Scream Above the Sounds

Scream Above the Sounds is the tenth studio album by Welsh rock band Stereophonics. Released on 27 October 2017, it was produced by lead singer and guitarist Kelly Jones, along with Jim Lowe.

Scream Above the Sounds
Studio album by Stereophonics
Released	27 October 2017 (2017-10-27)
Recorded	March 2015–December 2016
Studio	Stylus Studios (London) RAK Studios[1]
Genre	Rock
Length	46:29
Label	Stylus Records Parlophone
Producer	Kelly Jones Jim Lowe[2]
Stereophonics chronology
Keep the Village Alive (2015) Scream Above the Sounds (2017) Kind (2019)
Singles from Scream Above the Sounds
"All in One Night" Released: 27 July 2017 "Caught by the Wind" Released: 4 September 2017 "Before Anyone Knew Our Name" Released: 20 October 2017[3] "What's All the Fuss About?" Released: April 2018 "Taken a Tumble" Released: June 2018

Background

In 2015, Stereophonics released their ninth studio album, Keep the Village Alive, and supported it with the Keep the Summer Alive Tour throughout late-spring and summer 2016. During the tour, Kelly Jones announced he would like to release the band's tenth studio album "before next summer" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Word Gets Around, rather than release a compilation album.[4][5] In February 2017, the band signed with Parlophone Records to release Scream Above The Sounds,[6] having been on their own Stylus Records label for Graffiti on the Train and Keep the Village Alive. On 27 July, Stereophonics revealed the name, release date and album artwork for Scream Above the Sounds, as well as releasing the lead single "All in One Night".[7] The next single was "Caught by the Wind", which was released on 4 September 2017 along with a music video. On 20 October the band released the song "Before Anyone Knew Our Name" through their YouTube channel, and on 24 October they performed "Taken a Tumble" on Later... with Jools Holland.

Title and artwork

"The title comes from my feeling that we’re constantly being bombarded with information, at the moment it’s mainly bad news, but you can’t get away from it. You need to be able to separate yourself from all that, to decompress, I think too much people are over-reliant on it.”

—Kelly Jones[8]

The cover art was designed by Graham Rounthwaite, who also designed the artwork to the band's fifth studio album Language. Sex. Violence. Other?

The title of the album was taken from a line in the single 'All In One Night'. Kelly Jones said the title of the album didn't come easy. "It’s always the last thing. Scream Above The Sounds came to me one night, we were mixing the album and the line jumped out at me."[8]

Release

The album was released on 27 October 2017 on CD, vinyl and digital download formats, with the downloaded edition including a digital booklet. A deluxe edition was released at the same time with five bonus tracks. The sticker on the deluxe CD mistakenly lists the tracks "What's All the Fuss About?" and "Would You Believe?" as singles, despite the fact that they had not been released previously.

On 3 November 2017, the album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, debuting behind Together Again by Michael Ball and Alfie Boe, which sold 35 more copies.[9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	57/100[10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Classic Rock	[11]
Clash	(7/10)[12]
The Independent	[13]
The Irish Times	[14]
Mojo	[15]
Q	[16]
The Times	[17]

Scream Above the Sounds has received generally mixed reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 57 based on five reviews.[10]

Track listing

All tracks written by Kelly Jones; "Taken a Tumble" music co-written by Adam Zindani.[18]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Caught by the Wind"	3:37
2.	"Taken a Tumble"	3:36
3.	"What's All the Fuss About?"	5:44
4.	"Geronimo"	4:15
5.	"All in One Night"	5:17
6.	"Chances Are"	4:45
7.	"Before Anyone Knew Our Name"	4:43
8.	"Would You Believe?"	4:07
9.	"Cryin' in Your Beer"	3:48
10.	"Boy on a Bike"	2:17
11.	"Elevators"	4:20
Total length:		46:29

Scream Above the Sounds – Deluxe edition (bonus tracks)[19]

No.	Title	Length
12.	"Never Going Down" (Live at RAK Studios)	4:05
13.	"Drive a Thousand Miles" (Graffiti sessions)	4:31
14.	"Breaking Dawn"	3:29
15.	"All in One Night" (Unplugged)	5:29
16.	"Caught by the Wind" (Unplugged)	3:41

Personnel

Stereophonics[18] Kelly Jones – lead vocals, guitar, piano, vocal beatbox, glockenspiel, production, mixing (tracks 1–7, 9–14) Richard Jones – bass guitar Adam Zindani – guitar, backing vocals Jamie Morrison – drums, percussion Technical[18] Craig Silvey – mixing (track 8) Duncan Fuller – recording studio assistant at RAK Studios Nathanael Graham – mixing studio assistant at RAK Studios Dick Beetham – mastering

