''Oochya!'' is the twelfth studio album by Welsh

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Stereophonics Stereophonics are a Welsh rock band formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in the Cynon Valley, Wales. The band consists of Kelly Jones (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Richard Jones (bass guitar, harmonica, backing vocals), Adam Zind ...

, released on 4 March 2022 on

Ignition Records Ignition Records is a British, London based independent record company, owned by Marcus Russell and Alec McKinlay of Ignition Management. The company has been releasing music on a regular basis since the late 1990s, although its inaugural release ...

. It is scheduled to be supported by a 2022 arena tour.

Background

''Oochya!'' originally began life when the band were planning a 25th anniversary compilation. Frontman

Kelly Jones Kelly Jones (born 3 June 1974) is a Welsh singer-songwriter and a founding member, lead singer, and guitarist of the rock band Stereophonics. Early life and debut Kelly Jones was born youngest of three boys for Beryl and Arwyn Jones in the s ...

said, "I began rooting through hard drives to see what to put on it. As I did that, I was finding songs we'd never released. Three or four songs on ''Oochya!'' are built on those, and it led me to writing a bunch of new songs too." Jones also described the album as "90 percent" uptempo.

Release and promotion

Singles

On 6 September 2021 the band released the first single taken from the album, "Hanging on Your Hinges". The song premiered on ''

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'' on

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. An official lyric video was also uploaded to

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. "Do Ya Feel My Love?" was released as the second single in November 2021. "Forever" was released as the third single from the album on 25 January 2022, followed by an official video a week later.

Critical reception

''Oochya!'' received mixed to positive reviews from music critics, with a number of them praising several standout tracks but noting that the fifteen-song tracklist resulted in thematic exhaustion and cliché. Dave Simpson, writing for ''

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'', said that the band was "past their best nowadays" but the album was "a decent effort after a quarter of a century" and said that the album "offers an occasionally uneven mix of their trusty hit formula". Harrison Smith of ''

Gigwise ''Gigwise'' is a British online music news site that features music news, photos, album reviews, music festivals, concert tickets and video content. Founded in June 2001, the site is based in London, England. History Gigwise was launched in 2001 ...

'' wrote that "Stereophonics have tended to serve up middle-of-the-road ballads in recent times and found themselves in the realms of predictability. ''Oochya!'', whilst dishing up much of the same, is a much more robust and energised project than the previous few albums". Graeme Marsh wrote for ''

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'' that the album was "better than expected" given its mix of old and new material and that the quality of its singles varied more than a typical Stereophonics album but concluded that "''Oochya!'' is undoubtedly one of Stereophonics’ better albums in recent times even if, at 15 tracks, it's a little too long".

Commercial performance

On 11 March 2022 ''Oochya!'' became Stereophonics' eighth number-one album on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, outselling their closest competition by 2:1. ''Oochya!'' sold just over 24,000 copies in its first week, including just under 4,000 copies on vinyl. The album spent five weeks on the chart. The album is also the band's second consecutive chart-topper after 2019's ''Kind''.

Track listing

All tracks written by

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2022 albums Stereophonics albums Albums produced by George Drakoulias