Spectacular by Graham Coxon was released as a single this week 22 years ago. About 22 hours ago (my time), the video was uploaded to YouTube, the first time I've ever seen it.
Spectacular opens Graham's fifth album, Happiness In Magazines. Coincidentally, JC was revisiting another of the album's singles - the, ahem, spectacular Freakin' Out, just last week over at The Vinyl Villain.
His comment that "Nobody paid all that much attention" to Graham's previous albums was spot on in my case; Happiness In Magazines was the first that appeared on my radar. It was perhaps of greater interest as being the first album that Graham had made following his depature from Blur in 2002.
Happiness In Magazines proved to be Graham's highest placed albums in the UK charts, reaching #19 on entry in May 2004, a position mirrored by Freakin' Out when it was re-released as a double A-side with All Over Me that October.
Spectacular entered at #32 in the singles chart for the week commencing 1st August. It dropped to #60 the following week, then out of the Top 100 altogether the week after that, before making a third and final appearance at #83 the week of 22nd August.
The video is a lot of fun, though some have been quick to point out the similarities in visual style and tone to 7 Nation Army, a hit for White Stripes the previous year. 22 years later, it's perhaps even less important that it was at the time.
Spectacular is a fun song, sonically and visually, and the lyrical theme - a love song of sorts to someone the narrator "Saw [...] in my computer" - is simple, effective and resonates as much in 2026 as it did in 2004.
What more do you need from a 169-second pop song?
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