Dave Simpson 

Stereophonics: Oochya! review – a decent effort to mark the band’s quarter century

Kelly Jones’ band revive their trusty formula, making songs that at their best hit the sweet spot between emotional and anthemic
  
  

Stereophonics
Songs made to be sung by swaying crowds … Stereophonics. Photograph: Scarlet Page

For their 25th anniversary, Stereophonics were all set to compile a second greatest hits collection until singer Kelly Jones rummaged in his archive and found several unused old songs to contribute to a new album. Thus, Oochya! offers an occasionally uneven mix of their trusty hit formula (equal bits of the Faces and Oasis with a smidgeon of U2) and some newer mild diversions.

Among the latter are raucous opener Hanging on Your Hinges – a spikier take on ZZ Top – and the candidly autobiographical Right Place Right Time, which adds a nostalgic colliery brass band sound to Jones’s reflections on the highs and lows of a life in rock. Otherwise Jones’s lyrical concerns mostly concern relationships, hope and a prevailing desire for escape – and at 15 tracks long, the cliches creep in. In the lovely Forever, Jones dreams of a flight away from all his troubles; he does the same in the equally tuneful When You See It. The Free-like Running Round My Brain is 1970s rock by numbers and filler such as Made a Mess of Me should have been left on the cutting-room floor.

As ever, the best songs hit a reliably sweet spot between the emotional and the anthemic. A lovely, shimmering riff propels Do Ya Feel My Love, and Every Dog Has Its Day packs soul, keyboards and strings into a chorus made to be sung by swaying crowds. They’re past their best nowadays, but this is a decent effort after a quarter of a century.

Stereophonics: Right Place, Right Time – video
 

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