Awakening from the slick slumber of 2007’s Pull the Pin, Stereophonics team up with Jim Abbiss for 2009’s Keep Calm and Carry On, hoping the producer of Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, and the Music can liven them up a little bit.
Abbiss does strip away the gloss that mummified Pull the Pin, guiding Stereophonics toward something a little more straightforward, where their Oasis obsessions are upgraded to a declawed Monkeys, the U2 swapped for Coldplay.
While the relatively stripped-down setting winds up accentuating Kelly Jones’ status as a pretty boy frontman -- he sings with precision, not aggression -- it does let the rockers of the album’s first half latch in, particularly the rather propulsive “Trouble,” the nimble “She’s Alright,” and rolling “I Got Your Number,” and does keep the succession of anthems and ballads on the second half from seeming too languid.
Stereophonics still wind up seeming a little too content to live up to their title -- if any band could use an adrenaline shot, it’s them -- but when a band is this placid, the little steps forward seem larger, as they do here.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | InnocentKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 03:40 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 2 | BeerbottleKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 03:53 | 8 MB | 22 MB |
| 3 | TroubleKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 03:03 | 7 MB | 22 MB |
| 4 | I Got Your NumberKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 03:21 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 5 | UppercutKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 04:15 | 9 MB | 29 MB |
| 6 | Live 'N' LoveKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 03:45 | 8 MB | 25 MB |
| 7 | 100MPHKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 04:15 | 9 MB | 29 MB |
| 8 | WonderKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 03:44 | 8 MB | 27 MB |
| 9 | Stuck In A RutKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 03:06 | 7 MB | 20 MB |
| 10 | Show Me HowKelly Jones | Stereophonics | Play | 04:42 | 10 MB | 27 MB |
| 11 | She's Alright (She's With Me) | Stereophonics | Play | 03:26 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 12 | Could You Be The One | Stereophonics | Play | 03:52 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 13 | Innocent (Live) | Stereophonics | Play | 04:03 | 9 MB | 30 MB |
| 14 | I Stopped to Fill My Car Up (Live) | Stereophonics | Play | 06:49 | 15 MB | 47 MB |
| 15 | You're My Star (Live) | Stereophonics | Play | 06:05 | 13 MB | 40 MB |
| 62 mins | 142 MB | |||||
| 62 mins | 422 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Abbiss | Engineer, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Producer, Synthesizer, Vibraphone |
| 2 | Helen Atkinson | Assistant Engineer |
| 3 | Simon "Barny" Barnicott | Mixing |
| 4 | Neil Cowley | Organ, Piano, Wurlitzer |
| 5 | Tom Hough | Assistant Engineer |
| 6 | Kelly Jones | Composer, Group Member, Guitar, Producer, Slide Guitar, Vocals |
| 7 | Richard Jones | Bass, Group Member |
| 8 | Arnulf Lindner | Cello |
| 9 | Jim Lowe | Mixing, Producer |
| 10 | Jonathan Shakhovskoy | Engineer |
| 11 | Ian Sherwin | Assistant Engineer |
| 12 | Søren Solkær Starbird | Photography |
| 13 | Stereophonics | Primary Artist |
| 14 | Javier Weyler | Drums, Group Member |
| 15 | Adam Zindani | Group Member, Guitar, Vocals (Background) |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |