Violins and Tambourines

      And so the mighty Stereophonics are back with the first taste of their 8th album. After the lack of commercial mainstream success of their previous album 'Keep Calm and Carry on' the men from the valleys need to hit back hard and this snippet shows that they may be on the right track. Lead singer Kelly Jones has stated now for some time he would like to delve into film production and hence the idea of this album being a concept album, something that maybe different, but as proven by Pink Floyd and to a lesser extent Coldplay, the concept album can be a success. 
      So at 12.15PM on their official twitter feed, the band (or more specifically Kelly) tweeted:
'I've loved film and music ever since I was a kid. Here's an appetiser of film and new music from our 8th album: http://www.Stereophonics.com  KJ x'. 
       So onto the song 'Violins and Tambourines', a very catchy, typical phonics early 2000's riff hits you. Kelly's vocal are very mellowed for his usual booming standards early on in the song, however this kind of strikes you of as a theme song to a film right away. The action scene type instrumental is prototypical of what is wanted from this upcoming album and once again underlines why Kelly Jones is not only one of the most underrated, but also proves he is an extremely intelligent and talented songwriter. Then the final *crash* hits you like a channel cargo ship. Inspiring vocals, crunching lyrics, simply breathtaking. While this song will not gain the Phonics thousands of new fans, it will however cement their place among the great rock bands of the era.
       But what about the 'film' part of this song. Well it fits well with the lyrics and music. It features a man at the start who seems lost in his own mad world before he dives into a pool chased by the woman of his dreams. However, the lady becomes trapped in the water, the music tempo increases, the feeling is embraced, next though we go back to man on dry land murdering a poor person. The video shows us that we may have to wait until we see some more action from the band to understand it, however, this is not a bad return from a band who have a point to prove!

Check out the song below: 

Song rating: 7.5/10