Your Own Advice is Always What You Should Go By

Originally posted on 28/3/10

Keep Calm and Carry On - Stereophonics - Album Review

I think this'll be the last time I go on about opening singles. Purely because I shouldn't have the nerve to do it for an album that came out last year, and because i'm getting bored of it myself. Keep Calm and Carry On is Stereophonics' 7th album, and while I have 3/7ths of them, they all seem to follow the same formula. Fairly catchy lead single, with a fairly similar album but with a few hidden gems. KCACO follows this up, and while Innocent is a decent song, it's one of those lead singles which is simply a mask for a far superior album that follows it. Even the lead song, the imaginitively titled She's Alright, is something which hides a much more enjoyable labour that's been recorded here.

For 7 albums, musically there's not been much change. Granted they bothered to include the extra guitarist as a band member this time, so there's a bit more depth on some tracks which would have been weaker otherwise. There's some new area explored, the weird electronic sounding Beerbottle which coupled with a decent set of lyrics makes for a decent song. Closer Show Me How makes good use of the piano as well, and shows that Kelly Jones' voice can be used in all its harshness for something soft and heartfelt. Overall though, if you're looking for something new musically, don't bother. They've found their style, stuck with it and managed to stay successful off of it.

Lyrically, i've never set much by Stereophonics. Aside from most of them being indecipherable, there's very often few which have meaningful ones (to me at least). For KCACO however the boat's been pushed out, and once you get over hearing "She's Alright" about 80 times, you get some good stuff. There's stories told in Beerbottle and there's heartfelt and downright beauty on offer in Show Me How and Could You Be the One. I was truly taken aback by some of the words thrown together here, and as I said, the man with a girls names voice gets to show some level of emotion other than raspy strained anguish, and he's actually able to pull it off. As a result, this album has more depth than previous efforts (or, the ones i've heard). Where they can go from this I don't know, but if they keep calm and carry on the way they are then they wont go far wrong.

I never bought this album when it came out as Innocent seemed so bland it was beige, but i'm glad I got it now. A fantastic album, which while cementing Stereophonics' place as Wales' 2nd best band, is completely worth your time, and will keep their reputation going.