Music Review: The Stone Roses

 This week I've picked one of those albums that's considered to be iconic and classic by indie radio stations and men who wish it was still 1995.  It's the self-titled debut and one good album released by The Stone Roses.  This is my dad's vinyl copy - Discogs leads me to believe it's the first pressing - and I think it must have been one of the last LPs he bought before switching to CDs.  As a pretentious indie girl I was thrilled to discover it in his collection. 

A1. I Wanna Be Adored 🔵
We fade in slowly with that well-known bass line ushering us in to the album.  I like this song a lot, it's really chill with its repetitive lyrics and simple chords.  It sounds like a sunny day and I remember the video coming on the big screens at a festival between bands, which felt like the perfect setting.  This is a solid opening statement - what better way to explain your intentions than to name your first song 'I Wanna Be Adored'? 

2. She Bangs The Drums 🔵

Another great bass part to start a good jangly pop song.  It's surprisingly un-laddish when you consider their place in our culture, and actually quite twee.  Again, it's sparse of lyrics but what is there is good, especially "kiss me where the sun don't shine, the past is yours but the future's mine".  It continues to sound like the sort of album you'd listen to in nice weather.

3. Waterfall 🔵
I love the riff that runs through this song - I can imagine it being played at a big outdoor gig to an excited crowd.  The vibe is still chilled out and summery.  The verses are repetitive but the song sounds really pretty.  I do object to the long instrumental break at the end though; this is the first of those on the album but not the last.

4. Don't Stop 🟢

This is just Waterfall played backwards.  It's really weird as an inclusion on the album, I'm not really sure why it's here.  I guess it's a fun experiment but it comes off as being filler material.  It has new lyrics added on top but they've been made to sound as if they're played backwards too and it's coincidental that they still sound like words.  It would have been a good b-side to Waterfall so that they could have put Fools Gold onto the album. 

5. Bye Bye Badman 🟡
The most obvious-sounding tribute to psychedelic-era Beatles on the record, this song isn't really anything special.  Ian Brown puts in so little effort that the vocals are barely comprehensible which I suppose is fair, given that he really cannot sing.  It makes sense that this isn't an indie disco staple like tracks 1-3 are. 

B1. Elizabeth My Dear 🟢
I'm not sure if you can call this a song as it's just a verse that they've lifted from Scarborough Fair and written new lyrics for.  It lasts for less than a minute and there's nothing bad about it, it's just another weird thing to put on the album.

2. (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister 🟡

For some reason I cannot grasp this song - I've listened to the album a few times and this particular song twice today and I still don't remember what it sounds like.  A combination of Manchester accent and complete lack of singing ability means that the lyrics are pretty difficult to pick up on.  There's twee lyrics again, like "sugar spun sister, candy floss girl" but aside from that it's totally forgettable.

3. Made Of Stone 🔵
And we're back in single territory.  The production on this album is very flat but theoretically this has a big chorus moment.  I like this song, it's catchy at least and the chorus has actually stayed with me.  The guitar solo is soulful and just the right length. 

4. Shoot You Down 🔵
A drum fade-in, then bass, then a nice guitar sound and finally subdued vocals.  It's very 60s, but it's like they're all in different bands: Reni plays jazz drums, Mani adds a Motown bassline, John Squire's guitar part has an easy listening dreaminess to it, and Ian Brown is doing, well, whatever he does.  The band dropping out to have a vocal-only chorus line would sound really good with a competent singer but Brown just mumbles a line tunelessly and that almost ruins the whole thing.  The song teeters on the brink of train-wreck but somehow just manages to sound pleasant.  

5. This Is The One 🟢
The drop out from band to just bass in the intro is exciting.  This song plays with loud and quiet and I really like that, after the muddiness of some of the earlier songs.  The choruses are so quiet that you have to really focus to hear them but luckily they repeat it all louder for ages at the end so the hard of hearing don't miss out.  The band sound like they're having a good time playing this but the repeated "this is the one, this is the one" does get tiresome.  I'm not sure about the little bit of backwards action at the end either.

6. I Am The Resurrection 🟢
These drums mean business - we're gearing up for a big finish.  The vocals are more prominent in this song which might have been a production decision based on the fact that the band actually bothered to write some proper verses.  The structure is odd as they bait us with 3 verses before hitting us with the big chorus; it's cruel but it is a treat to finally get there so it pays off.  After that, though, is the almighty noodling - a loooong instrumental jam where the musicians show off all the skills that they could have brought to the last 10 songs, but mostly didn't.  The false ending midway through this jam is the second cruel trick played during this song.  
It's hard to rate I Am The Resurrection as it's two songs.  I really like the pop song first half, in fact it's one of the best songs on the album, but the jam session is among the most tedious parts so it drags the score down to 'average songs that I like' rather than 'good songs'.  

It surprises me how un-masculine this album sounds, knowing the Brexity beer garden lad fanbase that the band have.  The well-known tracks have become indie standards for a reason - they're the best that were around in the scene in 1989 and paved the way for Britpop or at least Noelrock (ugh).  As a whole though, this album is kind of patchy with some weird decisions in it.  Fools Gold came out 6 months later and knowing that they had the ability to make that indie/dance crossover record, it's interesting that there's none of that here and at this point they're a C86 band establishing their identity.  Do I think this deserves its status as one of the best albums of all time?  Not really.