"Thinking back/ Thinking of you/ I think it was June/ Yeah think it was June."

See, at first I had problems with this: namely me liking a Stereophonics song. Me repeat-playing a Stereophonics song. Surely something was awry with the universe? I was in shock, I was in awe, I generally indulged in a brief period of re-questioning all the values I hold dear to me. Then, thankfully, I got over myself and realized that discriminating against a dirgesome British indie rock band purely on the basis of their dull past output was equivalent to the people who refuse to listen to ‘Since U Been Gone’ simply because it’s a Kelly Clarkson/Max Martin effort. And all they’re achieving in doing so is closing themselves off to a fabulous musical experience. Which is entirely self-defeating.

‘Fabulous’ isn’t the relevant word here, because this is something ambling and understated, and (most importantly) doesn’t sound much like Stereophonics at all. The opening? Electronic and bubbling with a light glee. The chords? Slow build and insistent undertow. They’ve toned his voice back, letting this soaring guitar refrain swoop between verses of blithely repetitious lyrics. Think the Postal Service lounging in the midday sun on a grassy verge with the Stills, musing back to some faded Polaroid romance.

Because the gentle sweetness of an intermittent chord and the way the electric guitar spirals off at the end of each phrase does more to evoke that sleepy nostalgia than any semi-hoarse musing he can achieve. There’s a regret to it, but more than that, a joy too; those notes bringing something full of promise and quiet intensity. And then, when the vastness of this lazy meander seems like it will loop forever, it reins itself back in; the vocals paring down to repetition and those sprawling melodies pulled taut in a shivering string.