As I've written before I loved The Stone Roses. A lot. I've also stated my opinion of their solo careers- not much cop. Sum of the parts greater etc.
I've tried really hard with Ian Brown's solo records. I was as excited as anyone when Unfinished Monkey Business came out, loved My Star and Corpses In Their Mouths. He made his point- I can do this on my own. Since then he's gone on to make and remake solo albums, which have interested me less and less. Golden Greats was OK, I bought Solarised but I couldn't tell you what any of it sounded like, and doubt I've played it more than a couple of times. The 2001 single everyone raves about, F.E.A.R., is, I'm afraid, utter cobblers. Stoned, pseudo-profound, lightweight nonsense, and not in a good way. I fully expect people will disagree with me. There are members of my own family who would, and strongly. Ian has increasingly comes across as a bit, well, daft. Looking for a picture for this post it was difficult to find one where he wasn't doing that thing with his hands, wearing silly sunglasses or jeans that are a little too youth for him, or proudly showing off an international sportswear company's freebies, and usually a combination of all of the above. I do like the picture here though. He looks like he's wearing a tracksuit based on a pair of child's pyjamas and either offering a tambourine out for a fight or about to kiss it, which isn't something you see pop stars do very often.
And I don't particularly enjoy typing these words because for a long time I loved him and his band. Anyway, to get to some kind of point, this record is amongst the best things he's been involved with since going solo. The backing track was from James Lavelle's painfully hip Psyence Fiction era UNKLE, and Ian's vocals added later, to massive effect. This is a really good, out there, post-dance music record. I wish he'd turned in more like this.
be_there.mp3
