Just Enough Education To Perform
Stereophonics third studio album sees them go Dylan & Young after two rock based predessessors. The end product is a great record and a different side of the band.
Three albums in, and Stereophonics have written their first truly mature work, Just Enough Education to Perform. While the Welsh trio's first two albums were blighted by the occasional spot of facile pub-rock tub-thumping, which served only to dilute Kelly Jones's emotive laments into ear candy, Just Enough Education to Perform evokes the ragged croak of early Rod Stewart or the world-weary country lament of Neil Young without feeling the need to unnecessarily embellish its content. It's not all good: the album's first single, "Mr. Writer"--a stab at dismissive music journalists--is, ironically, petulant and unwieldy, spoiled by Jones's clunky lyric: "You've just enough, in my own view, education to perform/ I'd like to shoot you all." Far more successful are the simple semi-acoustic readings of "Nice to Be Out", "Step on My Old Size Nines," and "Lying in the Sun," which prove that, stripped down, Jones can match most singer-songwriters of an alt-country persuasion without breaking into a sweat. By this time in their career, Oasis began losing themselves in bland bombast and a fog of hollow guitar solos; to their credit, on Just Enough Education to Perform, Stereophonics do not let fame cloud the clarity of the record's meaning.
Tracklisting
01. Vegas Two Times02. Lying In The Sun
03. Mr Writer
04. Step On My Old Size Nines
05. Have A Nice Day
06. Nice To Be Out
07. Handbags And Gladrags
08. Watch Them Fly Sundays
09. Everyday I Think Of Money
10. Maybe
11. Caravan Holiday
12. Rooftop
