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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A GREAT ALBUM WITH WORTHWHILE EXTRAS, September 16, 2009
Two discs-59 and 64 minutes each approximately. There is a DVD included with this set,consisting of live footage from 1989 and six videos of a number of the tracks from the original album. The packaging is nice-a quadruple-fold out,with the three discs snapped in plastic keepers. The booklet has a number of good color photographs of the band members. There are also several pages on the band and its music by Ian Brown and Gary "Mani" Mounfield,plus an overview by John Robb. On my copy of their first album from a number of years ago,there's a finished track,"Elephant Stone",that's not listed on this current release,except in different form as a demo. This,and other singles/early tracks can be found on other releases such as "The Complete Stone Roses" album,although a number of tracks are shortened in length. Another fine collection is "Turns Into Stone",which contains fewer tracks but they are full length. A lot of other tracks are also on the limited edition box set,which contains (among a lot of other stuff) another disc of tracks. Likewise,on the current release,"Fools Gold" is listed on the back of the package,but not on the inside,under the disc,with the other tracks. There is also a "surprise" at the end of the demo disc. Fifteen tracks are listed,but the CD player lists twenty. There's nothing until track twenty-enjoy!
The original album is considered to be one of the best albums of all time ( in Britain) by a number of critics and fans. And for good reason. It came out at just the right time. A combination of bits of acid house,punk,pop,and a bit of psychedelia mixed together-it was the perfect sound for the times. The band was influenced by another group,XTC,under the guise,THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR,and their perfect re-creation/homage to sixties psychedelic/pop music,and it shows. The songs "The Waterfall",and "Don't Stop",are perfect examples of THE STONE ROSES style. The first track has a mixture of acid house feel,sixties style psychedelic guitar,suitably trippy ("shes a waterfall") lyrics,with a pop music sound. The latter song takes the psychedelic guitar/vocal sound even further to great effect. After a few changes in personnel,the band settled on Ian Brown-vocals,John Squire-guitar,Gary Mounfield-bass,and Alan "Reni" Wren-drums and backing vocals. But one of the best things the band did was hire the fine producer (BEATLES,John Lennon,George Harrison,etc.) John Leckie. He took the band's somewhat retro sound and up-dated their music and produced a huge,euphoric,somewhat spacey sound that fit the times perfectly.
By now most people have heard the band's first (and best) album. While the sound of the original release was good,this addition is just a bit cleaner,crisper. There is an immediacy to the vocals,which are up front,along with that great guitar sound,that helped define this band. Both the bass and the drums are a bit cleaner in this new version,and add greatly to the band's sound. Overall,this new version only intensifies the band's sound. But what this album has going for it is a certain,undefinable "something". Everything seems to bend and flow together into a sound that's quite arresting and powerful. From the first track,"I Wanna Be Adored",into "She Bangs The Drums",through to "I Am The Ressurection",this album doesn't let up in its appeal. The "bonus" track,"Fools Gold",is a bit confusing to me,as its on my original copy of the album,in all its full length glory. Possibly it wasn't on the original British release or subsequent releases of the album. For those who don't own this song,its a welcome addition-fitting in seamlessly with the rest of the tracks. Twenty years on,the power and intensity of this album lives on,which is proof of its timelessness and appeal.
The second disc of "lost demos" is not a collection of throwaways. While lacking the power of the finished tracks (naturally),these demos give a deeper view into the band and Leckie's production. Are they truly worthwhile? Yes. Besides giving a look into the first album's finished sound,a number of tracks are enjoyable on their own merit. Besides demos of several of the original album tracks,there's a number of songs that were tried out,that didn't make it onto the first album. The sound on these demos is far better than the bands first demos,heard on "Garage Flower". Examples like "Going Down" has an almost early r&r feel to it. "Something's Burning",a low key combination of pop and psychedelia,has the feel of the original album's sound,and would fit in seamlessly. "One Love" has that STONE ROSES guitar sound,with the rhythm section wrapped around it,which is one of the high points of these demos.
For those familiar with this record,this is a good buy,with worthwhile extra tracks and good sound. For those unfamiliar with this band,give some of these tracks a listen-you,too,will be captivated,and wonder how something this good slipped by you unnoticed.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overall excellent reissue of an undisputed classic, with a couple of minor qualifications, September 23, 2009
The Stone Roses' first album is an undisputed landmark of the pre-BritPop / `Madchester' era - one that would prove enormously influential on the early to mid-90's Britpop bands like Oasis, Blur, etc. This new remastered edition (2cd's/1DVD) is a very good value for the money (I paid around $20-22), as you get:
The debut album itself, which sounds FAR better than the original CD. The original cd sounded a bit `thin', and this reissue sounds clearer, with more bass, and an overall higher sound level - I A/B'd it on my home system, and the reissue thundered. The only drawback to the album itself in this package is the omission of `Elephant Stone', which, I found out, was not on the original UK release, but was on the US cd that I have, as a bonus cut. `Elephant Stone', which is a very good cut, IS on disc 2 of this collection, albeit in demo form, so if you have the original CD (or the Complete Stone Roses cd), don't get rid of them just yet as they have the 'real' versions of the song, which you'll want to have.
