The Band’s Beginnings
The Stone Roses formed in 1984 in Manchester, England. They originally consisted of singer Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire, and drummer Alan “Reni” Wren. They “didn’t really get going until bassist Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield joined three years later.” TB Their first singles, 1988’s “Elephant Stone” and 1989’s “Made of Stone,” didn’t chart, “but generated high expectations among British tastemakers and trendsetters.” TB
The Stone Roses’ Influence
At the time, “British youth were abandoning rock music en masse for acid-house sounds and communal raves” BN “and the charts were looking less than healthy.” AD “The notion of mingling elements of rock with rave culture was outlandish,” TM but the Stone Roses managed to bring “dance music to an audience…previously obsessed with droning guitars.” AM They “almost single-handedly made British rock music hip again.” BN
Other bands “began pursuing the idea in earnest,” TM which “ushered in the era of Madchester,” AZ “an indie rock phenomenon that fused guitar-pop with drug-fueled rave and dance culture.” AM None of the Stone Roses’ imitators, however, “quite equaled the crazed confluence of wiggly grooves, pinging guitars, and blissed-out vocals that distinguish this album.” TM
What made the album distinct from its electronica predecessors was that while “deeply influenced by acid house and other styles, it didn’t simply sample existing material. Instead, it sought to re-create the hypnotic beat in a rock context.” TM “Pop hooks [are] one thing, and dance rhythms [are] another, but it’s also important to have dat swing, you know, and the band has it.” GS
The Birth of Britpop
Through “classic psychedelia married with punk energy and rave swagger” BN, the Roses established themselves as “postmodern English, filtering folk-rock romanticism through Joy Division and Jesus and Mary Chain hyperromanticism.” RC The Stone Roses wasn’t just significant in introducing the dance-meets-rock Madchester scene, but “gave birth to an entire genre – Brit-pop.” TL “The Charlatans and Happy Mondays through to Blur, Oasis, and the Verve have scored U.K. hits owing a debut to the Stone Roses’ sound.” TB
The band “cast a long shadow over much of the guitar-based music of the 1990s” TB influencing “shoegazer bands like My Bloody Valentine” RV and even serving as “a definite precursor of grunge.” JA
The Album’s Influence Beyond Britpop and Grunge
The album “creates its own world and atmosphere whilst simultaneously reminding you of almost every great sixties English group.” AD It has “the lyrical sensibilities of John Lennon and Joe Strummer, mixes in Motown rhythms, adds a dash of Sex Pistols and tops it off with a purple haze of instrumentation and production reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix.” RV “The vocal melodies are well-written and sound fresh, sincere, and inspiring. And happy, too: this is one hell of a cheerful, optimistic record.” GS “Only The Beatles ever dared exhaust so many good tunes in the space of an hour.” IB Ultimately, the album is “a crystallization of everything there is to love about the last 40 years of pop music.” RV “Only the Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead comes close in terms of importance and influence among British guitar-based music.” TB
The Band
Frontman Ian Brown revived “the concept of classic pop songwriting.” AM “Quietly melodic” PK “prime ‘sixties’ harmonies” AD “owe far more to, say, Simon & Garfunkel than to New Order.” PK The lyrics “flicked at epic romance…without veering into sentimentality.” TL
Guitarist John Squire establishes himself as “a new hero for a new age,” AZ deftly heading into the world of “guitar heroism without the attendant pomp and egomania.” IB His “playing is endlessly inventive but never overwhelms the songs.” IB His “layers of simple, exceedingly catchy hooks” AM are “a thing of magic,” AZ “recalling the British Invasion while suggesting the future with their phased, echoey effects.” AM He “lingered over chords like the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn.” TL
Drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren “translated the relentless pulse of house into vital, breathing, human grooves.” TM His “galloping, hiphop-influenced beats [are] a sonic infusion that became a fixture of ‘90s alt rock.” JA Along with bassist ‘Mani’ Mounfield, the two “shift from charging beat-pop to fluid funkadelic grooves, sometimes in the space of a single song.” IB They “always imply dance rhythms without overtly going into the disco,” AM establishing themselves as “one of the tightest British rhythm sections of the time.” GS “This is as good as guitars, bass and drums can sound together, and if you don’t get it, you probably have some disease that keeps you from liking music.” IB
Conclusion
The band would never find a way to equal their debut. With their fame came subsequent legal battles to move from independent status to a major label. They eventually signed with Geffen and, five years after their debut, “reemerged…with the stodgy and wrongly titled Second Coming. The Stone Roses, however, remains a stellar contribution to the canon of classic debuts.” BN It is “one of the finest records of the past 30 years.” CL “Some albums really can change the world, and in 1989 this was one of them.” AZ
Notes
There are versions of the album which include the singles “Elephant Stone” and “Fools Gold.”
The Songs
Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.
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