Chaos from the Top Down

Album: Single release only (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • Here, Kelly Jones sings from the imagined perspective of a 15-year-old boy lying in the road after being shot.

    Oh yeah, it's chaos from the top down
    And now I see I've just been shot down
    I got no voice, I got no choice, you don't hear one word I say


    Jones explained in a press release that the fallen teenager is "reflecting in his time of dying about his life and the choices he made through the lack of options and opportunities he felt he had in today's Britain. It also touches on the tags and labels that have been stuck on him. The stereotypes and clichés that were placed on him."
  • The song is based on a true story that happened just outside Jones' street. The Stereophonics frontman has often written about what's going on around him ever since penning "Local Boy In The Photograph" in 1996.
  • The track was produced by Kelly Jones and George Drakoulias (The Zutons, Primal Scream) at The Distillery studios in Somerset, SW England. Released as a standalone single on February 14, 2019, Jones explained it didn't fit into the style of the album he was writing. He added that "the current political climate inspired me to release it now."

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