Send "Stereophonics " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Guardian |
 Look, it's far too easy to be plain mean about Stereophonics, but the title of the Welsh band's seventh album is an open goal. Taken from the recently popularised Second World War propaganda poster, the phrase reeks of ambition-free, meat and potatoes, join-the-dots rock; they might just as well have called it Meh! or Shrug.Buy it from Buy the CD Download as MP3 Stereophonics Keep Calm and Carry On Mercury 2009 But enough negativity. It's no mystery what makes Stereophonics so popular: Kelly Jones's instantly recognisable Velcro rasp and his ability to write robust little rock songs with big hooks. What they lack in inspiration they make up for in perspiration and occasionally, as with the fantastic Dakota, they write a song so incontestably great it turns subjective critical opinion to dust....full text |
| Guardian |
| Stereophonics have made a career out of stringing together cliches and turning them into workaday, meat-and-potatoes rock – so the references on this new album, from Sting ("Every little thing you do is magic"), Canadian indie rock ("Tragically Hip"), Oasis and the Stones, chunder along with inbred familiarity. However, like 2003's electronic-based Dakota, their seventh album works when it breaks the mould – the terrific Fall-meets-Glitter stomp of I Got Your Number, Trouble's rampaging punk-pop and Innocent's surprisingly thoughtful pop. For anyone traumatised by the switching course of rock's most wearily reliable band, Stuck in a Rut offers business as usual, with such reliable old chestnuts as "set your soul on fire" and "you'll never walk alone"....full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| Possibly the first name that springs to mind when one thinks of no nonsense Britrock – usually in a negative light – Stereophonics are a curious group. It’s easy to dismiss them as turgid or plodding, but they can occasionally create a truly fantastic single, such as the nostalgic rush of their early hit ‘Local Boy In The Photograph’, or the synthy-pop of ‘Dakota’. However, more often than not, the Welsh band will follow such moments of surprise with a return to their familiar, plodding ways. Their seventh studio album Keep Calm And Carry On certainly doesn’t add anything to the Stereophonics’ formula, and it sadly doesn’t really offer any of those one off moments that could surprise the doubters. In such familiar surroundings, the main strengths of the band – Kelly Jones’ eye for a decent pop-rock moment, and his rasping, craggy vocals – soon turn into the most annoying elements. It seems that on occasion, Jones feels that having mastered the art of a chorus, he can just fill it with any old nonsense and take it to the bridge, but the lyrics on Keep Calm And Carry On really force you to pause and consider what on earth he's going on about. ‘Uppercut’ is a solid enough track, but with lines like “You look fit but you ain’t got it/Think you’re a dog well you’re just a bitch” it crosses the line into idiotic. When the chorus of ‘I Got Your Number’ turns out to be “1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8”, Jones sounds less of a dangerous rocker warning a woman what done him wrong and more like a primary school teacher leading the first class of term....full text |
Stereophonics lyrics
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