released from Happiness in Magazines.

Release details

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The album has been released in various countries.

Country Date Label Format Catalog
Australia 7 May 2004 Capitol CD 5777472
United Kingdom 17 May 2004 Transcopic, Parlophone LP 5775191
CD 5775192
Japan 26 May 2004 Toshiba-EMI CD TOCP 66292
US 25 January 2005 Astralwerks CD ASW 60387

References

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  1. ^ a b "Critic Reviews for Happiness in Magazines". Metacritic. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  2. ^ Happiness in Magazines at AllMusic
  3. ^ Pitchfork Media review
  4. ^ PopMatters review
  5. ^ Q review
  6. ^ Rolling Stone review
  7. ^ Tiny Mix Tapes review Archived 17 July 2012 at archive.today
  8. ^ Uncut review Archived 1 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.