Just when you have a fix of where the British rock trio Stereophonics is headed musically, the band pulls a surprise out of the bag – and a very rewarding one at that.
After exploring a varied sound that included brass, orchestral, country jazz dashes and heavy blues elements on its past two albums, the Stereophonics discarded much of their sonic baggage for a sharper rock focus on their fifth and latest album, “Language. Sex. Violence. Other?” (V2 Records).
Certainly, a rock spirit has long been the cornerstone of the Stereophonics’ music. (The band plays the Bluebird Theater in Denver on Tuesday.)
The group’s recent past efforts, 2001’s “Just Enough Education to Perform (a.k.a. JEEP) and “You Gotta Go There to Come Back” in 2003, possessed an ambling quality. But “Language. Sex. Violence. Other?” – which borrows its title from movie ratings – is much like boarding a train for a high-
speed trip that only eases as it approaches the album’s concluding tracks.
“The difference in the sound between this record and the last record, I think, shocked a lot of people,” says bassist Richard Jones. “Because they might have been expecting another like “Maybe Tomorrow” (from ‘You Gotta Go There to Come Back’), that type of like slow, mid-tempo stuff. … So a lot of people were like ‘Great, that’s really good.’ ”
The chugging momentum that builds on the new album’s opener, “Superman,” hints at the steady, often bruising pace that follows.
A subtle yet punchy punk vibe drives “Doorman,” “Brother” and the haunting torrent on “Devil.” The elegant “Rewind” rides a luscious percussion line, while the quick hit “Girl” exhibits blistering rock purity, coming in at under two minutes. Even what might pass as a mild moment on the album, “Dakota,” produces a healthy dose of thrust.
“I think the record is inspired by lots of different things,” says singer/songwriter/guitarist Kelly Jones. “You know, stuff we listened to when we were a lot younger. Like early Elvis Costello stuff, like ‘Watching the Detectives.’ Pearl Jam kind of punk stuff as well. Loads of stuff, really.”
“I think a lot of the sounds come from what we remembered of punk bands and what they sounded like, and what instruments they used,” adds Richard Jones. “Remembering back and just kind of go ‘Ah, so that’s what they used. Perhaps we can get a sound like that if we (get) this or that.’ ”
The lean quality that encompasses the record even extends to a play list in the form of one-word song titles. “It’s kind of how you do set lists when you do gigs, where you get all the song titles.” says Kelly Jones. “It was a nice play on words. It felt very modern and very new for the record. It’s only hindsight that we can kind of realize what we were doing.” The Stereophonics’ group dynamic changed after “You Gotta Go There to Come Back.” The Joneses (no relation) parted company with their friend and original drummer, Stuart Cable. In came Argentinean-
born drummer Javier Weyler, who brought a fresh vitality.
After a bit of preliminary work with the band before heading into the studio, Weyler took up residence behind the drum kit. The band was off and running on its new album.
“We had a really good feeling about it, especially because the ‘Dakota’ and ‘Superman’ were the first two completed demos,” recalls Kelly Jones. “They set the standard for the whole record. And then we had the flip side of those tracks like ‘Doorman,’ ‘Girl’ and ‘Brother,’ which are these trashy, almost punky things.
“The only challenge was how to make all that sound like one album. It kind of did it itself in the end. It wasn’t too much effort.”
While most music observers acknowledge “Language. Sex. Violence. Other?” bears little resemblance to recent Stereophonics efforts, some see the new album as a return to the band’s rock roots on its first album, 1997’s “Word Gets Around.” Kelly Jones however, doesn’t quite see it that way.
“It doesn’t sound like the first album at all. I think the energy of the delivery is very similar. But I don’t think it sound anything like the songwriting on the first record at all, really. I just think what’s similar is like 45 minutes of bang, bang, bang, bang and then gone.”
Whether the new album marks a new direction for the Stereophonics remains to be seen. As is often the case, it boils down to where the group stands creatively at a particular point.
“It’s always been about the songs, no matter how we dressed them up anyway,” says Kelly Jones. “On every record, the songs come first. And how we decorate them is usually where we’re at musically.”
Stereophonics
ALT ROCK|Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave.; 9 p.m. Tuesday|$15|through Ticketweb at ticketweb.com or 866-468-7621
