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Rating: How strange... releasing a highly successful debut album and then... waiting five years for the follow-up and dissolving shortly after.
Indeed strange for the band that was considered the greatest promise of the English-speaking world in the '90s. A quartet from Manchester, or rather Madchester, the Stone Roses debuted in 1989. They immediately established themselves as the most important group of the first post-Smiths era, thanks to an indie rock contaminated by electronics and jungle rhythms.
They seemed perfect, with a charismatic leader like Jan Brown, a very talented Jon Squire, and a rhythm section with an enviable groove; but something went wrong already during the five-year wait for Second Coming. The follow-up to the successful debut did not meet expectations; that's the problem, the wait was too long because, in the meantime, Blur, Oasis, and many others had already exploded.
Train missed, forever.
Two albums under their belt and a handful of B-sides... and two best!
15 songs in this compilation dated 2002, six years after the official split of the band during which Ian Brown released a couple of albums under his name.
Yet that Fools Gold from 1989 still sounds fresh and danceable today. Great track, with high potential, pure innovation for the time. There are also the Madchester sound portraits like I Wanna Be Adored, which, as it opened Stone Roses, welcomes the compilation: this was the nocturnal vision that contrasted with those jokers, the Charlatans...
Still chills on Made Of Stone, revealing the Smithsian legacy (they had just broken up): a slightly dark melody but ultimately reassuring.
The first album was truly a goldmine of singles: there are also She Bangs The Drums and Waterfall, which is the melodic sister of Ten Storey Love Song. There's clearly also Love Spread, an episode with an excellent rhythmic groove, a very fertile ground for Squire's guitar... in short, many little episodes to rediscover or to get to know, such as some previously unreleased recordings from '87-88.
Not the best band in the world, perhaps the greatest promise of all time.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 I Wanna Be Adored (04:52)
I don't have to sell my soul
He's already in me
I don't need to sell my soul
He's already in me
I wanna be adored
I wanna be adored
I don't have to sell my soul
He's already in me
I don't need to sell my soul
He's already in me
I wanna be adored
I wanna be adored
Adored
I wanna be adored
You adore me
You adore me
You adore me
I wanna
I wanna
I wanna be adored
I wanna
I wanna
I wanna be adored
I wanna
I wanna
I wanna be adored
I wanna
I wanna
I gotta be adored
I wanna be adored
04 Waterfall (04:39)
Chimes sing Sunday morn
Today's the day she's sworn
To steal what she never could own
And race from this hole she calls home
Now you're at the wheel
Tell me how, how does it feel?
So good to have equalised
To lift up the lids of your eyes
As the miles they disappear
See land begin to clear
Free from the filth and the scum
This American satellite's won
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
See the steeple pine
The hills as old as time
Soon to be put to the test
To be whipped by the winds of the west
Stands on shifting sands
The scales held in her hands
The wind it just whips her and wails
And fills up her brigantine sails
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
She'll carry on through it all
She's a waterfall
08 Sally Cinnamon (03:25)
Until Sally I was never happy
I needed so much more
Rain clouds oh, they used to chase me
Down they would pour
Join my tears
Allay my fears
Sent to me from heaven
Sally Cinnamon you're my world
Pop, pop, pop, blow, blow bubble gum
You taste of cherryade
There is something hey you must show me
From what you are made
Sugar and spice
And all things nice
Sent to me from heaven
Sally Cinnamon you're my world
You are my world
Your eyes are gazing back
From every little piece of glass
You seem to smile from every blade
Sally Cinnamon you are my world
Then I put the letter back
In the place where it was found
In the pocket of a jacket
On a train in town
Sent to her from heaven
Sally Cinnamon you're her world
09 Fools Gold (09:54)
The gold road's sure a long road
Winds on through the hills for fifteen days
The pack on my back is aching
The straps seem to cut me like a knife
The gold road's sure a long road
Winds on through the hills for fifteen days
The pack on my back is aching
The straps seem to cut me like a knife
I'm no clown I won't back down
I don't need you to tell me what's going down
Down down down down da down down down
Down down down down da down down down
I'm standing alone
I'm watching you all
I'm seeing you sinking
I'm standing alone
You're weighing the gold
I'm watching you sinking
Fool's gold
These boots were made for walking
The Marquis de Sade don't wear no boots like these
Gold's just around the corner
Breakdown's coming up round the bend
Sometimes you have to try to get along dear
I know the truth and I know what you're thinking
Down down down down da down down down
I'm standing alone
I'm watching you all
I'm seeing you sinking
I'm standing alone
You're weighing the gold
I'm watching you sinking
Fool's gold
Fool's gold
I'm standing alone
I'm watching you all
I'm seeing you sinking
I'm standing alone
You're weighing the gold
I'm watching you sinking
Fool's gold
10 Begging You (04:53)
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
15 I Am the Resurrection (08:13)
Down, down, you bring me down
I hear you knocking down my door
And I can't sleep at night.
Your face it has no place
No room for you inside my house
I need to be alone.
Don't waste your words I don't need anything from you,
I don't care where you've been or what you plan to do.
Turn, turn, I wish you'd learn
There's a time and place for everything
I've got to get it through.
Cut loose 'cause you're no use
I couldn't stand another
Second in your company.
Don't waste your words I don't need anything from you,
I don't care where you've been or what you plan to do.
Stone me why can't you see
You're a no one nowhere washed up baby
Who'd look better dead.
Your tongue is far too long
I don't like the way it sucks and
Slurs upon my every word.
Don't waste your words I don't need anything from you,
I don't care where you've been or what you plan to do.
I am the resurrection and I am the life,
I couldn't ever bring myself to hate you as I'd like.
I am the resurrection and I am the life,
I couldn't ever bring myself to hate you as I'd like.
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By Rivo
In the case of the Stone Roses, it becomes at least paradoxical: a band that in 10 years of activity has made a mere 2 albums (albeit magnificent) and then disappeared into nothingness, swallowed by an endless series of compilations, B-Sides and remixes—on what grounds can they make a best of?
YOU MUST MAKE THE EFFORT TO BUY ALL THE RECORDS, SINCE THEY ARE ONLY 2!!!!!! To hell with the greatest hits!
