Just Enough Education to Perform
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 Performevokes the ragged croak of earlyRod Stewartor the world-weary country lament ofNeil Youngwithout 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,Oasisbegan losing themselves in bland bombast and a fog of hollow guitar solos; to their credit, onJust Enough Education to Perform, Stereophonics do not let fame cloud the clarity of the record's meaning.--Louis Pattison