THE STONE ROSES - RECORD REVIEWS

On this part of the site I have tried to gather as many reviews of Roses records as I could find so I hope that you enjoy them.

LOVE SPREADS

NME review Love Spreads:

Chariots? Thunderbolts? The dawn of a shining new era? If only.'Love Spreads' is nothing more epochal than a good record -
about half as stratospheric as 'Resurrection' or 'What the World Is WaitingFor', and surrounded by the distinct odour of
anti-climax. Strangely, it hardly matters: the lazy bastards still manage to sound like the coolest band in Britain. (Chart placing:
4)

John Harris


And so it came to pass. On the 1603rd day Throbert Young crept back underhis leatherette sheets and whimpered, Noel
Gallagher furrowed his cosmic brow and checked career prospects for John the Baptists, and Jimmy Pagewoke up one more
time, and nodded knowingly. God looked up from downloading samples to his prophets on the Internet, and he said, "Well
y'know 'Fools Gold' never had much of a chorus either..." (9)

John Mulvey


John Squire's debut solo single is a ragbag of well-worn guitar riffs we've heard hundreds of times before, a bit like theme music
to the Rock 'n' Roll Years. Bucking the trend set by The Clash and Stiltskin, The Stone Roses will reach number one before the
song becomes a Levis commercial. (1)

Terry Staunton


As comebacks go, it’s sexier than ‘Rocks’, less surprising than Weller’s ‘Sunflower’ and as relevant as George Foreman. If
this doesn’t sting The Verve into some kind of retaliatory trademark theft (a 30-minute version of ‘Waterfall’?) then everybody
really is smoking way too much something. You can’t kick that chorus bu did we wait five years for flashy 12-bar blues? (2)

Ted Kessler


Snorkelling through Hades with Elmore James ripping up the Walkman speakers. Big bottleneck fun - John Squire is still the
iceman string-abuser. Dopey words, boss dynamics. The swagger is still mighty. A full-ripe golden lemon. Suck or or squeeze
it, baby. (1)

Stuart Bailie


Clever. Instead of trying to move with the times, the Roses have relaxed and let the times move back around to them. 'Love
Spreads' is like 'One Love' revisited, more influenced than influential, which is so totally 1994. It's cool and it rocks. (8)

Steve Sutherland


'Love Spreads' is the Roses stone cold high in Afflecks Palace, racing around a freezing Manchester in a beaten-up Jag with
'Led Zep II" on the stereo and a head full of dreams about messiahs, Kings 'n' Queens and reclaiming dusty thrones. A Satanic
travesty? Nah. Music to lose your mind to while the world crashes slowly outside your window.... (5)

Paul Moody

GARAGE FLOWERS

NME review Garage Flower:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, The Stone Roses were the greatest, coolest thing to have ever walked the planet,
four psychedelic street casuals capable of saving us from, ooh, everything from Pop Will Eat Itself to world recession. But now,
after this most anti-climactic of years (and for The Roses, that's saying something), the urge to go back in time and persuade
John and Ian to split the band the day Reni packed up his sticks and salvage our memories forever is almost unbearable. The
very last thing we need right now is a mind-numbingly awful collection of ancient pre-Silvertone-period demos called 'Garage
Flower'. Bootleg-gruesome, totally unofficial (it's being distributed by Pinnacle, without the band's permission) 'Garage...' reeks
so badly of a cheap cash-in it's hard to play it without flinging open the windows to escape the stench. Just as The Roses
always managed to sound uncannily like the aural equivalent of how they looked at the height of their powers (loose-limbed,
floppy-fringed, in control), so they do for 'Garage Flower'. Except this time - 1986 - they sound exactly like that dreadful
picture of them which surfaces irregularly featuring Ian in a grisly Paisley shirt and slicked-back hair, and John looking like he's
just walked out of a Cult video shoot. Occasionally, it just sounds horrible. An opening 'Getting Plenty' and 'Here It Comes' -
later to live again as 'Sally Cinnamon' - are downright painful, full of squallingneo-goth guitars and peculiar Adam & The Ants
drums,and the probability of future world domination seems remote at best. So when the flash of genius comes, in that first
rumble of 'I Wanna Be Adored' you're hardly even awake, let alone ready for it. There's still the ever-dire production to
contend with, plus a malevolent Reni - this time he appears to be slamming a large door every four bars - but it still sounds
magnificent, a sign that the band were learning,even then, to curb their sonic excesses in the quest for the epic tour de force
which would, inevitably engulf them. Elsewhere, we get a still wet-behind-the- ears 'This Is The One', the beginnings of 'I Am
TheResurrection' hidden away inside 'All I Want' and countless evidence of Ian Brown's way with both a megalomaniacal lyric
(best example: when he bawls, "I love only me/I've got the answer to everything!" in'Tell Me'), and his habit of falling woefully
out of tune the longer he attempts to hold a note. If you're still feeling a little fragile, you'd be best advised to avoid it
altogether.(3/10)