Stereophonics
Word Gets Around

THE REVIEW

Good morning DeBaser!

First "review" for me. Honestly, I don't know what drove me to jot down these few lines. Perhaps an extremely placid Saturday afternoon; or the approach of New Year's where you recap a bit of everything you've done, and alas, haven't done. So I told myself: - I’m writing a review on De-Baser! - (If someone reads to the end, they will curse me for this).

Having finished the disjointed preamble, the "review" begins for real. Or it should begin; because right now I can't find the right opening (I've written and erased several sentences before writing this one above).

Okay, enough with the chit-chat, for every first review worth its salt, I should recite lines like: be kind, don't dismiss it out of hand, etc... but let's skip this unpleasant convention (though by now I've said them anyway, what an idiot!).

Well, procrastinating is not my strong suit (or is it?), the album I am about to review is (as you've already read above) the debut album of the Stereophonics. The Welsh band composed of, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!, formed in zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!. (We can perhaps do without this, right?). The Stereophonics represent one of the bands that guided me by the hand at the dawn of my musical journey, especially through this album, which I consider by far the best in their entire career.

Premise: In their latest exploits, they have trivially sold out! (An image of the dwarf-singer, Kelly Jones, popped into my mind, standing on a pedestal in the middle of a hypermarket, trying to attract passersby with cries of: Step right up, folks, step right up, come buy my new album!! And there, in the midst of a total frenzy of crowded fifteen-year-olds, waving their papa's money; our little dwarf, like a good circus performer, does somersaults to write something akin to this "WORD GETS AROUND" again). I think all this and I'm a bit saddened to hear them this way, but looking back, I see the reflection of who I was while singing these songs aloud (I still occasionally listen to the CD in the car the same way. Yep, I'm a nostalgic!). I stop and smile, pondering how much I've changed since then. Ultimately, I can't despise a band just because they didn't stay as I wanted them to. People change, folks! And we don't always remember that.

As for the musical content of the album: It starts quickly with: "A thousand trees" which is very catchy, without departing from the brit-pop terrain. As it progresses, there are less successful episodes which end up being a bit redundant with each other, but at the same time quite enjoyable. The best compositions are: "LOCAL BOY IN A PHOTOGRAPH" in which a very sad scene is shown through very simple, yet emphatic images, telling of a young boy's death. The music is very compelling. It continues with other songs of a certain significance such as: "SAME SIZE FEET, LAST OF THE BIG TIME DRINKERS, GOLDFISH BOWL" whose lyrics I recommend you read, where Kelly Jones (songwriter) displays a great evocative flair. The album concludes with: "BILLY DAVEY'S DAUGHTER" which is my favorite. A very simple guitar weaves the story of a rather mournful tale, which in an elegiac tone closes the circle of all the stories told on the album. Stories of the village, of a province that no longer exists. The first time I listened to them, they seemed to come out of Stephen King's "Different Seasons": a bigoted town where life runs on a single track, where the train is perpetually late and there's no time to wait for anyone; a place where sad memories sometimes resurface.

In conclusion, I want to point out that the album is not sublime musically, like those of other much more technical bands, but in its naivety, it possesses a sincere soul, regardless of beauty. That's what this album is: SINCERE! A virtue that in today's music circuit is a rarity.

"WORD GETS AROUND"... An album that now belongs to the past and that when judging now, certainly makes some coy passages, despite this, for me, it remains there: a dormant backache, that on cold nights returns to surface. I could play it for my grandchildren (if I ever have any), while they look at an old photo album.

Yes, because inside it harbors a part of what I was, and probably also of what I am...

XO