The Album you NEED! (The Stone Roses - Stone Roses)

Member Name: solas

Product:	The Stone Roses - Stone Roses
Date:	19/04/02 (1141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: funky, flirty, fantastic!!

Disadvantages: You've already missed 13 years or so of listening to it!

Before I begin my review of this album, I feel it only fair to detail a little background to my attitude to it.

Firstly, in 1990 I was but 12 years old, and therefore a little bit too young to get fully involved in the whole “Madchester” thing. So I missed out on the release of The Stone Roses. A few years later, when starting college, I noticed that most students were into The Stone Roses in the same way they were all into “Trainspotting” and Che Guevara. At the time it seemed to me that in order to be accepted amongst the student community, you were obliged to love The Stone Roses, and any dissenters were, to be frank, stupid AND deaf. So, I decided straight away to dislike this band on the basis that I could not believe the hype.

How wasted my youth has been!

One of the first albums I bought after graduating, was this album, which many regard The Stone Roses’ only album (let’s face it, The Second Coming wasn’t exactly inspired!). Very very quickly, it has become probably my second favourite album of all time, following close behind “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd.

The opening of this album is an atmospheric wash of sound – various sounds mixing around in apparent chaos until slowly the low rumbling bass arrives that signals the start of “I Wanna Be Adored”. The lyrics are a touch on the mediocre side, but the music is simply glorious. This is almost the Roses at their best – where no instrument is competing with any other, and the vocals work in total symphony with the band.

But this state of near total perfection, is followed by what I regard as the greatest pop song ever written. “She Bangs The Drums” was a song I first heard on one of those free Q magazine CDs, and I was hooked immediately. In fact, it was this song that made me buy the album! This song has it all – bravado, joy, dance, rock, fun, EVERYTHING! I ca
nnot recommend this song enough, you simply MUST listen to it.

The following two songs are quite unusual in that they are really both the same song. “Waterfall” followed by “Don’t Stop” are possibly the greatest example of extreme experimentalism actually working! “Waterfall” is a nice sweet song about a girl of course, with simply wondrous guitar backing to Ian Brown’s vocals by John Squire in one of his better moods. “Don’t Stop” is the backing track to “Waterfall” played in reverse with new lyrics and a new melody. Ingenious! Legend has it that the band had finished recording “Waterfall” when somehow one of the tapes of the song were played backwards for a bit, and the boys were beaten by the inspiration stick! It may sound odd at first, but it don’t make for a great song.

“Bye Bye Badman” sounds like a nice tambourine-waving campfire song at first, but draws you in deeper and deeper until you realise you’re humming it while munching down your Corn Flakes. “Elizabeth My Dear” is an unusual inclusion – being a complete copy of Scarborough Fair, but is somehow touching, although lasting under 60 seconds in length.

“(Song for My) Sugar Spun Sister” again has almost a perfect blend of instruments and voice, but it only serves to prepare us for my favourite song on the whole album – “Made of Stone”. In fact, this is one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s got melody, harmony, cool lyrics, cool guitars, I just can’t put words on it. Incidentally, this song was the backdrop for The Stone Roses appearance on “The Late Show” a few years ago when there was an electrical fault and Ian Brown started swearing about how crap the whole thing was live on TV! Many’s a time in my favourite club (Freakscene, Cork City, Ireland) did I jump around to this number! <
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“Shoot You Down” incorporates a cool funky riff by John Squire and gorgeous drumming by Reni, and “This Is The One” gives us more great harmonies, probably the best harmonies of the album.

The albums finisher “I Am The Resurrection” is quite possibly one of the most arrogant songs ever written, but boy is it good! Beginning with some cheeky beats, the lyrics enter with “Down down, you bring me down” – whether Brown is criticizing another band, or a lover is unknown to me, but it doesn’t really matter, because it could quite easily be either. The real sweetener in the deal of this song, occurs at the “false” ending around 3.39 into the song, when the song completely changes track and this incredibly funky bassline appears from nowhere and drumming to match runs in followed in the end by John Squire at his ultimate best. Yes, “Love Spreads” has some great guitar work, but this guitar work is better because it’s not over-indulgent. My favourite memory of “I Am The Resurrection” is that this is the last song I heard the late great Uaneen Fitzsimmons play on her radio show in Ireland before her untimely death on the Irish roads.

So there it is – the album that has beaten the odds and jumped right into my top ten favourite albums within a week of buying it. And it will enter your top ten with seven days too if you just spend the money and buy it – it will turn out to be the best value for money of any album you will ever buy. Well, except for when I bought “Screamadelica” by Primal Scream for three quid a few years back!!!

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