Album Review: Kelly Jones – 'Don't Let The Devil Take Another Day'

Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day’s features 21 reworked tracks from throughout the Stereophonics’ impressively enduring career. 

Recorded live across a variety of locations on Jones’s 2019 solo tour, the singer also relays many of the poignant, humorous and occasionally tragic tales behind the songs themselves. These revealing anecdotes variously touch on memories of his Cwmaman childhood; the heartbreaking death of the band’s drummer Stuart Cable in 2010; touring with David Bowie in 2003; and opening for The Rolling Stones in the Stade de France in front of 80,000 people. 

Whilst the album is slightly repetitive in tone, the rendition of ‘You’re My Star’ for Jones’s newborn daughter and the cover of Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ are both captivating in their moving simplicity. Jones’ own father sang the latter track to him as a child, a keynote moment in his musical development.

An additional highlight is ‘Before Anyone Knew Our Name’, performed as a tribute to Cable, whom the singer met whilst they lived on the same road as teenagers. Overall, Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day is a timely reminder of Jones’s powerful talents as a songwriter and performer.

Out now. Listen Below.