16/11/09
Stereophonics - ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’
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Legendary Welsh rockers back for lucky number seven.
If you could explain why so many guitar bands could write two essential opening
albums and then fade into mediocrity forever thereafter, you would be a wise
individual. Like Oasis, the Stereophonics have chopped, changed and sliced but
never made a record to compete with ‘Word Gets Around’ and ‘Performance & Cocktails’, will this change things?
Opener, ‘She’s Alright’ is typical of the band’s modern style. Lead man Kelly Jones seems to enjoy these Wild West lyrical
adventures and this is like a soundtrack to an afternoon in a saloon. First
single, ‘Innocent’ is an intriguing choice for a single. It combines the vocal indie-wails of the
likes of ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ with a happy beat. Not the best here though.
‘Beer Bottle’ adds keyboards to the Stereophonics party – quite the unknown commodity. This has nice chilled-out vibes to it and very
heart-on-sleeve lyrics from Jones, which creates a seriously deep aura. ‘Trouble’ is a bit like ‘Bartender & the Thief’ without the rapturous guitar - an OK effort and it sounds very 70s to boot.
One of the stand-out efforts which really takes one back to Kelly’s fantastic early song-writing (even if it does steal a bit from The Police) is ‘Could You Be the One?’ Beautifully chilled and atmospheric, this is vintage of this record’s sound. ‘I Got Your Number’ is more reminiscent of the testosterone-filled vocals of some of their earlier
work, with an anthemic bridge.
‘Uppercut’ is a monologue of drunken nights out, one would imagine. It has a very stellar
guitar structure and could well be a modern anthem for evenings on the town in
future. On the contrary, ‘Live ‘n’ Love’ is very much the song an older rocker might write, emphasising that you need to
live the dream. There’s a powerful chorus thrown into and if you hadn’t already guessed, this band is back in its groove.
‘100mph’ is really anything but and completely slows the pace down. Whilst it has nice
rhythm work, it’s fair to say this is an example of the rock cow being milked once too often.
The bass-stridden ‘Wonder’ is once-again, not to be taken literally and just turns into a quirky wall of
sound, or “filler track” as you might find it in the album dictionary.
I’m not a big fan of ‘Stuck in a Rut’ either and in some ways this is exactly the sort of song that has been popping
up on their recent work and it didn’t work then, so quite an ironic title. Dim the lights down low and get the
lighters out for the final musings of ‘Show Me How’. It’s got a nice piano accompaniment, but just never really implodes.
Key Tracks:
‘She’s Alright’
‘Innocent’
‘Beerbottle’
‘Trouble’
‘Could You Be the One?’
‘I Got Your Number’
‘Uppercut’
Worst Tracks:
‘Stuck in a Rut’
‘100mph’
‘Wonder’
I would say the band have turned a corner from the drab rock of yesteryear.
Rather like ‘Performance’ in that the first six songs were the best, is pretty much how this has turned
out, but encouraging, nonetheless. 7/10 CM
Verdict
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More Ballads?
The X-Factor’s biggest star returns with her second record.
Undoubtedly the act to follow, Leona has enjoyed unprecedented success since
winning the show, not least with her debut ‘Spirit’ becoming the fastest-selling album. Now with the talent show pedigree firmly in
the past where does Lewis go from here?
Apparently not very far, Simon Cowell and Clive Davis have once again enlisted
the help of occasional OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder to pen ‘Happy’ and unsurprisingly this is a ballad in the footsteps of ‘Bleeding Love’. Tedder’s other effort is just far too OTT, a cringe-worthy duet at the end on ‘Lost then Found’.
‘I Got You’ fuses many of the same tricks but Lewis’ voice once again takes the track to a 90s Whitney/Mariah Carey promised
land. This is a sure-fire single but it’s all getting very samey. ‘Can’t Breathe’ sees the entrance of the subtle synthesizer – a ploy that is used to give the record “a dance feel”. Lewis again undermines the backing with some nice vocal touches, just
untouchable to many.
It’s nice to see Leona being given a chance to contribute and she does on the vast
majority of the record. ‘Brave’ is not one of the ones she’ll be known for and it’s over-dramatic Julian Bunetta/ Andrew Frampton crashing beat just is never
going anywhere.
‘Outta My Head’ is at least a new direction and is very reminiscent of Kelly Clarkson and Katy
Perry’s niche in the market. It has to be said though that this is a big success here
for an artist that probably wakes up dreaming of variation, though it does rip
off ‘With Every Heartbeat’ to a degree.
Mariah Carey will no doubt notice the similarity of Lewis’ voice to her own on ‘My Hands’, really quite uncanny. This is like ‘Footprints in the Sand’ and I didn’t much care for that either, just too soft and no real substance. ‘Love Letter’ is quite similar but for different reasons. Similar in that it really doesn’t go anywhere, though the lyrics are far better here.
‘Broken’ is kinda likeable in the way that it’s not outstandingly arranged but the lyrics are just beautifully written and
this is one Leona can be proud of contributing to. ‘Naked’ is similar too and thankfully it doesn’t go down the Louise Nurding route! Lewis teams up with Shellback on the decks
here and the beat is worthy of the tune.
Covers tend to scream a lack of originality and her ‘Run’ cover for the re-release of ‘Spirit’ was annoying enough, now she does Oasis classic ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’ and really the only positive thing I can say about this is I expect it’s bought Noel Gallagher a nice new guitar or seven. ‘Alive’ is a decent tune, though ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ falls wide of the mark.
Key Tracks:
‘Happy’
‘I Got You’
‘Can’t Breathe’
‘Outta My Head’
‘Broken’
‘Naked’
‘Alive’
Worst Tracks:
‘Lost Then Found’
‘Brave’
‘Love Letter’
‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’
On the one hand you could say they are playing to her strengths, on the cynical,
there’s just not enough originality and if this does continue the Leona bubble is in
danger of bursting. 7/10 CM
Verdict
(c) ChrisOnline.biz 2009
