Language. Sex. Violence. Other?

Language. Sex. Violence. Other?
Studio album by Stereophonics
Released	14 March 2005
Recorded	2004–2005 in England at Sahara Sound, Fulham The Stone Room, Shepherd's Bush Hook End Manor, Checkendon
Genre	Rock,[1][2] Britpop[2]
Length	43:24
Label	V2 Records
Producer	Kelly Jones, Jim Lowe
Stereophonics chronology
You Gotta Go There to Come Back (2003) Language. Sex. Violence. Other? (2005) Pull the Pin (2007)
Singles from Language. Sex. Violence. Other?
"Dakota" Released: 28 February 2005 "Superman" Released: 20 June 2005 "Devil" Released: 9 September 2005 "Rewind" Released: 21 November 2005

Language. Sex. Violence. Other? is the fifth studio album by alternative rock band Stereophonics. Produced by Kelly Jones and Jim Lowe, it was released on 14 March 2005 (22 March 2005 in the U.S.) on V2 Records. After the band's two previous albums, which contained much more acoustic music and an overall mellower sound, the band brought back the harder and more abrasive alternative rock and indie rock sound they were known for and songs such as "Doorman" and "Brother" are some of the band's most aggressive songs.

Jones began writing the album while Stereophonics were on their You Gotta Go There To Come Back tour and recording sessions began in July 2004. It received positive reviews in the British music press, compared to their previous albums. The album reached number one in the UK, selling over 100,000 copies in its first week of release. It was the 37th biggest selling album of 2005 in the UK with over 500,000 copies sold. It debuted at thirty-five on the U.S. Billboard Heatseekers chart.

The first single, "Dakota", was released on 28 February 2005. It became Stereophonics' biggest hit in the UK, reaching number one in the sales chart, and also topping the download chart, where it remained in the top ten for eleven weeks. The single received positive reviews, James Masterton calling it the single of the year.

Background and recording

"The album started the same way as every other album really. I do most of my writing on the road, on tour and then I just do a series of demos and see which ones work."

—Kelly Jones^[3]

The song "Deadhead" was previously released as a demo version under a different track name on the "Madame Helga" CD single as "Royal Flush".^[4] This is the second time to date the band have released a full finished version of a demo track from a CD single of a previous album campaign, in which "Nice to Be Out" from "Pick a Part That's New" was released two years later in 2001 on Just Enough Education to Perform.^[5]

The album started out while the band were touring for their previous album You Gotta Go There To Come Back. In March 2004, after Stereophonics had stopped touring, they went into the studio for eight days to develop new and further develop the ideas lead singer and guitarist Kelly Jones had come up with. The demo for "Dakota", which was originally named "Vermillion", was recorded in the one day Kelly and Jim Lowe were at The Stone Room in Shepherd's Bush. The next day the band went to their usual studio Sahara Sound in Fulham where Jones started working on "Superman" and managed to get a recorded for it. The band decided after recording these two demos that this was the sound direction the album would go in. After the eight days in the studio they had fifteen song ideas for the album.^[3] "Lolita" was written as a tribute to celebrate the birth of Jones' daughter Lolita.^[6] Weyler, who had previously been the studio assistant for You Gotta Go There To Come Back,^[7] provided assistance for Language. Sex. Violence. Other? but was asked during studio sessions to provide drums for the demos instead of the drum machine they were using.^[3]

In July 2004, after the band stopped touring with David Bowie, they started recording sessions an Hook End Manor in Checkendon. Weyler was asked by Kelly Jones and Richard Jones to come record with them, the first time since the demo sessions. Kelly described him as "the man for the job" and when Weyler agreed, Kelly felt like Stereophonics were a proper band again. They started off jamming along to the tracks they were going to record for the album.^[3]

Release

Singles

Four singles were released from the album, the first two were given a CD, DVD and a 7" vinyl release while the last two were only given a CD and 7" vinyl release. While "Dakota" performed well in the charts, the other three singles did not perform as well and only peaked within the Top 20.

