Album: The Stone Roses
Artist: The Stone Roses
Release Date: May 2, 1989
Genre: Alternative Rock
Length: 0:49:02 (UK Release)
0:58:55 (US Release
Label: Silvertone Records
Producer: John Leckie (Peter Hook for "Elephant Stone")
Rolling Stone Top 500 (2012): #498
Rolling Stone Top 500 (2020): #319
1,001 Album Book: Yes
The Stone Roses = Pink Floyd + France + Three Lemons
Manchester based band, The Stone Roses, with their debut and arguably, best album. After finding little success with the singles released, the group eventually paired with producer John Leckie, best known for working on Meddle by Pink Floyd. Like Pink Floyd in the beginning, this album was not a must-buy but thanks to the combination of the music with the legendary live shows, the album continued to gain fame and recognition. The album is certified 4x Platinum in the UK and has over four million copies sold around the world.
If you combined The Smiths, The Beatles, Jazz, Pink Floyd, The Byrds, and some other 1960 rock groups like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and threw them all in a blender, out comes The Stone Roses. From the underlying power of the bass by Mani, the infectious drumming from Reni, the angry, yet beautifully melodic guitar playing by John Squire, and the soothingly hallow voice produced by lead singer, Ian Brown, the four of them combine perfectly on every song. The chemistry between the members is shown greatly in "She Bangs the Drums". The hi-hat intro, followed by the driving force of the bass provides the listener with a beautiful tension that is blissfully released when the guitar comes in. Contrary to the high energy in "She Bangs the Drums", The Stone Roses showcase that they have the ability to perfectly execute a completely different, almost angelic like feel in "Shoot You Down". The random melodic licks of guitar from Squire along with the sporadic playing of the drums almost gives some songs an improvisation element that is rare to find because many groups get caught in the "success formula" set forth by record companies.
I absolutely love this album. Every song is very distinctly The Stone Roses, but still strays away from capturing a sound that is repetitive. The songs may have similar elements but overall, each song gives the listener something new to bring to pleasure their ear drums. One of these elements I noticed throughout the album is the large amount of reverb. While this isn't detrimental to the album overall, and it almost ADDS to the feel, I personally think it could be toned down a bit. Some songs such as "This Is the One" have large sections where all the band members kick their playing into overdrive and the vocals on top of that with the reverb starts to sound a little muddy. While this doesn't change how great the album is, it does make it hard to listen to the album on repeat without taking a break. Like I said though, this muddiness almost makes the album better and adds to the early grunge-like quality of their debut. One of the most notable things about this album is the vast amount of groups that were inspired directly by this or by the genre created from this album in "madchester". Just off the top of my head I can think of The White Stripes, Nirvana, and Oasis just to name a few that so obviously found inspiration in the album. I believe The Stone Roses to be highly underrated and it's definitely a hidden beauty that paved the way for countless artists, and that is enough of a reason to jam to it in your car on the way to get your sixth COVID-19 test since March.
Favorite Song: "She Bangs the Drums" Least Favorite Song: No bad songs in my opinion Production Quality:
Mix = 8/10
Innovation = 6/10
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 9/10
Lyricism = 7/10
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 9/10
Instrumental Timbre = 9/10
Group Chemistry = 10/10
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 10/10
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at the "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!