Music
Plus One
The 11 best Stereophonics songs
Why have a Top 10 when you can have one more? With dates in Belfast, Dublin and Cork announced for 2025, we rank the best tracks by the Stereophonics
In December 1999, seven years after they formed, Stereophonics headlined their first full arena tour. This was the final stage of a journey that had begun in working men’s clubs in their native Wales and had taken frontman Kelly Jones and his band all the way to the biggest stages in the UK.
Except that wasn’t the end of the journey. What would have represented the culmination and crowning glory for most bands has since become par for the course for Stereophonics. 32 years into their career and with 12 albums in the can, they have remained in arenas and at the top of festival bills ever since, never wavering, never splitting up, and continuing to wow their loyal legion of fans.
With shows in Belfast, Dublin and Cork set for next summer, it’s time to pick out the best Stereophonics songs.
11. ‘Just Looking’
(Performance And Cocktails, 1999)
Sitting alongside the classic indie rock and arms aloft anthems on Stereophonics’ sophomore album, ‘Just Looking’ is a brooding, almost grungy track, but so compelling. It also features a video that covers the dangers of driving while eating Jelly Babies.
10. ‘Local Boy In The Photograph’
(Word Gets Around, 1997)
The band’s debut is a collection of fuzzed up tales of life in their hometown of Cwmaman, driven by an energy and fervour that instantly set them apart from their peers. That’s never more evident than on barnstomers like ‘Local Boy In The Photograph’.
9. ‘Madame Helga’
(You Gotta Go There To Come Back, 2003)
Much of Stereophonics’ 2003 album is steeped in melancholia and lovelorn world-weariness – all apart from its opener, ‘Madame Helga’, which is steeped in a kooky boutique hotel in Sri Lanka instead. A squalling Black Crowes’ esque banger with a monstrous riff, and as good a place as any to spend a gap year.
8. ‘Maybe Tomorrow’
(You Gotta Go There To Come Back, 2003)
Melancholia and world-weariness, sure, but packaged up in a sleek and soulful ballad here that transcends the cliches. More delicate than anything the band have done before or since, it’s still a lighters in the air moment every time it comes out live.
7. ‘Have A Nice Day’
(Just Enough Education To Perform, 2001)
Despite their gigantic success, it’s rare to see Stereophonics venture into pure pop territory, but when they do, they jump in heart first. ‘Have A Nice Day’ is a boppy, light-on-its-feet slip of a thing – simple and ludicrously catchy, it’s every 00s breakfast radio station, captured in a bottle.
6. ‘Vegas Two Times’
(Just Enough Education To Perform, 2001)
Another bright highlight that shines from an album cloaked in shadow, the bluesy opener ‘Vegas Two Times’ is a barnstormer built round a snarling riff and almighty guitar wall. By the time it builds to its epic conclusion it feels like the album’s already over instead of just getting started.
5. ‘I Wanna Get Lost With You’
(Keep The Village Alive, 2015)
The most recent selection on our list is summery blast of nostalgia inspired pop-rock. “It’s about wanting to lose yourself personally, and lose yourself with somebody, and then just literally get out there” said Kelly Jones at the time. A few years later it felt truer than ever – with the track feeling ready made for the biggest festival fields, especially after we hadn’t been allowed to stand in them for so long.
4. ‘The Bartender And The Thief’
(Performance And Cocktails, 1999)
After the success of their debut album, Stereophonics were already on the up, but the release of ‘The Bartender And The Thief’ ahead of their second LP turbocharged everything. From the second it roars out of the speakers, you’re confronted with a supersized wall of guitars and a barnstorming riff that cues up a monster of a chorus. All done in under three minutes, it’s absolute rock perfection.
3. ‘A Thousand Trees’
(Word Gets Around, 1997)
The song that started it all for the band. A precision engineered piece of anthemic indie rock with lyrics that celebrate the characters the band left behind in Cwmaman. A dynamite mixture of the everyday and what was quickly becoming extraordinary.
2. ‘Pick A Part That’s New’
(Performance And Cocktails, 1999)
Performance And Cocktails is a flawless piece of work. With one banger after another, it’s hard to separate them, but there is one that stands above the others. A rollicking riff combined with a sun-drenched melody and supersized chorus, ‘Pick A Part That’s New’ feels like its own confetti canon.
1. ‘Dakota’
(Language. Sex. Violence. Other?, 2005)
When Stereophonics returned with their fifth album, everyone expected a continuation of the bluesy melancholia that fared so well with You Gotta Go There To Come Back. From the second ‘Dakota’ hit radio stations, everyone knew how wrong they were.
‘Dakota’ remains a difficult song to nail down. Part wistful piece soul, part piledriver, part twinkly ballad, it shouldn’t work, but it does. “I text the head of the label and said, ‘I think I’ve got a big song’…” said Jones. “That was the first time I’d ever done that and I don’t think I’ve done it since, either.”
