"Not before time, eh?"— Alex Kadis
Oh, you don't know the half of it, Alex. Bemoaning the fact that The Stone Roses had been seemingly at work on their latest single for "about 20 years", this good pop music critic was only getting the faintest of glimpses of what would plague Ian Brown, John Squire, Mani and Reni as they spent years struggling to follow their celebrated debut album and even carried over to their successful but still botched reformation. Waiting a couple extra months for their latest record suddenly doesn't seem like such an ordeal, does it?
If 1989 was the year that The Stone Roses broke through, 1990 would be the year that they fully benefited from it. It had been a slow process. Brown and Squire had been together for much of the eighties but they were just another singer-guitarist twosome yearning to be the next Morrissey and Marr. (Hard as it may be to believe, their both a few months older than The Smiths' guitarist) But if any group proved the value of sticking to it, it was ver Roses. Early singles flopped but they gradually built up a following (they infamously used shady tactics to upstage fellow Mancunian group James at a concert in 1988; a pity they didn't also nick some of their rivals' staying power while they were at it). After seven or eight years of graft, they were suddenly an overnight sensation.
Sitting on stacks of product, indie label Silvertone flooded the market. In their first year of chart relevance they had five singles reach the Top 40, with a sixth, a reissue of the twee 1987 recording "Sally Cinnamon", just missing out. With their self-titled album selling steadily, it was the stand-alone singles that proved to have much more commercial potential. The double A side of "Fool's Gold" and "What the World Is Waiting For" took them into the Top 10 in late 1989 and they repeated it early in the new year with a re-release of the Peter Hook-produced "Elephant Stone". A pair of great singles, to be sure, but the latter began to show signs of Morrissey-esque peaking in its first week before swiftly dropping off the hit parade. Their suddenly large fanbase was buying up their stuff but no one else was — something that would carry over with "One Love" and subsequent singles. But the critics were praising them, their Spike Island concert that May was a success and their records just kept selling. What could possibly go wrong?
It is perhaps with all this in mind that Alex Kadis warns of a "danger, when reviewing a Stone Roses single, of letting their immense reputation guide you rather than the true quality of their record". It's a wise piece of advice and she reckons that "One Love" is brilliant all the same. But is it?
Critics have dialled back somewhat on their praise of The Stone Roses over the years and "One Love" is frequently considered a botch, even when held up against their allegedly overrated first album. Personally, I still like The Stone Roses, even if it's been quite some time since I was young and impressionable enough to fully appreciate it (It's a great example of an album that has aged well but listeners haven't) but I'm on board with why most people have nothing positive to say about this follow-up single. Even up against "Bye Bye Badman", the album's weak link, it doesn't measure up. While John Leckie had done a superb job producing their material up to this point, there's an unwelcome muddiness to the sound on this. While Squire's guitar playing is outstanding on their earlier stuff, he begins to overthink his role as the band's musical conscience and the song's overabundance of solos and riffs sets a clear precedence for 1994's Zeppelin-lite Second Coming.
Finally, a word about Kadis' view that the Roses were contenders while their competitors were just pretenders. To her, they have everything going for them while bands like Inspiral Carpets and The Charlatans — groups who Richard Lowe also pointed to as inferior copies of the Roses and Happy Mondays — are simply those we have to "make do" with while we wait for the big boys to return. Brown "sings with real charisma as opposed to mumbling infrequently into his fringe and looking non-commital". And yet, only one Madchester act would be in for the long haul. The Stone Roses got caught up in a protracted legal battle with their record company and then proved that they had nothing left in the creative tank. Happy Mondays made the most of their big year but they imploded on far too many drugs and their own indie label that couldn't handle them. Inspiral Carpets, granted, were never up to much but The Charlatans would come together in spite of their own hardships and they would assemble one of the stronger discographies of nineties UK pop-rock. They were relatively prolific (they put out three albums before the Roses had even finished working on their second) and kept refining their sound. (Singer Tim Burgess has even become something of a national treasure in the UK, a stark contrast from the madcap conspiracy theorist Brown) The Charlatans may have started off as clones but they eventually became The Stone Roses ought to have been. Again, you don't know the half of it, Alex.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Tanita Tikaram: "Thursday's Child"
A young woman who once told Smash Hits that Leonard Cohen would've been an adequate replacement for Clark Datchler (coincidentally, also reviewed on this page but I couldn't bring myself to give his offering a listen) in Johnny Hates Jazz. That's all you need to know about how Tanita Tikaram fitted in with late-eighties' pop. No wonder she seemed like a bit of a joke, even if she seemed incapable of telling one herself. When judged as a folk singer, however, she struck the right balance of pop sensibility and seriousness. Expecting her to have a sense of humour or to lighten up a bit is not unlike demanding a more serious side from De La Soul. Kadis regonises a tune in "Thursday's Child" but can't get passed how somber her nibs sounds. Fair enough, I suppose, but Tikaram does what she does best and there was no one like her. Except, of course, for possible future Johnny Hates Jazz member Leonard Cohen.
No comments:
Post a Comment