Stereophonics
Kind

“Kind” is the eleventh album by Stereophonics, fronted by Kelly Jones, and it comes two years after the more than good “Scream Above The Sounds”.

The new work of the Welsh quartet is born out of a period in which the forty-five-year-old frontman suffered from writer's block; “after our last concert in September 2018, I felt emptied and hadn’t written anything new, I thought of taking a break, then over the next two months I started writing songs incessantly that were already complete, vulnerable, and honest, which became an album”.

Precisely because of their intimate and composed nature, Jones chose to record the new tracks in just eleven days at The Ramsbury distillery in Wiltshire, using minimal and analog studio technologies and being assisted by American producer of Greek origin George Drakoulias (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Screaming Trees, Primal Scream, and The Black Crowes among others).

The result is a simple and very intense album, composed almost exclusively of rock ballads that bring with them a markedly country aftertaste in several episodes. It’s somewhat the “American” album of the 'Phonics, even more than that “Just Enough Education To Perform” which eighteen years ago consecrated the Welsh band to well-deserved international success.

Jones and Drakoulias indeed work by subtraction, bringing the Stereophonics’ music back to showcase the two fundamental requirements that have made them successful: the clear and airy melodies of the Welsh band and, above all, Jones’s splendid voice, here an absolute protagonist and further enhanced by intimate and personal lyrics, which go on to embellish the credibility of the minute frontman’s interpretation.

The opener “I Just Wanted The Goods” with its frenetic ups and downs is a flash in the pan of rock that will be repeated later in the album only a couple of times, namely with the uplifting chorus of the vital second single “Bust This Town” and with the perfect and crystalline britpop of “Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day”.

For the rest, there’s a lot of America, as in the epic lead single “Fly Like An Eagle”, the gospel of “Make Friends With The Morning”, the finger-picking of the delightful “Streets Of Orange Light”, and the harmonica of the nostalgic “Restless Mind”. “This Life Ain’t Easy (But It’s The One That We All Got)”, then, condenses in six splendid minutes all the best of Jones’s interpretative and songwriting abilities.

Stereophonics continue their positive streak and give us an intense and convincing album, undoubtedly among their best.

Best track: “This Life Ain’t Easy (But It’s The One That We All Got)”