Stereophonics follow their excellent debut with an album that pushes their sound further, although not always for the better.There's a run in the middle of Performance & Cocktails - tracks 3 through 8 - that is as strong as their debut, Word Gets Around. This is the sound of a bunch of guys from a small Welsh town making music that comes from the heart. It's both pretty yet powerful, a chugging rhythm section backing the harmonies at the front. Were the rest of the album as strong as this run of songs, it's possible the band would be held in higher regard. However, this was not to be. The remainder of the album showed the band expanding their sound, albeit not in a particularly successful manner.The opening two pieces see the band looking toward America, with a bluesy rock'n'roll sound that is certainly fun - the top 5 charting of 'The Bartender and the Thief' is understandable - but lacking in the depth of the band's best moments. Worse still, the closing run of songs on the album is an incredibly undistinguished selection of mid-tempo acoustic numbers which are the most forgettable pieces in the band's discography up to this point. Certainly piano-based closer 'I Stopped to Fill My Car Up' redeems the record at the end, but the energy built up over a run of strong tracks has definitely been lost by this point.A small handful of bad songs aside, this album could still be considered very strong. However, even on the best songs, there's a hint of Kelly Jones's limitations as a songwriter. While every song on Word Gets Around was incredibly memorable, several songs here fall short. Sometimes the melody tends to be based around a short repeated phrase. Elsewhere - Hurry Up and Wait a good example - he seems to rely on simply singing one note throughout the whole track. It's not disastrous - he still keeps up strong melodies elsewhere - but there's definitely a feeling that these aren't the strongest songs he's written.Performance & Cocktails was the band's commercial breakthrough, and although sometimes brilliant - 'Just Looking' and 'T-Shirt Suntan' are among the group's classics' - the album feels like a certain element of inspiration has been lost since their debut. Not a bad record, but one that's difficult to fall in love with.