Is the Stone Roses debut really as good as is claimed?

I think the utterly snoozeworthy middle section completely knocks this album out of contention for classic status. I really like it up through "Don't Stop", then I skip ahead to "I Am The Resurrection".

One thing about "Fool's Gold" that I think is cool is how it's based on a 10-beat drum loop. You get these weird phase shifts in where the strong beats of the loop fall because the song itself is in strict 4/4 over it. Lovely stuff, IMO.

And if I haven't mentioned it, the Seahorses were stank.

Anyhow, here's a question: the topic of the Seahorses tainting Squires legacy has come up a few times, but what of those of us who thought he was crap before the Seahorses?

A: Heard "Second Coming" first.

B: Heard "The Stone Roses" first in about 1995. By that time, the onslaught of Squire imitators (read: Oasis and their ilk) was so deafening that even the "real thing" might not be discernable from the din. By that time, even I had tuned out my ears to it.

But anyway, Stone Roses first album. I remember hearing it for the first time, soon after it came out, when my music scene was drowning in a sea of goth-industrio-techno-bollocks and it really did just shock and amaze me. How could something so simple be so amazing, and something to retro be so fresh?

Melodically and harmonically, it's beautiful, the guitarwork is perfectly balanced between naive psychedelic haze and blazing technique (clearly, Squire went well off the wrong end of that balance later) but it is simply the amazing BASS on that album that renders it forever a total CLASSIC.

The cult of the Stone Roses, Madchester, the next album and the collection awfulness of the solo output, the whole Manchester Oasis Britshit that followed... none of this can taint the fresh, startling effect that hearing that album for the first time had on me. Och, you just had to be there. Reading about it must be like seeing a butterfly preserved in a formaldehyde jar and wondering what the hype was about.

I'll agree on the bass, by the way. But surely the way the bass sounds is tantamount to the album being seen in some quarters as 'goth bollocks,' including the members themselves. ;-)

I mean, I can sit here and assume all people who are propping John Squire are idiots who are unfamiliar with X, Y, and Z but it wouldn't necessarily be true, and I doubt you'd like it if I said it.

C: Your ears are "made of stone". (Hahahahahaa.... sorry, I couldn't resist! ;)

I love the way the record has started appearing in lists of the top ten albums of all time; it's like a victory for my generation over the boomers.

And keep in mind I actually like the album. ;-)

MELODY MAKER touted roses as incorporating there love of ACiEED (the music ) with guitars - so i bought it - IPC you owe me !

mind they also said the beyond were the future of rock - 'cubist metal' where iz you now ?

You lot are a waste of bandwidth.

Roses rule.

Fuck off.

In one word ...... YES!!!!!!

Seriously though, I still think it is a good album and it would be in my top 100 but fairly far down.

Personal favourite - Sugar Spun Sister. Is this part of the weak middle that many of you are talking about?

Sorry to detract away from the subject of the board, but I just thought I'd ask.

-Punks, you gotta ask yourself a question - have u even been to madchester??

Okay, I like "Fool's Gold" a lot, but the above phrase would never occur to me when describing it unless I was saying something like "I really like 'Fool's Gold', even though it does have innovative and original chords."

Does that mean that, like him, you are currently wandering around stinky, unshaven and in desperate need of lying down and doing nothing for a good long while?

So, to answer the question--no, probably not as good as claimed, but still worth a listen.

And I heard it in mid 94ish, well after the hype. It just sounded... classic.

http://www.schizofunaddict.com

and Ned Ragget never got the joke. Fascist MF.

oh, well we might as well give up now then. Moderator, lock the Internet, it's all over.

Wait, so did they leave in the vinyl-scratch *glitch* on the fadeout of "Elizabeth My Dear?"

Always thought that was meant to sound like an archer loosing an arrow. Intentional sound effect.

I thought it sounded like a silenced pistol.

I think they probably left it in because everyone expects to hear it.

I thought it sounded like a silenced pistol.

that's what it's supposed to be. it's a sound effect.

I had a tape of this when I was younger and I remember it sounded like cheesed-out 90s dance beats with guitar pop music over it. But now I tolerate cheesed-out 90s dance beats way more, so maybe I would like it. But my mom maybe threw away my tapes?

i really wanted to buy this so i ordered it through the mail, usually buy all my stuff at Amoeba Hollywood. anyways, i thought the second CD was the B-Sides CD but instead it's The Lost Demos CD. all i really wanted was the remastered B-Sides collection on CD without buying the super deluxe version. so i'm really sad tonight...

I think it's as good as most people say it is. I love the album, would call it a classic, but it certainly isn't in my top 20 albums of all time. There are some weak songs on it, but the first three, I Am the Resurrection, Made of Stone, etc. make up for them.

BeeOK, the 'big box' is available for cheap at the download shop.

It's minus the extra 'backwards' tracks, but that is all.

Or try Spotify even. (i.e. it's definitely there)

You can just buy the remastered b-sides individual from the iTunes store; that's what I did. Hopefully one day they'll see sense and release them as a CD on their own.

well ok the remaster is actually a *~~~revelation~~* to my ears

I recently heard Steve Miller's "Space Cowboy" and realized that it's 100% responsible for the Stone Roses' schtick.

― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, May 16, 2007 7:59 AM (3 years ago)

Tried listening to this album today and had to bail out yet again. Three years later, I still stand by the above statement.

The only exception I'll make is for Mani's freakout in the extended version of "Fool's Gold"

it was 2000, and much as i hate slipknot et al, they were a fuckload more interesting than stereophonics or travis.

Then again, music isn't about being "interesting", it's about being nice. And Travis were a lot nicer than Slipknot.
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, May 16, 2007 10:54 PM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Still the greatest post of all time.

It's up there.

I'm still not convinced that Geir isn't simply an artificial intelligence program with many bugs that were never worked out.

On the contrary, I think they achieved near perfection with Geir.

I take it the first line was someone else

Yes.

say what you want about tenets of geirbotism, at least it's an ethos

music is about being nice