Send "The Stone Roses " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Thephoenix |
 The Stone Roses' 1989 debut LP has been deified by such dubious tastemakers as the NME and Oasis's Noel Gallagher — and the rest of us really like it too. Indeed, the wide-armed proclamations of "I Wanna Be Adored" and "I Am the Resurrection" reach for rock-and-roll godliness.More significant is the album's cache of righteous tunage — "She Bangs the Drums" and "Waterfall" merge '60s jangle-psych with British rave culture, and they cast an efficient gaze toward Britpop's trending in the '90s. For the record's 20th anniversary, vocalist Ian Brown and producer John Leckie have overseen a fat-bottomed remaster, which Legacy is offering in three packages. In addition to the single disc (with the extended version of single "Fools Gold" appended), there's the handsome two-CD/one-DVD Legacy Edition that includes a disc of "lost demos" and a DVD featuring a live show and a handful of music videos. Dig deep in your pockets for the "Collector's Edition," which adds vinyl, a book, prints of guitarist John Squire's art, a USB drive, and a disc of non-album singles and B-sides. It's a bit frustrating that you have to shell out more to get that last disc — with "Elephant Stone," "One Love," and "Something's Burning," it stands on its own merits....full text |
| Bbc |
| Manchester at the end of the 80s was caught between two schools of musical thought. Still in thrall to the legacy left behind by both Factory records and the recently-departed Smiths it was also in the grip of early club culture.The odiously-named Madchester scene was just on the horizon. No band summed up this schism as well as the Roses. Originally a punk-loving, bandana and leather trouser-sporting bunch of rowdy locals with a following and a Martin Hannett-produced flop to their names, they finally re-emerged with Johnny Marr's chiming Byrd-isms married to new bassist Mani's loping funk on "Sally Cinnamon". Guitarist John Squire now felt confident enough to let his influences shine and Ian Brown had progressed from raw shouts to Mancunian cool. The sound was sorted. Now for some top, banging album action. John Leckie, producer for XTC, George Harrison and Simple Minds, was brought in as producer and finally the band released the prequel to the debut album, "Elephant Stone", a psychedelic raver which (along with "Fool's Gold") was included in the re-issued two-disc version of the album. When it did arrive it wasn't to the universal acclaim that it now garners as 'best debut album of all time'. Instead it was a quieter word-of mouth process that, within the year had put the band on top of the new Manchester scene and led to Spike Island and all its attendant problems....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| Surly, sullen and fearsomely confident in shaggy hair and baggy jeans, frontman Ian Brown declared on the Stone Roses' eponymous album, "I am the resurrection and I am the light," connecting with a nation of acid-house damaged kids eager to believe in something. As it happens, Brown's arrogance was misplaced and the band's rock stardom a lot shorter-lived than anyone expected. The Stone Roses made a stunning debut, then bled out in a slow agony of contractual disputes, internal discord, and, eventually, public indifference (though their sophomore release and swan song, Second Coming, is nowhere near as bad as people say). More prosaic than drugs or young death, this trifecta killed a career that now essentially consists of just one great record. But the story of The Stone Roses is really a tale of two records, divided by an ocean. As Sony (which now owns original label Silvertone) rolls out a remastered version in celebration of the album's 20th anniversary, Brits wrestle with what's become a cultural crucible. When a record's aura or associations, rather than its content, begins dominating discussions-- especially when a nation routinely votes it one of rock history's best-- clothing-deprived-emperor jive usually isn't far behind. And the fact that the former idols have had the bad grace to survive into their forties and release a string of middling yet well-promoted solo albums hasn't boosted the The Stone Roses' reputation at home. We Americans are relatively unencumbered (though it'll be fun to see if Nevermind incites as much hair-tearing when it hits 20 in two years). The Roses, and the "Madchester" scene with which they were loosely associated, never translated to the U.S. beyond modern rock radio and late-night MTV. They also failed to hugely impact an underground hostile to anything that implied feet were made for more than propping up a body so it could sip beer and look bored. Many prominent American critics didn't champion the Roses, either. "What do [the Stone Roses] do that the Byrds or Buffalo Springfield didn't do better in 1967?" Robert Christgau wondered in The Village Voice, typifying the Boomer establishment's predictable position on a band of GenXers cheeky enough to remind them, "the past was yours, but the future's mine."...full text |
The Stone Roses lyrics
|
| |||||||
