The Stone Roses burst onto the music scene in the late 1980s/early 1990s like a supernova and faded just as fast. What they left behind is an debut album which is widely regarded as one of the best of all time.
The original line up of Ian Brown (vocals), John Squire (lead guitar), Mani (bass) and Reni (drums) formed in 1983, and recorded their debut album in 1989. Eponymously titled, it undeservedly reached number 32 in the charts. However, since the Roses influence on bands that succeeded them and their split in 1996, it has been rightly held up as legendary. The band were totally self assured, declaring themselves "the best band in the world", and listening to their music, it's hard not to agree.
The British music scene was in a state of transition when The Stone Roses was released - club and rave culture was on the rise, fueled by the drugs of choice, ecstasy and acid. Centered in Manchester, the movement of young bands fusing dance music with traditional indie rock was quickly christened "Madchester" or more widely "baggy" due to the size of the trousers many of the bands prefered!
But back to the Roses. The album itself is as near to perfect as an album can be. The opening track I Wanna Be Adored is otherwordly, blooming from the sinister sounding bassline to an intimidating wall of sound that makes you yield to Brown's pleas to adore him. The pace soon changes with the thrilling She Bangs The Drums, which, suitably enough, is driven by a pounding drum beat. On Waterfall, the music trickles along mimicking the flow of water - relaxing yet stirring.
It's no exaggeration to say every single song on this album is worth its weight in gold (or drugs maybe). Throughout the rest of the album, the mood see-saws between menacing anti-Royalist interludes (Elizabeth My Dear) and a hypnotic journey through Manchester (Made Of Stone). By the time Brown swings into closing track I Am The Resurrection, asserting his superiority over every single one of us, you really believe it.
What stands out is not just the perfect instrumental parts (every musician in the band is one of the best of their kinds in my opinion), but the lyrics. The imagery deals purely in psychedelic fairytale -of 'cotton clouds' 'candyfloss' 'sugar' and the memorable image of the "sky turns green, the grass is several shades of blue" (Song For My Sugar Spun Sister). Yet it never sounds flowery or vague - it's always grounded in a sense of urban life, especially given the context of acid culture. More blissful ignorance than grim reality.
The release of the album kickstarted the Madchester movement, which consequently gave rise to fantastic bands such as the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream (whose seminal album Screamadelica is another acid house classic of the early 90s). The Roses huge open air gig at Spike Island in 1990 where they played to 27,000 people was the zenith of their popularity and is widely regarded as the high watermark of the whole baggy movement they started. It seemed like they couldn't get any higher.
And it was true. By the early 90s, the band were tied to their record company, not allowed to record or play gigs at all. The music press were up in arms - after the momentum with which the Roses had appeared, suddenly they disappeared for years. They returned with distinctly average second album Second Coming in 1995, but the spark was gone. In the time they had been away, the Britpop movement had exploded and they were symbolically killed off when Pulp replaced them in their cancelled headline slot at Glastonbury 1995. The group fractured, and were dissolved by Brown the following year.
The Stone Roses are now the byword for bands that promise so much yet deliver so little. There's no doubt their debut will continue to linger near the top of countless Best Albums lists, and no one will ever know if they could have strung out the kind of magic within that album. Sometimes it's best to keep things short and sweet.
NB: As well as the aforementioned albums, I would also recommend bside compilation Made Of Stone. The Roses are one of the rare bands whose bsides stand up just as well as their album material, especially Fools Gold and What The World Is Waiting For.