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 Graham Coxon
Released	17 May 2004 (2004-05-17)
Genre	Indie rock alternative rock garage punk
Length	45:01
Language	English
Label	Transcopic, Parlophone
Producer	Stephen Street
Graham Coxon chronology
The Kiss of Morning (2002) Happiness in Magazines (2004) Love Travels at Illegal Speeds (2006)
Singles from Happiness in Magazines
"Freakin' Out" Released: 8 March 2004 "Bittersweet Bundle of Misery" Released: 3 May 2004 "Spectacular" Released: 28 July 2004 "Freakin' Out / All Over Me" Released: 25 October 2004

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100^[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
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

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

• 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

Four singles have been 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

Release details

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

1. "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
7. Tiny Mix Tapes review Archived 17 July 2012 at archive.today
8. Uncut review 1 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
9. Larkin, Colin (2007). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.