Track Listing

1. Soldiers Make Good Targets
2. Pass The Buck
3. It Means Nothing - Kelly Jones, Stereophonics, Jim Lowe, Mark Stent, Ted Jensen, Richard Jones, Javier Weyler
4. Bank Holiday Monday - Kelly Jones, Stereophonics, Jim Lowe, Mark Stent, Ted Jensen, Richard Jones, Javier Weyler
5. Daisy Lane
6. Stone
7. My Friends - Kelly Jones, Stereophonics, Jim Lowe, Mark Stent
8. I Could Lose Ya
9. Bright Red Star
10. Ladyluck
11. Crush
12. Drowning

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #692 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 46 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Reviews

Nobody’s still holding out for another "Local Boy in the Photograph", are they? No? Of course not. Enough time has passed since likeable tousle-haired drummer Stuart Cable was fired, marking the final stage of The Stereophonics’ transition from genial close-knit mates from the Welsh valleys with rough hands, big hearts and a selection of long, short and tall tales, to a vehicle for Kelly Jones’ sunglasses-sporting ego alone. They have thrown in a few surprises since then, namely the driving electric-pop gem "Dakota", but Pull the Pin is not one of those. Assuring or re-establishing an identity of their own seems to have been sidelined in favour of arena-shaped common or garden lighters-aloft mimicry. It might please some that "It Means Nothing" and "Stone" fall somewhere in between Snow Patrol and Robbie Williams slow-burners, or that "Pass the Buck" sounds like The Hives on downers, and "My Friends" and "Lady Luck" do have some steady energy to them, but these are really just sketches and outlines of songs. He’s still clearly searching for a star in the sidewalk next to Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin and he can construct rock hard shells aplenty, but the songs remain almost uniformly soft to their cores. And the album betrays its very title too--nothing particularly explosive here. Well, no more than a Bon Jovi ballad. --James Berry

CD Description
'Pull The Pin' is the sixth studio album by Welsh rockers Stereophonics. A soulful rock album that showcases Kelly Jones' Dylan-esque lyrics and passionate vocals, the album is a solid progression in the band's career. Includes the single 'It Means Nothing'.

Customer Reviews

Give it time elduderano!
Give it time el-duderino! This one really gets under your skin. I agree that some of the lyrics might be perceived as weak on first listen, but when you consider that Kelly is simply making a matter of fact commentary about the "state of things" (as with Daisy Lane) the surface simplicty of the words seem less crude and much more poignant.

There are some great rock songs on this record. Soldires Make good targets, I could Lose Ya and Ladyluck are classics and Bank Holiday Monday is a really dirty, pacy track which takes us all back to a certain time in our life. The storytelling approach to some of the songs ("pound a can in the garden all day") reminds me of word gets around in some ways, but the point is this isn't Word Gets Around or any of their other albums. The strength of the Phonics is that they are constantly evolving and not afraid to change. Its easy to stick to a winning formula and keep churning out the same stuff every two years but this band don't do that. They have a real range from dark rock, to blues to even touches of country. The thing is it works. Music critics are a tired bunch who contrary to their own beliefs are simply "sheep in wolves clothing". They purport to want something different, edgy etc but what they really want is a band that ticks their vision of what cool is. I'm havin it!!!!!!!!!

One of their best!
Stereophonics are back with a great new album, with 12 tracks of pure energetic rock to savour and enjoy. After the great honest hard rock albums 'Word Gets Around' and 'Performance and Cocktails', Stereophoncis tooka change in direction for the next two albums 'Just Enough Education To perform' and 'You gotta go there to come back'. These albums in my opinion were alright, but nothing special, nothing truly inspiring. Then in 2005 they released the great album 'Language Sex Violence Other?' which was superb, it showed the swagger, cool and pure rock factor of this fantastic band. It was always going to be hard to follow up, but 'Pull the Pin' is a superb follow up to a truly stunning album.

The album starts off with the fantastic 'Soldiers make good targets', a song about war which starts of with a fantastic bluesy riff and builds up to a massive chorus, frontman Kelly Jones showcasing his powerful raw, raspy voice. There is no time to catch your breath hough, as you are taken striaghgt into the second track 'Pass the Buck', a powerful punk rocker bursting with hard rocking energy. Next there are the two single tracks, 'It means nothing' (chart no.12) and 'bank holiday monday' (downlaod only). The former track being a hypnotic, relaxing song, the latter being a punk rock stormer which gets the pulse racing again.
Track5 , Daisy Lane showcases Jones' honest and true song writing skills, in a sad song which has a lovely tune and a nice listen. The next song 'Stone', is a standout track; it builds up dramatically with some nice jangling guitars and light drums, and explodes in a massive chorus which Jones powerfully sings 'You're in my soul, you're in my mind, but i don't knwo where you are now' This track would be amazing live, as you can imagine the crowd singing along to the chorus.
The next song 'My Friends' is a rocky punk song, bursting with energy like the majority of the album tracks. It doesnt really have the catchiness of the other tracks though and doesn't really do it for me.
The next track 'I could lose ya' is a fun bouncy rock song, with slightly cheesy lyrics which add to the fun factor of the song. A nice song for the good times.
Followed up with the acoustic number 'Bright Red Star', this is a nice track with a ncie humalong chorus. I tend to skip this one though, as there are more interesting tracks.
This track is follwed up with the powerful and beautiful startrack 'Ladyluck' with its wall of guitar intro followed with a quiet verse, leading to a huge chorus. Stereophonics have never sounded so big.
Penultimate track 'Crush' is a fun edgy punk song with punky funky riffs and structure, its quite catchy.
At the end of this superb album, we end with the beautiful 'drowning' which starts offf with gentle guitar, and builds up to too minutes of pure rocking emotion and drama, and ending with just a single guitar - a haunting and memorable track that is one of the best on the album.

So there you have it, the Phonics are back to their raw rocking best for good, I'd say it was on a par with LSVO, if slightly worse, but beating it was always going to be a hard task. New drummer Javier Weyler has added a new energy into the band, and Kelly Jones voice is on top form, in this great collection of energetic rock songs. If you like ACDC, thin lizzy, oasis, you will enjoy this inspiring album. Buy it now!

Back to form
I have been a stereophonics fan since Performance and Cocktails and am so glad to see the band back to producing some really memorable and catchy, rock songs. Just to clarify, as everyone has different tastes:
'Word gets around'...very cool, very raw and very simple.
'Performance...'.is my favourite album of theirs (perhaps just because thats the one that got me into them.
'J.e.e.p' i thought was okay although it doesnt get much of a play these days.
'You gotta go there....' i loved due to its new soul sound
'Language, Violence...' i thought was terrible and apart from Dakota which i still love i cannot recall another descent song on the album.
So now you know the background, it is with pleasure that i say i now have another 'phonics album which is being worn out in the CD player. No weak songs on the album and some absolute crackers to boot. You will be humming these tunes after the second listen.
So chuffed that they are back to, IMO, their best. Nice!