[CD Review] STEREOPHONICS – Graffiti on the Train

The Stereophonics have been kicking around for 21 years now, and it’s been a long time between drinks with their eighth album, Graffiti on the Train, coming four years after Keep Calm and Carry on.

The album starts off with ‘We Share the Same Sun’, and it’s typical Stereophonics – a catchy chorus that explodes with guitars and a rolling drum beat. The band takes a step back with the next track, the sombre title track ‘Graffiti on the Train’, with Kelly Jones’ vocals the highlight and some beautiful strings thrown in.

Other highlights on the album include ‘Indian Summer’, with its catchy pop opening and strong vocals from Jones. It’s a perfectly crafted pop song with all the right guitar licks and melodies at just the right time. But then you hit songs like ‘Catacomb’, an oddball song of angry guitars and sound effects like exploding bombs. Other songs like ‘Violins and tambourines’ hover on mediocrity – not bad, but not good either.

Graffiti on the Train closes with ‘No-One’s perfect’, a pretty song with a tinkle of piano, sounding like it could have come from any Stereophonics’ album from the past 10 years.

This isn’t a bad album, but it’s not great either. The Stereophonics are hit and miss, which isn’t unlike their past albums – some awesome songs that you adore for years afterwards, but also songs which makes you wonder how they made it off the cutting floor. Graffiti on the train doesn’t have any cohesion, and you have this mix of angry sounding songs alongside pretty little pop pieces.

For a band that’s been around for so long, the Stereophonics have become too predictable and is in need of some Madonna reinvention.

6/10
Reviewer: Stephanie McDonald