*** Stereophonics

PERFORMANCE AND COCKTAILS

(V2)

With the conquest of Europe under their belts, England's Stereophonics have set their sights on winning over audiences stateside, and they've brought along potent ammunition with this, their second release. It's loaded with punchy, full-bodied songs, but the shape comes from singer/guitarist Kelly Jones, whose soulful rasp of a voice brings to mind the young Rod Stewart. What's more, Jones, like Stewart, is an intuitive communicator: singing a song for him is as much about telling a story as it is belting out a tune. The swinging, acoustic "I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio" is the first single V2 is offering up from the disc, but the album opener, "Roll Up and Shine," might have been a better choice -- it's a killer piece of riff-rock, a song Bush's Gavin Rossdale would give his left arm to write. And Stereophonics tear through it (as well as the next track, "The Bartender and the Thief") with all the intensity you could want.

-- Ben Auburn