Rose Des Sables - Guem

Advantages: Paved the way for every great guitar band since 1989.
Disadvantages: Slightly muted production, "Don't Stop".

...Your initial thought upon finding this review may have been "Why do we need another review on The Stone Roses?" On one level, you might be justified in taking that view. Writing reviews on albums by The Stone Roses, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin et al will always run the risk of carrying the cache of pointlessness. Those who love bands such as these (or other canonical 'greats') will not need any further eulogies to strengthen their ardour. Those who hate them will never have their minds changed. However, I think it is important that when something is generally considered to be a work of genius that it is highlighted and reappraised down the ages, as a landmark, or a piece of treasure. That is, after all, what led me to this album in the first place. As a country, we have been very lucky to produce some of the finest... Read review

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Advantages: a full overview of the band's career pre-Second Coming
Disadvantages: the occasional bad track, but hey! There's 21 of them...

...Hang your head in shame, Tony Wilson. The boss of Factory records, the man who signed the Happy Mondays, could have signed the Stone Roses, and turned them down because he thought "they were a pretty tacky goth band". In failing to see the potential which shines through some of the early material here, he probably made the worst mistake of his career. Except from allowing the Mondays to record an album on a Caribbean island renowned for easy access to hard drugs, bankrupting his label as a result. Whoops. Sure, this isn't a "best of", it's a complete picture of the Roses' early career, and there are some forgettable moments - "The Hardest Thing In The World" is Roses-by-numbers, and some of the alternative versions of songs from their debut album will come as a shock to devotees of that amazing record - I am the Resurrection... Read review

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Advantages: Sparkling tunes that remain unsurpassed.
Disadvantages: The Second Coming.

...Things were never going to be the same after the release of this seminal album. The Smiths might have invented indie, but the Stone Roses showed everyone else how to do it. From the iconic cool of lead singer Ian Brown to the innovative stick handling of Reni this was a band that was much more than their music. The Stone Roses were the flag bearers of Madchester fashion, brave new additions to the acid house explosion and heroes to every floppy fringed, baggy trousered young one. Madchester came close to recapturing that 60's feeling and the Stone Roses were at the helm dictating matters. The fact that this album appears in just about every poll of the greatest albums of all time underlines the impact it has had. For those who have yet to sample its effortless beauty, I am intensely jealous. Getting to know the album is a treat... Read review

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