Dopo l'ottimo esordio "Word Gets Around" e la consacrazione con "Performance And Cocktails", gli Stereophonics centrano il successo internazionale spianandosi la strada con "Have A Nice Day", ipercommerciale singolo che lancia l'album "Just Enough Education To Perform". La svolta a livello di sonorità rispetto ai predecessori ha qualcosa di clamoroso, visto il nuovo orientamento più che deciso verso sonorità acustiche di chiara matrice americana: l'opener "Vegas Two Times" (a mio modesto parere tra i più bei pezzi del trio) può sviare (incipit giocato sui cori, poi una rullata energica che annuncia un riffone di chitarra bello solido), ma ci pensa poi "Lying In The Sun" a indirizzare l'audience verso la reale atmosfera del disco, con la voce (come sempre) rauca del nanetto Jones che si adagia su un semplicissimo giro di chitarra acustica e porta ad un ritornello disteso e rilassato. Si torna a latitudini rockeggianti con il primo singolo "Mr. Writer", ballata-invettiva contro i giornalisti, in possesso di un arrangiamento curatissimo giocato sull'intrecciarsi di voce, chitarra effettata e tocchetti di piano qua e la che creano una bella atmosfera, sulla quale si adagia un Jones ispirato e bravo come al solito nel valorizzare il suo particolarissimo timbro vocale. "Step On My Old Size Nines" è un altro numero acustico american-oriented, e ci introduce alla succitata "Have A Nice Day" (il coretto pa-para/pa-pa-para-ra è da denuncia istantanea) e a "Nice To Be Out", ennesimo pezzo acustico che stavolta varia nell'utilizzo della batteria (leggermente più ritmata). "Watch Them Fly Somedays" reintroduce la chitarra elettrica, anche se prosegue sulla linea delle ballate (pezzo comunque molto piacevole); si entra successivamente in una parte del disco in cui il discorso inizia a farsi monotono, sino ad arrivare a "Maybe", forse il miglior pezzo del lotto. La struttura è la stessa di tutti i pezzi acustici dell'album, ma qui, a differenza di "Have A Nice Day", il coretto nel bel mezzo della canzone prende una piega piacevolmente orecchiabile, che si coniuga bene con l'atmosfera del brano. L'album si chiude in maniera simile a come è iniziato, in modo energico ed elettrico ("Rooftop"). Nella special edition di "J.E.E.P." è inclusa la cover di "Handbags And Gladrags", pezzo di Rod Stewart.
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Vegas Two Times (04:31)
So it started with the immigration information bore
You gotta know
Gambling floor, then to the S.T.U.D.I.O 54
You gotta go
Now we're leaving, L.A.S Vegas two times
Crazy horse too spent us dry
Vietnam vet taxi ride
L.A.S Vegas
So we parked at the ground floor, front door, car hire,
room for four
we gotta go
Rambling slow to the L.A Marquis, all the imitation folk
we gotta go
Now we're leaving L.A.S Vegas two times
Crazy horse too spent us dry
Vietnam vet Taxi ride
L.A.S Vegas
Leave (X4)
Now, we're leaving L.A.S Vegas two times,
crazy horse to spin us dry,
veitnam vet, taxi ride,
come again we'll make you fly,
vietnam vet taxi ride,
crazy horse too spent us dry,
las vegas two times.
03 Mr Writer (05:21)
You line em' up
look at your shoes
you hang names on your wall
then you shoot them all
You fly around in planes
that bring you down
to meet me who loves you
like me crashing to the ground
Are you so lonely
you don't even know me
but you'd like to stone me
Mr writer why dont you tell it like it is
why don't you tell it like it really is
before you go on home
I used to treat you right
give you my time
but when i turn my back on you
then you do what you do
You've just enough in my own view
education to perform
i'd like to shoot you all
And then you go home
with you on your own
what do you really know
Mr writer why don't you tell it like it is
why dont you tell it like it really is
before you go on home
And then you go home
with you on your own
what do you even know
Mr writer why don't you tell it like it really is
why don't you tell it like it always is
before you go on home
Mr writer why don't you tell it like it really is
why don't you tell it like it always is
before you go on home
04 Step on My Old Size Nines (04:02)
I'd like to know what it's all about, what's out there.
Am I gonna get old and laugh, about something.
Will I get me a boy or a girl, or not either.
Will I get what I want from this world, im a day dreamer.
Then I watched the old couple dance,
Step on my old size nines and I'll take you round.
I'd like to know what you're all about, what's up there.
Are you gonna get old and laugh, without a care.
Will you get you a boy or a girl, or not either.
Will you get what you want from this world, a day dreamer.
Then I watched the old couple dance,
Step on my old size nines and I'll take you round.
I'd like to know what we're all about, what we all have done.
Am I gonna get old and laugh, with someone.
Think I'll get me a boy and a girl, or not either.
Will I get what I want from this world, I'm a day dreamer.
