Kelly Jones and his band The Stereophonics are back with their 8th studio album ‘Graffiti On The Train’.
The band are known for producing consistently excellent albums but also slightly reinventing their sound through various inspirations to keep the sound fresh. The dark stories of heartbreak and hurt inspire ‘Grafitti On The Train’ and the album will go down as one of their best.
Album opener ‘We Share The Same Sun’, one of the best tracks on the album, a song that would stand strong as a single, sets the tone of the album, one of many tracks about Heartbreak but one with a real rock sound that builds up into a guitar solo, the song also features really raw, back of your throat vocals in parts, something Kelly Jones is known for with that fantastic voice of his. Into title track ‘Graffiti On The Train’, a fantastic story told over a slow rhythm, a definite future Stereophonics classic.
Latest single ‘Indian Summer’ lifts the album, a strong song with yet more superb lyrics. Another song about heartbreak and love but without the cheesy lyrics of a Taylor Swift pop song.
‘Catacomb’ sends the album in a different direction, Kelly has got his electric guitar in hand and has wrote a real in your face rock song, a song in the same bracket as songs like ‘Bank Holiday Monday’ and ‘My Friends’, a song that would fit in perfectly with them two songs on ‘Pull The Pin’. The song breaks the album up perfectly and even though there isn’t another track like it on the album, it doesn’t sound out of place at all.
Free download ‘In A Moment’ and ‘Violins And Tambourines’, of which the video was directed by Kelly Jones himself, both feature on the album even though they have both been released as singles. Sandwiched in between is a surprise, Kelly Jones treats everyone to a song that wouldn’t always be associated with his band, ‘Been Caught Cheating’ is a blues number, lyrically strong once again, a solid four minute track about the hurt of being cheated on, by this point its pretty clear what the inspiration behind this album is.
Album ending ‘No-one’s Perfect’ is a slow song that lets Kelly throw out his fantastic vocal talent for one last time and sums up the story of the album, one about heartbreak and love, the title of the song tells you everything about life, at the end of it all, no-one’s perfect.
As good as The Stereophonics albums have been since ‘Word Gets Around’ and ‘Performance And Cocktails’, none of them have quiet reached the heights of them, Graffiti On The Train is the album all Stereophonics fans have been waiting for and is one that brings the missing step near the top of the Stereophonics album ladder.
Kelly was quoted as saying he was heading to the studio with “40 unfinished ideas instead of 10 finished ones“, which has made this album more daring and unpredicatable, something that will excite the fans and critics as much as the band themselves, and its one that has pushed the band in a slightly different direction, one that will only bring the Welsh rockers even more success.
‘Graffiti On The Train’ is released on March 4.
Songs to listen to: ‘We Share The Same Sun’, ‘Graffiti On The Train’, ‘Catacomb’, ‘Violins And Tambourines’ and ‘Been Caught Cheating’