Kelly Jones - Only The Names Have Been Changed
It's all fairly bleak - these girls aren't having the best of lives for the most part - but it does highlight Jones' ability to spin a yarn over a few minutes.
Kelly Jones is a man who puzzles. He's a songwriter who should be capable of bigger and better things, but so often in recent years his judgement has been lacking. His decision to target music journalists in 'Mr Writer' still seems a tad foolish, especially with the lines saying how he'd "Like to shoot you all".
It also didn't help that after two hugely successful rock albums the wheels began to come off Stereophonics' music. Throw in that cover version and it wasn't hard to see why fans and critics alike had almost written them off. Last album 'Language, Sex, Violence, Other' was as an excellent rock record; raw. and in places pretty excellent. It suggested that Jones had taken a step back and re-evaluated what the band stood for, and found what was missing. He is in confident mood, suggesting that the forthcoming Stereophonics album will be their best yet.
This album is the product of one or two bits and pieces between recording the band's songs being expanded. Although Jones stresses this isn't a solo album, rather about "doing something spontaneous, and doing it spontaneously." Recorded over two days and with every take being captured live, 'Only The Names Have Been Changed' is the result.
Jones has always had a voice - he could probably knock people over with his rasping vocals. Attach that voice against a raw, acoustic backdrop and it reminds you of how potent a weapon it is. He's in excellent form and whenever the album falters, it's the delivery by Jones that helps bring it back from the brink.
The album is essentially ten stories about ten different girls, characters and situations created for the purpose of song. It's all fairly bleak - these girls aren't having the best of lives for the most part - but it does highlight Jones' ability to spin a yarn over a few minutes. However, like every fictional story teller, not every tale is a winner.
On winners like 'Jean', 'Katie' and 'Rosie' music, lyrics and vocals combine to excellent effect. These are songs about nurses who save children and girls who get their sexual kicks in odd and dangerous ways. Album opener 'Suzy' is particularly good. The story of a girl who affects the author, but there is no happy ending and no closure of a goodbye; just memories of "the moonlight on our skins". It's also more organic than a normal 'acoustic' record. It has a fuller sound and the songs that really work are those with a bigger feel. Not in sound - it's in the feeling that the songs envelope you in a way you don't expect.
Other songs simply pass you by - lyrically they aren't as strong, and only serve as a reminder of some of the Stereophonics' less than impressive acoustic moments. Although these songs are given something of a lifeline thanks to Jones' tender and unmistakable vocals.
You can't knock the ambition in writing an album like Nick Cave or Bob Dylan, and you certainly can't knock his love of telling a story, stories based upon people in his head rather than people in the real world. it's one that gives him a licence to create, as he does here, some moving, brooding examples of the art.
Overall this is a personal record for Kelly Jones. It was a labour of love, and despite a few moments when he misses the mark, 'Only The Names Have Been Changed' is a fine little record and one worth investigating.
This album is available to download now from iTunes prior to its physical release.
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