The Stone Roses - The Very Best Of The Stone Roses (CD 2004)

at last a compliation that does this seminal band justice.

what sets this compliation apart from the botched atempts before are the tracks are compiled in a thoughtful chronological order , the full 9 minute 'fool's gold' is left intact for the first time and the band member actually contributed their opinion to what material should be included.

so here we have it , a 78 1/2 minute length CD heavy with tracks from their debut album 'the stone roses' (by far the best and totally sublime) and few tracks cherry picked from their troubled second album 'second coming' (a critical failure but still a majestic piece but couldnt live up to the album before it).

compliation opener is 'i wanna be adored' which was the opener on their debut album and what a start to a career ! a menacing soundscape builds before the golden teardrops of manni's bass slide in and squire's almost oriental guitar notes roll sumptuously over the top , but the best is yet to come , renni's snare at 1min 9 seconds signals the launch of a song too glorious for words.

the album keeps up momentum with classic tracks such as 'she bangs the drum' , 'ten storey love song' , 'waterfall etc' .
my personal fave is 'made of stone', this was the song that got the critics to take them seriously as a band , the soaring chorus is tremendous !

it would be fair to say that ian brown's vocals are akin to someone shouting into a bucket.
at the time , just before they made it big , i remember a newspaper journo hyping them as the world's coolest band with the world's lousiest vocalist. this may be true , but the roses are the greatest and most crucial band of the last 30 years. the britpop explosion is entirely their legacy and a certain mancunian with a unibrow made a career out of apeing king monkey.
ian brown is no silver chorded crooner but it all works to monumental effect. sir ian has a style and swagger that is unmatched , he pushed that band forward and squire , a guitar genius , stoked the engines of the roses.

whack on track 9 'fool's gold' and hear the boys get their groove on . its FUNK DELUX. manni's bass is pure funk gold.

and renni conjurs up a storm on the drums , turn up the vol on track 11 'elephant stone' and hear thor the thundergod at work.

it was a great tragedy that the roses imploded soon after 'second coming'. but it could never live up to their debut album and a dreadful recording contract with silvertone saw the boys out of the recording studio for far too long and created animosity between the members. the momentum created by the first album was gone by the time second coming was on the shelves. in 1989 the stone roses were the centre of the pop universe , by 1994 they were just another band.

this compliation gives us a fantastic retrospect into an amazing cultural force , perhaps at the time they were too lively and sublime to be fully comprehended and as such disappeared into a dream.

it still sounds as fresh and superior today as it did in 1989 , its just ashame by 1994 they decided to champion a led zep sound. blame squire for that , he dominates the second album with too many coke fuelled , self indulgent guitar riffs.

I brought the item for a friend as she does not have an ebay account yet! She said the item worked perfectly no problems at all. And also she added...say thank you her partner was really happy. Thanks again for the item and all your help with the delivery.

brilliant hits, from older ones to new, can recommend, shame they did,nt have more songs, great band

AWESOME, A MUST PURCHASE FOR THE ROSES FANS!


Be descriptive. Describe why you feel a certain way.
Feel free to mention how this product rates in comparison to others.
Write clearly. Use proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar.
Things to avoid:
Off-topic comments.
Inappropriate remarks or profanity.
Contact information such as your phone number, address, etc.
Links outside of eBay or HTML.
eBay reserves the right to remove any review that doesn't comply with eBay's policy.

The item was well described and was dispatch very quickly, I recommend this seller. Well recommended

Paid for but never got this CD and then got a strike against my name.......................................................................................................

This was a very easy [and cheap] purchase,i could NEVER have bought this item in any shop any cheaper[and that includes the postage and packing].I love The Stone Roses and there are hundreds of their items for sale on e-bay.After the purchase,the ''seller'' gave me excellent ''feedback'' aswell which is always nice and helps with future purchases.

Just some absolutely top tunes. I got this cd and was delighted with it, Ten Storey Love Song is an anthem and What the World Is Waiting For too is brilliant,not to mention just about every track on here is worth listening to so the album should be enjoyable for a long time.