The Stone Roses - Debut Album Review
- Mar 16
- 4 min read
One of history’s most iconic albums and a cornerstone of various genres, there isn’t much to say about The Stone Roses that hasn’t already been said before. The story of this band has been covered a million times over, and it is a real shame that they were never able to match the peak they hit in 1989, but just this album was enough to change the course of British music forever.
Without this album, along with help from The Beatles and The La’s to name a few, there would be no Oasis and no Britpop explosion – you can also thank them for pioneering the Madchester scene, but again, bands like Inspiral Carpets and Happy Mondays gave a helping hand too.
Artist(s) | The Stone Roses |
Release Date | 13th March 1989 |
Genre | Indie/Madchester |
Rating | 9.5/10 |
The album starts with ‘I Wanna Be Adored’, arguably the band’s biggest hit and for good reason. A slow build-up meets with a powerful bassline before the unmistakable guitar riff kicks in which becomes the driving force behind a ballad of yearning. Ian Brown’s vocals are often subject to criticism, but the imperfections in his voice, especially in this song, add to the charm and improvisational, unpolished feel of The Stone Roses.
Next is ‘She Bangs the Drums’ which builds in one instrument at a time (similar to Just Like Heaven by The Cure in this regard) and gives every band member their chance to leave their imprint on the song. Reni’s cymbals, Mani’s bass and John Squire’s iconic guitar all have their time to shine before Brown sees the song over the line to being one of their best.
Following on is ‘Waterfall’, a song with an undeniably Mancunian feel largely due to its iconic riff (you might be starting to spot a theme of ‘iconic’ riffs and basslines here) and is, yet again, one of the band’s most famous songs. Having back-to-back-to-back hits to open an album begs for the next song to be less of a hit, and that is exactly what ‘Don’t Stop’ realises. Bizarrely, the Roses decided the fourth spot on their album should go to Waterfall, but played backwards with new lyrics sung over it. I’m sure there is some sort of artistic decision behind it, but it’s one that usually gets skipped when giving the album a listen.
The album’s fifth song, ‘Bye Bye Bad Man’, is about the French student riots of 1968, which also happens to be the inspiration behind the album cover, designed by Squire, and the use of the lemon as the band’s symbol; lemons were used as an antidote to the tear gas deployed by the police, thus the “citrus-sucking sunshine” that is mentioned in the song.
‘Elizabeth My Dear’ follows and is short and sweet, only clocking in at 52 seconds long with an acoustic, almost renaissance feeling to it as Brown provides his softest vocal performance yet. Next up is ‘(Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister’, a song with a meaning that sparks debate amongst fans, but the general consensus is that it is from the perspective of a boy in love with a girl who sells candy floss at the fair, even though she hates her job – that’s nice, isn’t it.
Another of the band’s biggest hits follow with ‘Made of Stone’ which has a significantly more gruesome meaning than its predecessor. The song is written about Jackson Pollock’s car crash that resulted in the artist’s death, and it’s also worth noting that he inspired Squire’s artwork for the album cover. The ninth song of the album is ‘Shoot You Down’ which discusses the regret of a man entering a relationship and how he wishes he had turned her down before – not quite as nice as Sugar Spun Sister.
As we enter the album’s final songs, we are met with ‘This Is The One’, a song most known for being Manchester United’s walk-out anthem. The band are well-documented fans of the club and have built a close relationship with them since, which has seen many United fans adopt the Roses’ music and the culture behind them.
The final two songs come out to a total of 17.5 minutes but are still worth taking in every second as the punchy guitar anthem ‘I Am The Resurrection’ gives us 493 seconds of pure John Squire – what more could you want? The album has a fitting close with ‘Fools Gold’ which, if played in any pub across the country, would get at least 80% of the place discussing what a great song it is. Squire and Reni complement each other perfectly for the whole 9 minutes 54 seconds that the track continues for and has gone down as one of the most iconic bass/guitar combos of all time.
There’s no question why The Stone Roses had such an outstanding cultural impact, with an album of individual masterpieces from each band member from start to finish to build a cult following. They’re one of those bands that, even if you aren’t particularly aware of them, you’d definitely have heard a few tracks off this album and would instantly recognise them.
As far as rating goes, there’s not many that even get close to reaching a 10/10, but this one is agonisingly close. Only let down by Don’t Stop, the album is almost a ‘no-skip’ piece of art, though perhaps I’m failing to acknowledge the artistic vision behind the backwards Waterfall. If I’m completely blind to what the song offers, then please let me know how wrong I am in the comments. 9.5/10
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