Graduated Fool

Graduated Fool is Anouk's third studio album, released in 2002. Compared with much of her earlier work, the record moves more strongly towards a guitar-driven rock sound.

Although Anouk initially intended to make a quieter and more restrained record, she changed course shortly before entering the studio, giving Graduated Fool its more forceful rock sound. Much of the material was written during her pregnancy, with recording beginning after the birth of her son Benjahmin in April 2002.

The album was largely written with Bart van Veen, whom Anouk described as her regular writing partner: he focused on the music, while she developed the lyrics.

The closing track Bigger Side was written by Sarah and Gert Bettens of the Belgian band K's Choice, making it a notable exception within an album otherwise largely written by Anouk and Bart van Veen. The video for I Live for You received an award at the Holland Animation Film Festival.

One of the album's more personal songs, Margarita Chum, was inspired by Anouk's then-manager Hester Goldberg, with whom she went through a particularly wild period of drinking margaritas.