Pull the Pin

Writing

Lead singer Kelly Jones had to take ten months off before commencing to write songs for the album due to an illness in his family. About two years prior to the release of Pull the Pin, he had written the lyrics for "It Means Nothing" and "Daisy Lane" in a hotel in Germany—the latter was written for Language. Sex. Violence. Other? (2005) but it wasn't completed during that time.

"It Means Nothing" was written based on the 7/7 London attacks, it is about the feeling of unease in the city and people realising what was important in their lives. "Daisy Lane" is about a young boy who was stabbed to death on the street where Jones lives. The song "Stone" contains lyrics which were also featured in their earlier single "Moviestar", namely: "You're in my soul / You're in my mind". It was considered for the album's lead single but the band and record company decided for "It Means Nothing" instead.

Release

"Bank Holiday Monday" was made available to download on 28 May 2007 to those who purchased tickets for the band's tour in November 2007. Pull The Pin was released on 12 October 2007 on three formats, including CD, digital and LP.

Packing and title

The artwork of the two lips was designed by Miles Aldridge while Graham Rounthwaite and Stereophonics handled the art direction. The band photographs inside the CD booklet were taken by Hans Peter van Velthoven. The title and cover art of Pull the Pin was negatively received. When reviewing the album, Ian Cohen from Pitchfork called them "awful" while Drowned in Sound contributor Cpt Howling Mad Murdock called the cover art "some of the worst artwork of the year." Sonja D'Cruze at the BBC also disliked the artwork, commenting, "And that's not to mention the distasteful artwork of two sets of psychedelic glossed-up lips pulling a grenade pin."

Singles

The band's newsletter on 24 July 2007 confirmed details and artwork of the first single to be released from the album. "It Means Nothing" was released as the first single from the album in digital form on 24 September 2007 and later on 1 October three major versions were released, including one CD single and two vinyl singles. It charted at number twelve in the UK Singles chart, making it the first lead single to miss out on the top five since "Local Boy in the Photograph". "My Friends" was released as the second single on 10 December 2007 on three formats, CD, 7" vinyl and USB, and charted at number thirty-two on the UK charts.

Reception

Critical response

Pull the Pin received generally mixed to negative reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 46, based on 12 reviews. Contrasting with the negative reviews however, NME – who have been critical of the band's past albums – contributor Paul McNamee praised the album, stating it lives up as a successor album to Language. Sex. Violence. Other? and summarised it as "an unapologetic rock’n’roll record by a band who are hard to like but impossible to ignore."

In the negative, Sonja D'Cruze from the BBC summarised the album as having "no real depth, imagination or anything to connect with." Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian criticised the album, saying "the only things worse than Kelly Jones's aggrieved bellow and flatpack songwriting are his lyrics" and compared them to someone "performing brain surgery in boxing gloves: the patient always dies." Pitchfork contributor Ian Cohen also criticised Jones' lyrical content and said the rock genre of the album was different by having "no sex, no spark." Cpt H.M. 'Howling Mad' Murdock from Drowned in Sound was negative toward Jones' vocals by calling them "least-sincere" and compared them to "as if a diseased cat’s being garrotted in his throat." He summarised the album as: "... absolutely without spark and wholly forgettable."

Commercial performance

The album reached number one in the UK, becoming the band's fifth consecutive studio album to do so. Despite this, record sales were at an all-time low for the band, receiving only a gold certification for sales over 200,000 copies. The album didn't fare well outside of the UK either. In Ireland the record reached number fifteen, breaking the band's three number-one albums streak.

Track listing

Personnel

;Stereophonics

• Kelly Jones – vocals, guitar
• Richard Jones – bass guitar
• Javier Weyler – drums ;Technical
• Production – Kelly Jones, Jim Lowe
• Engineering – Lowe
• Mixing – Mark 'Spike' Stent
• Studio assistants – Dario Dendi, Alex Dromgoole, Marco Migliari, Rowen Rossiter
• Mastering – Ted Jensen

Charts and certifications

Charts

Certifications

References

;Notes

;Footnotes

References

1. (8 May 2013). "Album by Album: Kelly Jones on the Stereophonics' back catalogue". [[Drowned in Sound]].
2. Barnett, Laura. (28 October 2008). "Portrait of the artist: Kelly Jones, musician". [[The Guardian]].
3. (2003). "You Gotta Go There To Come Back". [[V2 Records]].
4. "Bank Holiday Monday". The Stereophonics Ltd.
5. "Pull The Pin". The Stereophonics Ltd.
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7. D'Cruze, Sonja. (2007). "Stereophonics Pull The Pin Review". [[BBC]].
8. (24 September 2007). "'It Means Nothing' released digitally today!". The Stereophonics Ltd.
9. (1 October 2007). "It Means Nothing – Out todday!". The Stereophonics Ltd.
10. (13 October 2007). "2007 Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive". [[Official Charts Company]].
11. "Search Results -- Singles". everyHit.
12. "My Friends release details". The Stereophonics Ltd.
13. (22 December 2007). "2007 Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive". [[Official Charts Company]].
14. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Stereophonics – Pull the Pin".
15. Cpt. Murdock, Howling Mad. (24 October 2007). "Stereophonics – Pull The Pin". [[Drowned in Sound]].
16. Lynskey, Dorian. (12 October 2007). "Stereophonics, Pull the Pin". [[The Guardian]].
17. Wasser, Chris. (15 October 1997). "PULL THE PIN".
18. Gill, Andy. (12 October 2007). "Album: Stereophonics". [[The Independent]].
19. The whole thing sounds effortless, and not always in a god way. [Dec 2007, p.109]
20. McNamee, Paul. (12 October 2007). "Stereophonics: 'Pull The Pin'". [[NME]].
21. Cohen, Ian. (7 October 2008). "Stereophonics: Pull The Pin".
22. "The Stereophonics – Pull The Pin".
23. It's harder to fault the tunes, however, smeared thick with QOTSA sludge or pretty 'Dakota' clones 'It Means Nothing' and 'Daisy Lane.' [Nov 2007, p.123]
24. "Stereophonics:Pull the Pin (2007): Reviews". CNET Networks, Inc.
25. D'Cruze, Sonja. (2007). "Stereophonics Pull The Pin Review". [[BBC]].
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