Anyone interested in hearing post-Blur Graham Coxon should download his new single, "Freakin' Out." Great pop-punky single, which made me hopeful that his new album would be better than previous solo efforts. I finally listened to the album, titled Happiness in Magazines, and it's worse than I could have imagined. "Bittersweet Bundle of Memory" is just a weak pop song with striking similarities to "Coffee and TV," "Girl Done Wrong" is a horrible garage-blues ala White Stripes rip-off, and "People of the Earth" attempts to be Johnny Rotten-esque, but fails miserably. Also, Coxon's vocals haven't aged well. While he might have sounded refreshing on the odd Blur song (peaking with "You're So Great"), he offers nothing new or interesting here. He also goes all over the map musically, but nothing (except the Skids-influenced single) works. He would be smarter releasing the one-off single, and waiting patiently for Damon Albarn et al. to invite him back to the band.

posted by Jonathan