The first single, "Dakota", was released on 28 February 2005. The second single, "Superman", was released on 20 June 2005. The third single, "Devil", was released on 19 September 2005. The fourth single, "Rewind", was released on 21 November 2005. The recording sessions lasted from six-to-eight weeks according to Kelly.

Packing and title

"There was just a really, really creative week you know. That's where we came up with the idea to use the songs and give them one word titles and it was kind of the process of don't think just kinda draw you know and have some fun with it."

—Kelly Jones^[3]

The name of the album was taken from the BBFC consumer advice on the back of a James Dean DVD.^[3] The cover art was designed by Graham Rounthwaite. While the band and studio crew were decorating the Hook End Manor studio they came across some of Rounthwaite's artwork. Kelly approached him to create the album artwork and CD booklet art in the same style of the artwork the band had seen. Rounthwaite used the layering and colouring style of the "language, sex, violence, other" part of BBFC's consumer advice as the basis for the album artwork.

When he first heard "Dakota" (which was still called "Vermillion" at the time) it reminded him of the time he first heard Performance and Cocktails. He used the idea of a man and a woman kissing, with the woman not interested, from Performance and Cocktails' artwork to recreate this in his style but instead had the man not interested. An early version of this drawing had a bunny in the background which he was reluctant to have, until Kelly texted him saying, "Just lose the fucking bunny."^[3]

Reception

Critical response

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(57/100) [8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[9]
Dotmusic	(9/10)[10]
Drowned In Sound	(3/10)[11]
The Guardian	[12]
Mojo	[13]
NME	(7/10)[1]
Pitchfork Media	(4.5/10)[14]
Q	[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]
RTÉ	[17]

Language. Sex. Violence. Other? 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 30 reviews.^[8] MacKenzie Wilson at Allmusic gave the album four stars out of five praising the replacement of Cable with Weyler as the new drummer and that they "could not have nailed it any better."^[9] NME, who were critical toward their previous two albums, praised the album with "its sparse artwork and one-word titles."^[1]

However, Drowned In Sound rated it three out of ten, writing: "Sure, there are radio-friendly, stadium rock moments aplenty. Yet, the chugging, plodding guitar riffs remain, new drummer Javier Weyler adds little value, and Jones is still straining away like Liam Gallagher having a dump. All this anchors 'Language...' firmly in the now familiar 'Phonics crowd pleasing pub rock territory."^[11]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Kelly Jones. 

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Superman"	5:07
2.	"Doorman"	3:49
3.	"Brother"	4:04
4.	"Devil"	4:40
5.	"Dakota"	4:57
6.	"Rewind"	4:46
7.	"Pedalpusher"	3:18
8.	"Girl"	1:59
9.	"Lolita"	3:26
10.	"Deadhead"	3:34
11.	"Feel"	3:44
Total length:		43:24

Japanese release bonus track
No.	Title	Length
12.	"Looks Like Chaplin" (live)

Personnel

Stereophonics[18] Kelly Jones – vocals, guitar, piano Richard Jones – bass guitar Javier Weyler – drums

Technical[18] Production – Kelly Jones, Jim Lowe Engineering – Jim Lowe Mixing – Kelly Jones, Jim Lowe Mixing assistance – Brad Spence Mastering – Dick Beetham

Charts and certifications

Album charts (weekly) Chart (2005) Peak position Australian Albums Chart[19] 28 Belgian Albums Chart[20] 35 Dutch Albums Chart[21] 28 French Albums Chart[22] 46 German Albums Chart[23] 39 Irish Albums Chart[24] 1 New Zealand Albums Chart[25] 32 Swiss Albums Chart[26] 34 UK Albums Chart[27] 1 US Billboard 200[28] 127 Single charts (weekly) Song Peak AUS [29] BEL (Wal) [30] BEL (Fla) [31] IRE [32] NL [33] NZ [34] UK [35] UK Indie [36] "Dakota" 22 18 1 8 74 20 1 1 "Superman" - - - 19 - - 13 - "Devil" - - - - - - 11 - "Rewind" - - - - - - 17 -

