Album of the Day — July 28
Stereophonics — Keep Calm And Carry On
Stereophonics — Keep Calm And Carry On
28.July.2020
Stereophonics
Keep Calm And Carry On
2009
Years ago, I was in a GAP store, and I heard a song come on their sound system. It was a brilliant marriage of guitar-driven rock and pop music, best described as “classic UK rock delivered with whiskey vocals.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and listened for a minute or two before asking the clerk what the song was.
It was “Dakota” by Stereophonics — a #1 single for them in 2005.
Considering myself kind of knowledgeable, this was a band I had never heard. Since I had recently become enamored with Manic Street Preachers, I was gobsmacked to find out that Stereophonics were also from Wales.
Discovering two Welsh rock bands in just a few months…was there some kind of undiscovered (in the US anyway) rock scene in Wales?
It turns out there is. Cardiff is the second most musical city in the UK based upon the number of bands having their origins in each UK city. That said, Stereophonics is one of the biggest and best.
The band formed in 1992 and began playing under the name Tragic Love Company. If you need an idea of what the band sounded like, you need only now that Tragic Love Company comes from their three favorite bands — the Tragically Hip, Mother Love Bone and Bad Company.
Their first album, Word Gets Around, was released in 1997 and was an immediate success, peaking at #6 on the UK charts and winning the band the BRIT Award for Best New Band.
Stereophonics are:
Kelly Jones (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards)
Richard Jones (bass guitar, harmonica, backing vocals)
Adam Zindani (rhythm guitar, backing vocals)
Jamie Morrison (drums, percussion)
Keep Calm And Carry On, besides being a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939 — and still widely used today around the world — is also Stereophonics’ seventh studio album.
The album opens with “She’s Alright”, a bouncy song with a repetitive chorus that’s either an exercise in irony or a story about co-dependency.
The first single “Innocent” appears to be another song about drug use … and death. Despite the poppy music, it’s dire lyrics failed to strike a chord with people.
The second single, “Could You Be The One?” is what you think it is — a love song. The band even incorporates the name of one of their favorite bands, “tragically hip” into the lyrics. Whether you believe in the concept of “the one” or not, this is a solid love song.
Could You Be The One?
Every little thing you do is magic lately.
Every single thing that you do is cool
Every little thing you do is tragically hip
Even when you tend to play the fool
When you open up your tired eyes
And take a look at what’s inside
The mirror on your wall tells you the truth
You’re exactly where you wanna be
There is no room for streams of tears
The sun is shining down, the clouds have cleared
CHORUS x2
Could you be the one for me
Could you be the one for me
Could you be the one for me
Could you be the one
Every single thing you do is magic baby
Every little thing that you do is cool
Every little thing you do is fashionably hip
Even when you’re mixing greens with blues
When you open up your pain stained eyes
From the night before when you were high
The smile upon your face tells you the truth
You’re exactly where you wanna be
There ain’t no fear of misery
The sun is shining down, the clouds have cleared
CHORUS x2
Much like the first single, this song also failed to resonate with fans and became Stereophonics’ first single to not chart in the UK.
I think if you gauge the album by the first two failed singles, you’re missing out. Because those are not the best songs, so it’s perplexing about the logic used in selecting them as singles.
The double punch of “Uppercut” and “Live N’ Love” are particular stand-outs. “Uppercut” is about the failure of a relationship and a deliberate swing at an old flame. You can practically hear the audience sing-along on the chorus.
Uppercut
Time bomb where did it go wrong
Street fights in the city lights for you, who are you?
The uppercut from the upper class
I spilled my drink and I broke my glass for you, who are you?
You look fit but you ain’t got it
Think you’re a dog well you’re just a bitch
I bet you’d like to take me for a ride
CHORUS
Sing loud all you people
We’re fighting in the streets
Sing loud all you people
This city’s killing me
With no money and the cupboards bare
Knew who I was and I didn’t care for you, who are you?
The undercurrent of the underdog
Will wipe the floor with your suit and job you do, who are you?
You box clever like to box you hard
So what do you got without your credit card
Not a lot ’cause what you think you’ve got’s not real
CHORUS x1
Time bomb where did it go wrong
Street fights and the city lights
For you, who are you?
The uppercut from the upper class
I spilled my drink and I broke my glass for you, who are you?
CHORUS x2
“Live ’n’ Love” has a similar sing-along chorus, but this is the song about living for your dreams. Kelly Jones is singing with such passion and ferocity that you can almost hear his vocal cords shred by the final chorus.
Live’ n’ Love
Change what ya can,
But the rest you just gotta let go,
Taste every drop of life you can you know,
’ Cause time is short it’ll soon be time to go
Don’t be afraid to dream and live life here
And now ’cause that’s what’s real,
All the rest of it is just all make believe
So live here in the moment
CHORUS
And live that dream my angel
Be my savior
Take my soul and live’ n’ love today
So live your dream my angel
Be my savior
Take my soul and live’ n’ love today
You’ll never understand it all when things go right or wrong,
Take that from me
In love’ n’ life there ain’t much sympathy
So grab your coat it’s cold
CHORUS x1
You’ll never understand it all
Read the writing on the wall
See the world and be what you wanna be
Don’t be afraid to dream
Live’ n’ love and livin’ free
The rest is all make believe to me
CHORUS x1
Thematically, Keep Calm And Carry On doesn’t break any new ground. Lyrically it’s got all of the rock song tropes you’d expect, love, heartbreak, reflection, et al. The difference here is that they’re all done consistently well.
Unfortunately, Keep Calm And Carry On is arguably their least successful album in their career.
Although I do suspect if people re-visit the record, they’ll find an exceptional rock album because the best songs are the deeper cuts on the album (“Uppercut”, “Live’ n’ Love”, “Wonder”, “Show Me How”).
CRITICS:
Will Dean of the BBC wrote: “musically it’s as solid as you’d expect … but Keep Calm And Carry On is unlikely to win Stereophonics any new fans.”
Andy Gill of The Independent said: “At no point does there seem any coherent momentum, nor is there any unity about the songs themselves, which range from seaside pick-up lines to lovelorn melancholia, frustrated fulminations about existence to confused commentaries on parental drinking habits. Small wonder the album should conclude with the plonking piano number ‘Show Me Now’, a plea for guidance.”
[SIDE BAR] — I would hardly blame the band on this; for some reason, labels seem to require WAY too many songs for albums. This record is 12 songs, and if it were 9 or 10, Gill would find that cohesion he’s looking for.Mark Edwards in The Sunday Times saw Keep Calm And Carry On for what it is — “their best album yet” writing: “What’s really annoying about Kelly Jones is that we know he can do better…like a teacher watching a smart kid throw his life away, you want to grab Jones by the shoulders and yell: ‘Dakota! You wrote Dakota, and it’s bloody brilliant! See what you can do if you apply yourself?’ Perhaps someone has done just that because Keep Calm and Carry On sees Jones stretching himself.”
Stereophonics have suffered the same plight of many of their Welsh contemporaries in that they can’t find an audience in the US. Of course, the fans are here, and they’re into it, but rock and roll has long been out of favor in the states.
As an avid rock fan, I know enough that it’ll come back into fashion…it always does.
In the meantime, I’ll Keep Calm And Carry On.