Just Enough Education to Perform [LP]

Stereophonics: Kelly Jones (vocals, guitar); Richard Jones (harmonica, bass); Stuart Cable (drums).
Additional personnel includes: Marshall Bird (harmonica, piano, Wurlitzer piano, background vocals); Glenn Hyde (harmonica); Hazel Fernandes, Aileen McLaughlin, Anna Ross (background vocals).
Principally recorded at Real World Studios, Bath, England.
On JUST ENOUGH EDUCATION TO PERFORM, Brit-poppers Stereophonics offer another refreshingly unpretentious album in which frontman Kelly Jones sings about everyday topics and emotions in his inimitable winsome voice, the whole thing set to outrageously catchy melodies and driven by a strong guitar-based sound. Think a slightly grungier version of the La's and you're not far off the mark, although the album's far too stylistically varied to really be pigeonholed.
"Have a Nice Day" could be Cheap Trick without the irony. Jones says the magnificent "Mr. Writer" was inspired by ELO and Stevie Wonder, although it could also pass for early-'70s John Lennon remade a la the Rutles. The exquisitely countryish "Step on My Old Size Nines" comes off as a modern alternative-rock take on early Brinsley Schwarz. Gorgeous stuff, and often rather uplifting.