Additional[18] Jim Lowe – keyboards (tracks 1–6, 8, 9), piano (tracks 3–6, 8, 12), Hammond (track 8), programming (tracks 1–6, 7–9, 11–16), synthesizer (track 14), production, mixing (tracks 1–7, 9–16), engineering Jim Abbiss – programming (track 14), synthesizer (track 14), production (track 14) Sam Yapp – drums (track 9) Tony Kirkham – piano (tracks 2, 11), add. piano (track 3), Hammond (track 9), keyboards (tracks 15, 16) Gavin Fitzjohn – trumpet (track 3), flugelhorn (track 3), saxophone (track 4) Mikey Rowe – Harmonium (track 11) Dieter Limbourg – saxophone (track 9) UK Gospel Choir – tracks 1, 3, 4, 8, 9 Javier Weyler – drums (track 13)

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2017) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[20] 99 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[21] 56 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[22] 63 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[23] 77 French Albums (SNEP)[24] 67 Irish Albums (IRMA)[25] 9 New Zealand Heatseeker Albums (RMNZ)[26] 6 Scottish Albums (OCC)[27] 1 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[28] 60 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[29] 43 UK Albums (OCC)[30] 2

Year-end charts Chart (2017) Position UK Albums (OCC)[31] 62

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[32]	Gold	100,000
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

1. Murray, Robin (28 July 2017). "Listen: Stereophonics - 'All In One Night'". Clash. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
2. Davidson, Amy (11 May 2015). "Stereophonics are back with new album Keep the Village Alive". Digital Spy. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
3. "Before Anyone Knew Our Name (201... – Stereophonics – High Quality Music Downloads – 7digital United Kingdom". 7 Digital. 20 October 2017.
4. Dingwall, John (15 July 2016). "Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones explains why Welsh rockers will always raise a glass to their Scots fans". Daily Record. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
5. Lindsay, Kali (20 July 2016). "Review: Stereophonics still sensational". Evening Express. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
6. Gumble, Daniel (27 February 2017). "Parlophone Records signs new deal with Stereophonics". Music Week. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
7. Levine, Nick (27 July 2017). "Stereophonics announce new album 'Scream Above The Sounds' and share its lead single". NME. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
8. Tom (27 October 2017). "Kelly Jones talks hmv.com through Stereophonics' new album Scream Above The Sounds…". HMV. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
9. Savage, Mark (30 November 2017). "Ball and Boe: 'We travel on separate buses now'". BBC News. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
10. "Metacritic reviews of "Scream Above the Sounds" by Stereophonics". Metacritic. 2 November 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
11. Aizlewood, John (3 November 2017). "Stereophonics - Scream Above The Sounds album review". Classic Rock. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
12. Jones, Richard (2 November 2017). "Stereophonics - Scream Above The Sounds". Clash. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
13. Gill, Andy. "Album reviews: Sam Smith – The Thrill of It All, Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds, Maroon 5 – Red Pill Blues". The Independent. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
14. Clayton-Lea, Tony (3 November 2017). "Stereophonics review: new album has its moments but is nothing to scream about". The Irish Times. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
15. "Stereophonics: Scream Above the Sounds". Mojo. December 2017. p. 86.
16. "Stereophonics: Scream Above the Sounds". Q. December 2017. p. 113.
17. Hodgkinson, Will (3 November 2017). "Pop review: Stereophonics: Scream Above the Sounds". The Times. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
18. Scream Above the Sounds (Deluxe CD). Stereophonics. Parlophone Records. 2017.CS1 maint: others (link)
19. "Scram Above The Sounds [Deluxe Edition]". Amazon.co.uk. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
20. "ARIA Chart Watch #445". auspOp. 4 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
21. "Ultratop.be – Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
22. "Ultratop.be – Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
23. "Dutchcharts.nl – Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
24. "Lescharts.com – Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds". Hung Medien. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
25. "Irish-charts.com – Discography Stereophonics". Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
26. "NZ Heatseeker Albums Chart". Recorded Music NZ. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
27. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
28. "Spanishcharts.com – Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds". Hung Medien. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
29. "Swisscharts.com – Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds". Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
30. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
31. "End of Year Album Chart Top 100 – 2017". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
32. "British album certifications – Stereophonics – Scream Above the Sounds". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 6 January 2018. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Scream Above the Sounds in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.

External links

• Scream Above The Sounds at Stereophonics.com