One thing you could never accuse the Stereophonics of is playing to the in-crowd. From their very first album they have adopted something of an outsider status, attracting more and more of an audience as the barbs of those too cool to bother with them also grew longer.
One can only assume therefore that Language, Sex, Violence, Other? sounding so distinctly of the moment has to be more through accident than design. But right from the off, the combination of power chords, throbbing keyboards, samples and beats make Language, Sex, Violence, Other? sound like a thoroughly modern rock record. It also has some good songs on it too, which was kind of the whole point of the Stereophonics in the first place. ‘Dakota’ is their best track in a long, long time but is nearly matched at several points along the way, especially on ‘Deadhead’ and ‘Brother’. There’s an excitement to these songs that most had dismissed as beyond them. It’s not all peachy, though. For those yearning for Kelly Jones to return to the lyrical insight of his first couple of albums there is scant reward: the first 20 minutes in particular are a stream of fairly ineloquent snarling and many of the songs simply aren’t up to the task – strip away the production, as they did at their recent Whelan's live show, and it’s pretty much business as usual. Still this is a rebirth of sorts and adds an unexpected chapter to a story that looked to be in danger of running its course.