The Stone Roses : 'One Love' & 'Made of Stone'

Re-released: Out Now!!!

Before we get cracking on this review, I think it’s fair that I tell you something, a caveat. If you want coolly objective, disinterested opinion then you are probably in the wrong place.  Songs from this band have soundtracked some of the very best moments of my life, and because of this and their obvious excellence, The Stone Roses take their place in the “Unimpeachable Legends” pantheon, alongside Oasis, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones (among selected others). I don’t say this to put you off, just don’t expect me not to worship them, because it won’t happen – still with me? Good, then we’ll continue…

In case you don’t know or realise why I have expressed such devotion above, allow me to fill you in on the Roses (“you feckless heathen philistine” I nearly typed then - good job I didn’t). The Stone Roses were formed in Manchester in 1984 and began as a straight up rock n roll band. However, by absorbing the more gentle and melodic influences of those around them, as well as melding their sound with elements of the nascent rave scene, they produced unique music quite unlike anything that had come before. Combining spirally, shoegazey guitar lines with a funky rhythm section, and with the husky delivery of their singer, they took the masses by storm. It was indie music you could dance to, if you so wished.

After more personnel changes than a schizophrenic one-man band, the most recognisable line-up the band fronted finally consisted of Gary “Mani” Mountfield, an amiable party-mad nutcase, on bass; Ian Brown, King Monkey, he of the whispered northern vocal on the mic; John Squire, who made the quiet guitar hero cool again and, finally, Alan “Reni” Wren behind the kit. All of these men are of superlative musical ability, but allow me to fulminate on one thing here, a bugbear that has annoyed me for all 23 of my years and the millions before it where my soul hovered as an amorphous moaning mass in the metaphysical limbo of purgatory. The subject of my annoyance is that Reni is not particularly recognised for his utter brilliance; in fact, he must be THE most underrated musician ever. Setting aside his preternatural talent for drums, of which one person opined “…Reni could play the drum like Hendrix played the guitar”, Reni was also a more-than-adept  guitar player and a fantastic vocalist, providing a lot of the harmony to Brown’s scratchy intonation. And that’s what really grinds my gears, Tom…

Anywho, the Roses released two albums, the better-than-an-orgy-with-Lily-Allen-Scarlett-Johannsson-and-Emma-Rigby, eponymously-titled debut The Stone Roses, and the much maligned Second Coming, an LP that I actually think is pretty good. The group disbanded shortly after the second album, with legal issues and problems within the band breaking them apart. There have recently been calls for the group to reform, rebuffed in effortlessly cool style by Squire using one of his artworks. Even though I love The Stone Roses from the pit of my dark heart, I really don’t want them back together – they were of a time, and this story was meant to be. In recent history,  and due to the 20th anniversary of the peerless Stone Roses being released encroaching, their singles are being re-released in the run-up to the re-issue of the album later on this month, and hence this article.

As you can probably imagine, bursting from my fingertips is a 100,000 word open love-letter to this band, endlessly critiquing everything they ever did but, luckily for you, I’ve only been given two singles to cast my tendentious, thoroughly biased eye over. First is “One Love”, a single released independent of an album in 1990, when I was 5 (?!). One Love is, well, distinctly ok, not really shining in any particular direction, but always recognisably a Roses song. The song seems to try and incorporate too many things; as Brown put it, “The chorus wasn't strong enough. We tried for an anthem. We wanted to cover all bases and ended up covering none.”

Flipping the CD, the B-side is “Something’s Burning”, a subtle, creeping tune replete with licks by Squire’s jazzy guitar that bring to mind a Cocker Spaniel lapping a dropped ice-cream off a hot pavement; namely, with skill, technique and seduction. The whole single package together is just average, but the next single I have is a masterpiece, and one of what must be very few songs that reference errant genius Jackson Pollock (have THAT fact fans).

"Made of Stone" is a work of epic excellence, a song that rises and falls like a bittersweet sea, Brown giving a great performance and the drums banging the song to ever higher levels. Listening to this song is a bit like eating a spoon of Marmite whilst drowning in a vat of honey, at once uplifting and soaring, but with a dark undercurrent. Squire himself said that the song was about “… making a wish and watching it happen. Like scoring a goal in a Cup final...on a Harley Electroglide...dressed as Spiderman" This song pretty much gave the Roses their breakthrough, and is lyrically and aurally superb.

Supporting this, excitingly for fellatio fans, is "Going Down", a song cut from the same cloth as "Sally Cinnamon" or "(Song for my) Sugar Spun Sister", a short, sharp dose of sugar-drenched pop, propelled along by a thick bass line which anchors the melody. For me, it was and is good enough for an A-side, but there you go.

So, in short, “One Love” is so-so, whereas "Made of Stone" (and its B-side) is essential listening. As a final point, if you haven’t got The Stone Roses, what is wrong with you? Get it, as soon as possible, you have no idea what you’ve missed. Go on, get it now, nothing will be going on here whilst you’re gone…

And thus ends the lesson.

Words: Paul Madill

Other Stone Roses Reviews...

'Elephant Stone'

http://4ortherecord.com/The-Stone-Roses-Elephant-Stone-Re-Release.html

'Fools Gold'

http://4ortherecord.com/The-Stone-Roses-Fools-Gold-Re-release.html

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