Then I watched the old couple dance,
Step on my old size nines and I'll take you 'round.....
05 Have a Nice Day (03:27)
Bah badada bah bah badada
Bah badada bah bah badada
Bah badada bah bah badada
Bah badada bah bah badada
San Francisco Bay, past pier thirty-nine
Early PM can't remember what time
Got the waiting cab, stopped at the red light
Address unsure of, but it turned out just right
It started straight off, "coming here is hell"
That's his first words we asked what it meant
He said "Where you from" we told him our lot
Ya' take a holiday, is this what you want...
To have a nice day
Lie around all day have a drink to chase
"Yourself and tourists, yeah that's what I hate"
He said "We're going wrong, we've all become the same
We dress the same ways only our accents change"
So have a nice day
Bah badada bah bah badada
Bah badada bah bah badada
"Swim in the ocean that'd be my dish
I'll drive around all day and kill processed fish
Its all money gum, no artists anymore
Your only in it now to make more, more, more"
So have a nice day
07 Handbags and Gladrags (03:31)
Ever seen a blind man cross the road,
Try'na make the other side?
Ever seen a young girl growing old,
Try'na to make herself a bride?
So what becomes of you my love,
When they have finally stripped you of,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your poor old Grandad had to sweat to buy you?
Once I was a young man,
And all I thought I had to do was smile,
Well you are still a young girl,
And you bought everything in style,
So once you think you're in, you're out,
'Cause you don't mean a single thing without,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your poor old Granddad had to sweat to buy you,
Sing a song of six-pence for your sake,
And drink a bottle full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds in a cake,
And bake them all in a pie,
They told me you missed school today,
So what I suggest you just throw them all away,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your poor old Grandad had to sweat to buy,
They told me you missed school today,
So what I suggest you just throw them all away,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your poor old Granddad had to sweat to buy you.
08 Watch Them Fly Sundays (03:26)
I'd just like to say
I remember the day
I first woke with u
Some days I have to admit,
The way we happened to meet
Was strange, because it was new
I'm not drinking no more
Not drinking no less
Not sleeping at all,
Never in the same bed
Undressed at the bar
Engraved bench in the park
We'd watch them fly sundays
Fly, birds round my head again
Laughed at the words you said
I pushed the boat back to you
I flew from the rain again
Killed you with what I said
You already knew.
Not thinking no more,
Not drinking no less,
Not sleeping at all,
Never in the same bed,
Undressed at the bar,
Engraved bench in the park,
We'd watch them fly Sundays.
They say if something should fly away
And it comes back to you again,
Then it's yours
11 Caravan Holiday (06:18)
Seven day holiday in the rain, its June
At the time we were plain old me and you,
It didn't matter that the sky came down,
I never really felt like going out,
Seven days watching rain inside with you,
Saturday watched the game, you fried our food,
Nothing busy, nothing easy but something you,
It didn't matter that we couldn't eat out,
My ship sank and my shoe's were damp,
Seven days hearing rain inside with you,
There's always time to complain about the weather,
Seasons change in a day just like each other,
But we wait for summer,
Seven day holiday in the rain with you,
Lie awake, drinking late is all that's left to do,
Not a sound but the rain on the pale blue roof,
I didn't matter that we couldn't sleep out,
I never really felt like sleeping rough,
Seven day holiday drinking dry with you,
There's always time to complain about the weather,
Seasons change in a day just like each other,
But we wait for summer,
Seven day holiday in the rain with you,
Seven day holiday in the rain with you.
12 Rooftop (04:48)
Standing on a rooftop,
Trying to clear my mind,
I only came up to look,
But now there's such a crowd.
I don't feel that bad,
Cant help but laugh,
And they cry out,
They say jump, and I say how high?
I feel my body blowing,
From every side to side,
My mind cant help but knowing�
What it feels like to fly.
I don't feel that bad,
Cant help but laugh,
And they cry out,
They say jump, and I say how high?
Say jump and I say I might.
And they cry out,
And they cry out,
Say jump and I say I'll try,
Say jump and I say I'll say goodbye,
Say jump and I say how high?
High, fly.
Fly.
I'm just standing,
On the edge of,
Something I should try to hide from.
I don't know much but I know something,
I need to try and find me a way,
Try I always come out fighting,
I don't feel I should deny me.
Cant help knowing what is down there,
Feels I should fly now for them,
I'm fascinated, mis-educated, its reincarnation,
Of my imagination, I'm far away, from here today,
It's where I'll stay if I get my way,
It's lying awake, that makes me sane,
But it makes me sick but I cant change again.
Carico i commenti... con calma
Altre recensioni
Di charles
"Il miglior brano è la settima traccia, 'Watch them fly sunday', malinconica, con leggere distorsioni."
"Disco non memorabile... di facile ascolto, che non resterà nella storia ma resta l'ultimo lavoro accettabile della band."