Song Stories: Stereophonics: Pick a Part That's New
When ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ was released in 1999, Stereophonics were quickly becoming one of Britain’s defining rock bands. The track, lifted from their second album ‘Performance and Cocktails’, is a perfect snapshot of a band navigating new horizons while still holding onto their no-nonsense, working-class perspective. Where their debut ‘Word Gets Around’ was filled with stories of small-town life, ‘Performance and Cocktails’ widened the lens bigger sound, bigger venues, and suddenly, international stages.
But ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ isn’t about falling in love with the glamour of it all. In fact, it’s about quite the opposite. As Kelly Jones explained, the song came out of Stereophonics’ first trip to America. He expected to be overwhelmed by the scale of it, but instead, he was underwhelmed. "I thought I was going to be really impressed," he said, "but I'd already seen it all on television. Even the Empire State Building didn't feel that big. I had to find some parts I hadn't seen before when all I saw were rows and rows of people drinking alone."
That sense of déjà vu runs through the entire song. It opens with a confession:“I’ve never been here before / Didn’t know where to go / Never met you before / I’ve never been to your home”Even in unfamiliar places, there’s something that feels oddly recognisable. The people, the habits, the rhythms they’re all strangely familiar. When Kelly sings, “People drinking on their own / Push buttons on the phone / Was I here once before? / Is that my voice on the phone?” he’s blurring the lines between past and present, between what’s new and what’s already been done.
The track carries Stereophonics’ signature punch: crisp guitar riffs, solid drums, and Kelly’s gravel-edged vocals, but it’s the hook that really sticks “You can do all the things that you like to do / All around, underground, pick a part that’s new.”It’s a mantra that feels both liberating and a little ironic. You can reinvent yourself, you can explore, you can pick something new but will it really feel any different? Maybe not. Maybe the new is just the old in a different coat.
Yet, ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ isn’t cynical. It’s more observational. Kelly’s not bitter about America failing to wow him he’s just stating what so many people quietly feel when they chase new experiences and find them eerily familiar. The song suggests that sometimes we’re so saturated by what we’ve already seen through TV, movies, the constant hum of modern culture that even the most iconic places feel like they’ve already been lived through second-hand.
Within ‘Performance and Cocktails’, ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ feels like a standout moment of self-awareness, but it’s far from the only track that wrestles with the push and pull between big ambition and everyday disillusionment. The album is packed with bold, radio-ready anthems that cemented Stereophonics as one of the leading bands of their generation. ‘The Bartender and the Thief’ is all spit and swagger a relentless, punchy anthem that quickly became a festival favourite with its driving riff and razor-sharp energy. It’s the band at their most adrenaline-fuelled, capturing the youthful chaos of nights out and reckless bravado. ‘Just Looking’, on the other hand, slows things down and leans into melancholy, reflecting on the way people move through life as passive observers, searching for connection but rarely finding it. Its bittersweet tone and singalong chorus made it an instant classic, balancing Stereophonics’ grit with emotional resonance.
Then there’s ‘I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio’, which strips things back, showcasing a softer, more laid-back groove that hints at the band’s ability to craft songs that sit just as comfortably on acoustic stages as they do in packed arenas. It’s deceptively simple a song about a break up, and the trials and tribulations that come with it. Elsewhere, ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ delves into frustration and impatience, a low-slung track that perfectly captures the restlessness that runs throughout the album. It’s a song that almost idles in its own tempo, mirroring the feeling of waiting for something anything to finally change.
‘Performance and Cocktails’ thrives on this duality it’s loud and restless, but it’s also thoughtful and self-aware. Songs swing from high-octane storytelling to moments of personal reflection, always grounded in the familiar realities of life. ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ captures that perfectly: the desire to move, to evolve, to keep chasing new experiences even when everything starts to feel like something you’ve already seen before.
t’s this balance between curiosity and disillusionment, between the thrill of the new and the comfort of the familiar that makes ‘Pick a Part That’s New’ and ‘Performance and Cocktails’ resonate decades later. The album doesn’t pretend to have the answers, and neither does the song. Instead, it holds up a mirror to the modern experience: no matter how far you travel or how much you try to reinvent yourself, you often find that the world isn’t as different as you expected it’s just dressed in slightly different colours. Stereophonics managed to capture that restless energy without losing sight of their roots, making ‘Performance and Cocktails’ not just an album about growing up, but about coming to terms with what’s really out there.