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Rating: Second Coming is considered by many critics to be a poor album, perhaps because it's compared to the famous and successful debut album. The second album by the Stone Roses is instead a good album that can be appreciated slowly and not on the first listen. The "second to arrive".
The troubled history is well known, and the most ardent fans of the Stone Roses will surely know it. After the first album, the Stone Roses had legal problems and, overwhelmed by success, practically stopped playing, hiding this album in the basement for a couple of years. Then, they returned to the scene with a musical style "slightly" bent towards 70s rock, partly abandoning the typical sound of their beginnings.
The album. A stifled scream of guitar, noises, and the Stone Roses start with "Breaking into Heaven", with an introduction full of indescribable sounds, percussion, and distant guitar distortions for four and a half minutes of introduction that can be cataloged in a genre like trance (or, if you want, ambient), and then the real song starts. Guitar virtuosity by the great John Squire in this album, who takes up the lesson of the old Page (Led Zeppelin) and the now dead and very dead Hendrix. Ian "monkeyman" Brown, needless to say, here his singing is always more whispered using the usual poor modulation. In compensation, Squire's guitar and Reni's drums dominate in Second Coming. In "Driving South", "Good Times", "Tears", and "Love Spreads" there are excellent guitar riffs and they are an example of how in previous years Squire blasted the Led Zeppelin. "Good Times" is indeed one of those "dirty and nasty" blues that we can find in the first two Led albums, a minute-long intro that seems slow and painful then it explodes into an irresistible riff that will stick in your head for quite a while. In "Tears" again it reeks of Led Zeppelin, precisely of "Stairway to Heaven" (a song that I personally never liked much). Drummer Reni, on the other hand, had the opportunity to "enjoy" himself in "Daybreak". A definitely funky and frenzied piece in rhythm. An unreachable drum and a Hammond that joins as the song progresses. Squire gets lost in the notes giving life to a kind of very well-constructed jam session. There's also a bit of Psychedelia (can a pinch of psychedelia ever spoil any song, I wonder?) in "Ten Storey Love Song" which then benevolently ties to the aforementioned "Daybreak". Unfortunately, not all songs on the album are masterpieces, and there's a bit of negligence noticeable in pieces like "Your Star Will Shine" and "Tightrope" that, too distracted and repetitive, continue on a whim. A little gem of the album: the "Track 90" or "The Foz" (then you'll realize why "track 90"!) a sort of ghost track, noisy, disconnected, and unregulated for six and a half minutes. A mix of Country and Avant-garde, although, in reality, I think it's a nonsense improvised recording resulting quite nonsensical. In the end, it's not so bad, laughter is good, and I advise everyone to listen to the last 5 seconds of the track. Then let me know.
After this album, the Stone Roses completely dismantled. Ian Brown continued towards a solo career that still goes on humbly, John Squire formed his own band, which then didn't achieve much success, the Seahorses, and "Mani" the bassist then went on to play with Primal Scream. Even though afterward we had the chance to hear more material from the artists with "Garage Flowers" and the usual and predictable "The very best of".
Even if you didn't love the first album, you can listen to this one without any problems as long as you like the genre and the review satisfied you. Now I leave you to your thoughts and decisions. Until next time.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Daybreak (06:33)
This is the daybreak, and this is the love we make
For love us the law here, you've got to know how I love it, yeah
It's more than a mover, you know it takes off fast, or slow
Stone cold wild, bring the love in son, brother, man
True nature child, I think I'll sing it
For Atlanta Georgia, to Longsight Manchester
Everyone ready, so, so willing and able, yeah, yeah, yeah
For the love you make, g'no sis'
She willing to make ya, we all love makers ain't we?
Sister Rosa Lee Parks, lock forever her name in your heart
Forever in my heart
As I sing on this song, someone just got rolled on, hey
oh hey, yeah, wooh yeah
New York City, to Addis Ababababa
Keep on keeping strong, keep on keeping on
So why no stack for black on a radio station in this, the city?
Been going on so long, level on the line, I'm a leaf on the vine of time
Black bones are the original bones
And so this the whole wide world should know, y'all
I came to sing this song in your city
Ooh, for the dreamers
One more for the dreamers, yeah
07 Begging You (04:56)
The fly on the coachwheel told me that he got it
And he knew what to do with it, everybody saw it
Saw the dust that he made
King bee in a frenzy, ready to blow
Hot the horn good to go, wait-oh his sting's all gone
Now he's begging you, begging you
Here is a warning, the sky will divide
Since I took of the lid now there's nowhere to hide
Now I'm begging you, begging you
This is a mystery not to be solved,
But be minded, like minded, I'm gone, still I'm with you,
I'm begging you, begging you
Give it over, give it over
Give it over, give it over
Yeah I'm begging you, I'm begging you
Give it over, give it over
Give it over, give it over
Yeah I'm begging you, I'm begging you
Weigh it and say it, is it all in a name
Does it call you or maul you and drive you insane
Can it make you remember, time is a place
Now I'm begging you, begging you
The fly on the coachwheel told me that he got it
And he knew what to do with it, everybody saw it
Saw the dust that he made
Make all the dust that you can
Make all the dust that you can
King bee in a frenzy ready to blow
08 Tightrope (04:27)
You should have been an angel, it would of suited you
My gold-leafed, triptych angel, she knows just what to do
In the half light of morning, in our world between the sheets
I swear I saw her angel wing, my vision was complete
And I know I'll never want another lover, my sweet
Can there be more in this world than the joy of just watching you sleep?
I don't know just what to feel
Won't someone tell me my love's real?
Are we etched in stone or just scratched in the sand
Waiting for the waves to come and reclaim the land?
Will the sun shine all sweetness and light
Burn us to a cinder, our third stone satellite?
I'm on a tightrope, baby, nine miles high
Striding through the clouds, on my ribbon in the sky
I'm on a tightrope, baby, one thing I've found
I don't know how to stop, and it's a long, long, long
Long way down.
She's all that ever mattered, and all that ever will
My cup, it runneth over, I'll never get my fill
The boats in the harbour slip from their chains
Head for new horizons, let's do the same
I'm on a tightrope, baby, nine miles high
striding through the clouds, on my ribbon in the sky
I'm on a tightrope, baby, one thing I've found
I don't know how to stop
and it's a tightrope, baby, nine miles high
striding through the clouds, on my ribbon in the sky
I'm on a tightrope, baby, one thing I've found
I don't know how to stop, and it's a long, long, long
Long way down
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