Stereophonics - 'My Friends'
I'm not sure what you'd call it, but there is definitely a moment in the career of most musical artists where they stand at a context crossroads. One sunny road leads back to your illustrious past, where each new song was welcomed like the arrival of a new baby in the family - a distinct and separate entity, forged from similar DNA to its siblings, but put together in a startlingly different way.
Having reached the present, this road also points on to your future, where you only keep making new records to keep yourself interested, as your fans, the press, and the radio have all conspired to stop paying attention to any new ideas you may have, in an attempt to convince themselves that they're a lot younger than they really are, and the future is just asn bright as it was when they first heard your classics. This road is not bright, but there's enough residual glow from the spotlights at your sold-out gigs to make it seem homey and appealing.
Bisecting this is a murky track, riddled with swamps and patches of barren ground. This is the path of expectations, and it leads in two starkly different directions. The left turn takes you towards artistic fulfilment (and towards a place where you collaborate with anyone with ideas which differ from your own, just to keep your music fresh and challenging).
The right turn, away from this, is towards consolidation of all the hard work you have put in so far. It encourages you to keep making music which sounds like you, knowing the impact of each individual song will be smaller, but that your legacy will not be damaged in any way.
Or, to simplify things...left turn Radiohead, right turn Oasis.
See if you can guess which way the Stereophonics are facing? That's right.
And this isn't intended to be a damning accusation either, and there is clearly no correct way to go in a situation like this. Also, the band are very good at this kind of streamlined, driving rock noise (the backbone is a beat widely known in rocksnob circles as 'the Neu! beat', from the German band Neu!, who were very good at it), and there's far more fire and spirit in a song like this than in their slower, drabber songs. And it'll go down a storm at their gigs, almost as much as one of their classics might.
All I'm saying is it doesn't really feel that exciting, hearing a song which is another version of the band's trademark sound. That and anyone compiling the band's greatest hits is going to want to keep this well away from 'Dakota', for fear of confusing people as to which is which.
Released: December 10th
(Fraser McAlpine)
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