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The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses  The attempt to create a scene out of a geographical area makes for a quick and easy label for the popular music press. While both groups were inhabitants of Manchester, the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses were never particularly close, it was more the case of a provincial centre creating music in its own image, a dirty mishmash of influences. If you'd like to be facetious you could say it was a reaction to the economic displacement of the 1980's in Britain. Just as Thatcherism created the background to Neville Brody's angular graphic design in The Face, it also created the swirl of emotion.
This album has a more raw sound than what we usually associate with the eighties, and it isn't a revolutionary album, there was no expectation surrounding it. Perhaps it shook up British life because it was so casual and unrestrained. Listening to it, it has aged well from 1989. This is unlike, say, the Dire Strait's album, Brothers in Arms, with its dated eighties sheen or the way nu-metal already defines the early noughties with its useless screaming.
In Britain certainly, this is a classic album; but does it 'translate' into the broader English-speaking world? The legend is certainly tempting, but if you haven't heard of this album then you haven't heard of the hype surrounding the band and their subsequent fall from grace. In the eyes of the British public this is the highlight before the hubris mounted up like piles of cocaine.
If the 1980's in Britain represented irony and distance; supposedly, this album was the antithesis. The album has a melancholy undertone to it that doesn't overpower the ears. Where Britpop bands such as Blur, Pulp or Oasis had a snarl or a curl of the lip to them, this album feels far more like a haze of real emotions.
If you were looking for easy equivalents you could mention the Verve's Urban Hymns; the production certainly resembles it. The shoegazer elements are certainly here, but they are controlled by the feeling of melody. It's a jaunty album that isn't afraid to be shambolic Pop. Certainly, Ian Brown's voice isn't perfect, it jumps hurdles instead of smoothly running along, but it's not a lazy voice as some have described it. Within his limits it's also soulful and earnest.
It's the soul within this album that fuses it together; where the Second Coming turned out like curdled milk with its traditional rock emphasis. It's an uncaring aural swagger that combines with roughness and distortion. The layers present in the songs create a slow subtle album that takes time to spread throughout your mind.
A song such as She bangs the Drums is a lover's ballad as opposed to the self-conscious sexual fumbling or cocksure sneer that was current in the 1980's. The innocence that pervades the whole album is palpable and it makes the listening experience a form of bliss.
After Pavement it appears as if the indie paradigm was to make things as obscure as possible, and bands such as Modest Mouse have followed this formula to excess. Pop isn't a dirty word here, and if there is arrogance, it's of cosmic proportions in songs such as I Wanna be Adored and I am the Resurrection.
The pure, overarching silliness of these songs act as a counterbalance to any messianic overtones. It's the Stone Roses taking the piss out of themselves, rather than any attempt at greatness.
Because of this, it is a confident album, it takes risks and a lot of the difference stems from the technical advances. Don't Stop reverses Waterfall and swirls it around. If the lyrics here are nonsensical then they are the nonsense from dark fairytales, not the result of conscious attempts at surrealism. Compared to the Happy Mondays then the claims of dance influence are not really convincing, but the looseness of the sound is evident.
The Stone Roses is a melodic album with a feeling of funk. You could easily say the same about the Coral or The Zutons today. However, on this album the influences aren't so obvious as these modern bands. This broader mixture of influences is what defined the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, they didn't betray the retro virus we've had to endure recently. It isn't Sly or Kool and the Gang style funk; it's just an influence amidst many others. The album is typified by a quiet intensity. Squire's guitar-work moves with regular flourishes and he doesn't shy away from guitar solos.
Finally, I Am The Resurrection, begins with drums in rigid succession; after having heard the ethereal This is The One, this static drum-beat comes like a wake-up call. Yet, as the song ends another sequence begins; suddenly it seems that Squire's guitar is possessed and starts acting up in a jam session that is an intense and fitting denouement to the album.
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