Performance & Cocktails
| Performance and Cocktails | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Stereophonics | ||||
| Released | 8 March 1999 | |||
| Recorded | Late 1995 - late 1998 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 50:55 | |||
| Label | V2 | |||
| Producer | Steve Bush and Marshall Bird AKA: Bird & Bush | |||
| Stereophonics chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Singles from Performance and Cocktails | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |
   |
| NME | (6/10) |
| Pitchfork Media | (4.4./10) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone |
|
| Sputnikmusic |
|
Performance and Cocktails is the second studio album by Welsh rock band Stereophonics. It was released by V2 on 8 March 1999. The name 'Performance and Cocktails' comes from lyrics in the album's first song, "Roll Up and Shine".
The album was a surprise commercial success for Stereophonics but it received mixed reviews.
The songs were variously recorded at Real World Studios in Bath, Parkgate in Sussex and Rockfield in Monmouth.
The cover photograph was taken by Scarlet Page in autumn 1998 at a football pitch under the Westway in London, and was inspired by an earlier Annie Leibovitz photograph of a couple kissing outside a prison. The British journalist Tony Barrell did extensive research in 2007 to find the female model in the foreground. In the Sunday Times on 11 November 2007, he revealed the previously unknown identity of the model as 23-year-old Lucy Joplin. In an interview with Barrell, Joplin explained that the "faraway look" in her eyes was the result of an evening consuming absinthe and opium, and that she was paid just £75 in cash for the shoot. The name of the then 23-year-old male model is Kipp Burns on loan from Mannique models, King's Road.
All lyrics written by Kelly Jones; all music composed by Stereophonics.
Performance and Cocktails received generally mixed reviews. At AllMusic, Jason Damas criticised the album for not being as consistent as Word Gets Around; he did however praise "T Shirt Sun Tan", "She Takes Her Clothes Off" and "Pick a Part That's New", calling them the highlights of the album. Knoxvillelives at Sputnikmusic had a contrasting statement about the two albums, commenting, "the songs have a certain quality about them that makes them more instantly appealing than the previous tunes." He also praised Jones' vocals as "truly one of the more recognisable in UK rocks recent years, with a pleasant throatiness to it that adds emotion to even the simplest lyric."
...
Wikipedia