Wake Up And Smell The Rain
42 minutes of death, scandal, love, lust and small town hope and small town woe.
Stereophonics debut album ‘Word Get’s Around’ was released on August 25th 1997. Right at the end of Britpop. By no means is this a Britpop album though, this is an album that was more relatable, this album is Champagne Supernova’s and Cocaine Socialism, this record is a pint in a smoky working class pub. In a town the rest of the world has forgotten.
It’s a record full of characters, from a seedy football coach who was arrested for his crimes, to an elderly widow whose house has flooded.
This record is a celebration of the town the band grew up in, but is also a snapshot to working class life for millions of people up and down the country. Small towns and villages often face the fate as Cwmaman, they are forgotten by the rest of the world.
With this album the band want to make sure these stories are heard. In all of their glory, and sometimes heartbreaking details.
The tales of the scandalous, fuelled by the small town rumour mill come to life in ‘A Thousand Tree’s’ which recounts several people’s ideas and theories of the towns football coach. It also highlights just how devastating these rumours prove to be. “It only takes one tree to make a thousand matches, it only takes one match to burn a thousand trees.”
‘Goldfish Bowl’ brings the small town mundanity to life. The repetition of life, the same people, in the same places, doing the same thing for the rest of their lives.
“I’m drinking, sinking, swimming. I’m drowning, working, smirking, learning. I’m burning, sleeping, thieving, cheating, beating. I’m eating. I’m deep in a goldfish bowl, it’s sink or swim.”
The people are stuck in an ever lasting cycle, these characters are where they always have been and where they always will be. When things do change, they are unsure what to do.
‘Traffic’ sees a different perspective, it’s sees the band leaving the town, examining cars next to them in a traffic jam. Trying to work out what each of the people is doing with their life. It’s a fascinating song. Highlighting how quickly we make assumptions about people. Creating back stories about people we’ve never even met. Even 25 years in this is still one of the best songs the band have ever written.
One of the overriding themes of this album is death. ‘Local Boy in the Photograph’ tells the story of young guy who jumped in front of a train. The town rally around and celebrate his life, sharing memories and a drink. It’s a brilliant song and talks about the subject of suicide in a very clever way. It’s also an uplifting affair about the celebration of life. This song also brings us back to the theme of escapism, the young guy felt the only way he could escape the small town and the life he was living by doing that. He saw no other alternative.
The albums final track ‘Billy Davey’s Daughter’ follows the same theme, a much slower and melancholic affair. About a girl who jumped off a bridge and drowned. “Another Goldfish to drown” she too saw it as her only escape.
The song also makes note of the bridge “The bridge that separates us and them.” It can be seen as two meanings. Who are them. Are they the same as you, living the same lives, or is them the bigger wide world, which seemed so far out of reach for the band in the early days.
This album 12 of the very best songs the band have ever written, from ‘Looks Like Chaplin’ to one of my personal favourites ‘Same Size Feet’ as well as ‘Not Up To You’ and ‘Too Many Sandwiches.’ It’s a truly special record, and one of the very best U.K. debuts.
It’s worth mentioning that Kelly Jones was a teenager when he wrote this album, an 18 year old was writing profound pieces of music like ‘Local Boy in the Photograph’ he truly is a special talent and one of the UK’s very best songwriters.
The man made a masterpiece out of the mundane.
Thank you for reading x