The 2nd disc is of demos - quality (sonics and artistic) vary a bit, and there's some good material here of both album and non-album songs, so for the hard-core Stone Roses fan, it's an interesting, insightful document.
Disc 3 is a DVD containing the August 1989 Blackpool show that is generally acknowledged as a crucial show in their history. I don't think every song from the show is actually on this (judging by the running time of around 55 minutes and the setlist you can see in shots of Reni's drumkit), but it's very good, and the end raveup (last 10 min of the show) is probably what cemented their reputation. Film quality is decent - some grain, but more than ok for viewing on a big screen (as I did). This DVD sealed my satisfaction with the package, as I believe it was only previously available in the US on hard-to-find VHS and import DVD's (I have it on my PAL version of the Complete Stone Roses). There are also six videos from the era on this DVD, which were also on The Complete Stone Roses. So versus the Complete Stone Roses import DVD I have, we're basically missing the TV appearances on disc 2 of that set, but for what you get here, it's probably more important to have the Blackpool show.
Excellent packaging, nice notes from the principals, with the notable omission of having no comments from John Squire, who doesn't appear to have participated much in this project (Producer John Leckie and Ian Brown supervised the remastering) - apparently, Squire and Brown still aren't seeing eye to eye (putting it mildly), after all these years. Too bad - it'd have been nice to have some insights/narrative from Squire, who is arguably the best guitarist of that generation. All in all, though, a nice packaging/remaster of one of the key rock albums of the last 20 years - if you've never owned it, this is a terrific edition to get just for the album itself and the DVD, and if you only have the original edition, this one is a near-revelation.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great album... but another mean-spirited reissue, October 10, 2009
The other reviewers (so far) have provided a great summary of the historical significance of this album and much-improved sound-quality of this reissue. However, I find the omission of the finished version of 'Elephant Stone' from ALL versions of this 20th Anniversary 'Legacy' campaign to be downright mean-spirited. I don't know who is to blame... the artist or the label... but either way, I think it is just a cruel poke in the eye to long-time fans and collectors.
I understand and sympathize that some artists have a desire to restore their work to its 'pure' form, that is, to strip away things (in this case, songs) that were forcibly inserted by their labels to show the record-buying public that they would get extra value by spending extra cash on the CD version rather than the cheaper LP or cassette versions. A notorious example was the original tacking-on of 'Perfect' at the end of The The's Soul Mining... which was then dropped when the album was reissued earlier this decade in order to conform to Matt Johnson's original intention for the album to end with the epic 'Giant.' However, what steamed me about taking a personal favorite like 'Perfect' away is the fact that it was offered nowhere else in remastered form, except for in an (IMO) inferior earlier 7" single version on the 45RPM collection.
The Stone Roses and/or their label do the same to us here by stripping 'Elephant Stone' from the track list. I'm fully aware that 'Elephant Stone' was a single predating the album (in fact, as a college radio DJ back then, the 12" release got spun to death on my show for many, many months before the full LP was released). But why does that matter? The US CD version of this album that I've owned and loved for the past 20 years always had 'Elephant Stone' as Track 3. I never knew this album any other way. And what is truly bizarre is that the single 'Fools Gold' was another tack-on, but for some reason DOES find its way onto this reissue as a 'Bonus Track' (thank goodness!). If 'Fools Gold' can be a bonus track, why not 'Elephant Stone'!?
Nick Cave apparently suffered the same problem with unwanted extra tracks on the CD versions of his albums in the 80s. The current reissue campaign for his work follows the 'take-away' approach as well. Perhaps anticipating some outcry about that, the label did see fit to include (inexplicably!) low-bitrate MP3s of the excised tracks on the accompanying DVDs. While that is a less-than-perfect solution... at least it's something. But here, with all the time & material that obviously went into remastering and putting together this otherwise excellent Stone Roses package, they couldn't even find a way to make room for 'Elephant Stone'? Or at least give you an access code to download a high-bitrate MP3 of a remastered version of the song (as The Feelies have done with their recent reissues)?
I guess they wanted to leave something for the 30th Anniversary edition to entice us to buy it all over again... again. Ugh.
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