Album charts (year end) Chart (2005) Peak position UK Albums Chart[37] 37 Region Certification Sales/shipments Certifications ! Ireland (IRMA)[38] Platinum 15,000^x United Kingdom (BPI)[39] Platinum 500,000[40] ^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone ^xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

1. Cashmore, Pete (15 March 2005). "Stereophonics : Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". NME. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
2. "Language. Sex. Violence. Other? Review". Ultimate Guitar Archive. Retrieved August 24, 2015. The title of the album is borrowed from the classification code used on the backs of rental videos, and its blunt CD cover instantly pulls listeners toward Stereophonics' nonchalant impudence. You can find that everywhere ? in short clear one-word song names, in abusive lyrics, in hard-edge rock sound... You can still hear Stereophonics' rock-n-roll roots here and it still fits the category of brit-pop...
3. Vox Populi, Stereophonics (2006). Language. Sex. Violence. Other? (DVD). Liberation Entertainment.
4. "Madame Helga". Stereophonics Ltd. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
5. "Pick A Part That's New". Stereophonics Ltd. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
6. "Jones Writes Baby Tribute Song". Contactmusic.com. 6 February 2005. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
7. You Gotta Go There To Come Back (CD booklet). Stereophonics. V2 Records. 2003.
8. "Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Metacritic. CBS Interactive.
9. Wilson, MacKenzie (22 March 2005). "Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Allmusic. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
10. "Dotmusic review". Retrieved 6 August 2011.
11. Gibbons, Anthony (3 March 2005). "Stereophonics - Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Drowned In Sound. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
12. Petridis, Alexis (4 March 2005). "Stereophonics, Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Retrieved 2013-06-29.
13. "Stereophonics: Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Mojo. April 2005. p. 122.
14. Moerder, Adam (31 March 2005). "Stereophonics: Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Pitchfork. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
15. "Stereophonics: Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Q. April 2005. p. 122.
16. Hoard, Christian (21 April 2005). "Stereophonics: Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". Rolling Stone Archived at Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 23 November 2009. Retrieved 6 August 2011.
17. Lehane, Bill (2008). "Review: The Stereophonics - Language. Sex. Violence. Other?". RTÉ.ie Archived at Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on 27 January 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2009.
18. Language. Sex. Violence. Other? (CD booklet). Stereophonics. V2 Records. 2005.
19. "Australian album chart".
20. "Belgian album chart".
21. "Dutch album chart".
22. "French album chart".
23. "German album chart".
24. "Irish album chart".
25. "New Zealand album chart".
26. "Swiss album chart".
27. "UK album chart".
28. "allmusic Stereophonics - Awards".
29. "Australian Singles Chart". ARIA. Australian-charts.org. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
30. "50 Ultratop 16/04/2005". Ultratop. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
31. "50 back catalogue singles 17/07/2010". Ultratop. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
32. "Search the charts". IRMA. The Irish Charts. Retrieved 24 July 2013. Note: Stereophonics must be searched manually.
33. "Stereophonics - DAKOTA (NUMBER)". MegaCharts. GfK. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
34. "STEREOPHONICS - DAKOTA (SONG)". Recorded Music NZ. Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
35. "2005 Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 July 2013. Note: Stereophonics must be searched manually.
36. "Top 40 Indie Singles : 06.03.2005". Official Charts Company. Web archive. Archived from the original on 6 March 2005. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
37. "The Official UK Albums Chart 2005". ChartsPlus. January 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2010. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
38. "Certified Awards". Irish Charts. 2005. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
39. "Certified Awards". British Phonographic Industry. 25 March 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2013. Note: Language. Sex. Violence. Other? has to be searched manually.
40. Burrows, Marc (8 March 2013). "Album by Album: Kelly Jones on the Stereophonics' back catalogue". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 28 July 2013.

External links

• Language. Sex. Violence. Other? at Stereophonics.com