The Stone Roses - 'The Very Best Of' (Silvertone)
4/5
By: Toby L
Nostalgia has never come so shamelessly packaged. A band that only ever made two LPs anyway - and then proceeded to release them in the same unit a few years later - the fact we now have a 'Very Best Of...' from essential, 80's baggy-merchants The Stone Roses compiling, well, the 'best' moments from the aforementioned works seems a pointless task. But, then again, Christmas is looming - those precious sales-figures are needed, and all that...
So, now the cynicism over its arrival has been well and truly exhaled, what about the music? Obviously, it's f**king, indisputably ace - a roaring fifteen tracks of indie seventh-heaven, where classic after classic stumbles after the other in a hopeless, Mancunian swagger. From the opening slump of 'I Wanna Be Adored', the ensuing 14 tracks continue to muster an impenitently student-groove without ever wallowing in too much of a distressingly passé mode, the likes of 'Waterfall' and 'Love Spreads' still towering and gleaming in all their original, cocksure glory.
Reassuringly, none of it dates to a near-infuriating level; quite the opposite - such psychedelic groove-shudders as 'Elephant Stone' and 'Breaking Into Heaven' hard-hitting and fluttering around the room with the exact, unique distinction and glimmering experimentation that made such a mark in the first place. Even the allure of the wall-of-sound Squire guitars, layered Brown vocals and vintage Mani bass-lines still sound monumental - the climax of 'I Am The Resurrection' a shimmering reminder to all new-upstarts of how to truly do 'big'.
Though the reasons surrounding its appearance seem less genuine than the content contained within, 'The Very Best Of The Stone Roses' is a timely reminder of just what relentless dynamic and group-power is necessary to form a classic combo. It's also prime evidence, too, that if a much-slated reunion is on the cards for 2003 of all four members, then at least the musical-results aren't to sound irrelevant, for the 'Roses sound as amply influential and vital as ever.
Artists in this article: The Stone Roses
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