While cynics might scoff at the notion of a Stereophonics song having hidden depths, this live collection from frontman Kelly Jones, along with a cast of multi-instrumentalists, twists his Britrock standards into fine new shapes.
Mr Writer is bolstered with horns from a manic-depressive Mariachi band. Traffic unearths a latent Nashville flavour, fiddles slicing over Jones’s acoustic strum. The youthful rush of debut single Local Boy In The Photograph is slowed right down to become an older man’s rumination, its eulogy to a hometown suicide seeping over the audience.
Biggest hit Dakota loses the FM sheen to emerge as a garage cruncher, Jones’s voice sounding almost operatic in the chorus.
Elsewhere, even when the songs cling to their moorings there are nice back stories, particularly Jones’s memory of being “last in the bath water after my two older brothers” before Hurry Up And Wait.
