The Very Best of the Stone Roses

The Stone Roses

(Silvertone/Jive 2003)

Remember The La’s? No? Well, remember that obnoxiously sweet Sixpence None the Richer song “There She Goes”? Well, that abomination was originally a perfect pop gem lifted from The La’s solitary album. Shortly following the album’s release, and singer-songwriter Lee Mavers’ subsequent canonization as a pop genius, the poor guy went off the rails. Despite recurring threats of reforming and hints of an eventual new release, Mavers’ continues to struggle with the (Brian) Wilsonesque quest for recreating the sound in his head. As a result, The La’s never tampered with their single, exceptional contribution to popular music. And then there’s The Stone Roses.

The Stone Roses’ astonishing debut album was an anglophile’s wet dream. Somehow it synthesized everything that was great about British pop music. A bit of melodic rush (“She Bangs the Drums”), a bit of cool detachment (“I Wanna Be Adored”), and a bit of muso virtuosity (“I Am the Resurrection”), the Stone Roses released the perfect rock album: music, attitude, and atmosphere combined in a neat little package. The subsequent US release of the record altered the formula slightly by adding two British singles (“Elephant Stone” and “Fools Gold”), but both were exemplary Roses confections and fit snugly in the context of the record. Years passed, drugs and history intervened, and a few good, but stagnant, singles were released. Roses marks spent five years discussing the next album with barely restrained giddiness. After five years, fans were rewarded with Second Coming, an album of extraordinary technical achievement and confusing musical detours. The general consensus was that the Stone Roses returned as a Led Zeppelin cover band. The Very Best of the Stone Roses reveals that it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought. 

First the drummer, Reni, bolted. Guitarist John Squire followed suit, eventually releasing an album with The Seahorses (who?). Singer Ian Brown and bassist Mani carried on the Stone Roses a multiracial funk band. Despite this, the band reconvened last year to hand-select the tracklisting of the new compilation. Don’t worry. There are no terrible new songs to navigate around. The compilation opens and closes exactly like the debut album: “Adored” followed by “Drums”, and the full version of “Resurrection” to punctuate. It’s almost as if they did this to comfort the listener. In fact, eight of the fifteen songs overlap the US version of the debut. The package is rounded out by four Second Coming tracks and a handful of single-only (but repeatedly compiled) tracks.

Could you burn this CD if you had the debut album, Second Coming, the misleadingly titled The Complete Stone Roses? Well … yes. So why do you need this compilation? First, the record is brilliantly sequenced so that the listener is never jarred by a track from Second Coming. “Ten Storey Love Song,” the one Second Coming track that would fit seamlessly on the debut, falls between “Drums” and “Waterfall.” The Zep-lite “Love Spreads” is nestled between the understated “Made of Stone” and the bouncy “What the World is Waiting For.” Second, the remastered record was “overseen” by debut producer John Leckie. I have no idea what this means, but the songs sound fantastic. Compare the compilation version of “This is the One” with the album version. Third, the liner notes contain a new, insightful interview with the band, flyer artwork and copies of setlists, and a new cover painting by John Squire. Finally, the greatest feat of the record is that it convinces the listener that the classic rock virtuosity of Second Coming did not sneak up on us as we might have thought. “Fools Gold”, “One Love”, and the second half of “Resurrection,” drop none-too-subtle hints that a riff-rock band was itching to emerge. The dual messages of this compilation seem to be “See, we tried to warn you” and “Was it really that bad?”