Stereophonics — Nice To Be Out

A deep cut from the Welsh band's third album, Just Enough Education to Perform, is broadly charting today, tracked across 105 country and platform charts after a brief gap. Written by frontman Kelly Jones, the track is a travelogue narrated as a litany of grim historical pilgrimages — Nuremberg, Dealey Plaza, the Kennedy assassination "back and to the left" — set against a loose, conversational acoustic shuffle that undercuts the heaviness. It sits apart from the band's stadium-rock singles like Have a Nice Day and Dakota, closer to a spoken diary than an anthem, which has helped it age into something more curious than dated. The Stereophonics catalog has logged dozens of screen appearances over the years, though this song stayed largely off the sync circuit. Its presence today is worth a second look.