Second Coming [CD]

When this came out it had very mixed reviews so when I bought it shortly afterwards having only heard Love Spreads and Your star Will Shine I was prepared for dissapointment.

However sitting in a darkened room with this on the headphones certainly told me all I needed to know about this great LP. From the very start of Breaking Into Heavens weird and wonderful middle of a swamp intro the Roses have your attention. Breaking into Heaven is a totally different sound to the Byrd like sound on the first album it's darker heavier but by no means poorer. After a tantalising 11 minute beginning you go into Driving South which has been used many a time on TV as background music, Soccer am ,Top Gear etc perfect driving guitar music with ian Brown rasping vocals telling us that he sure as hell aint pretty and he sure as hell can't sing-bit harsh but a nice twist on the usual self confidence. From here we get the sublime Ten storey Love Song which as many have said could have been slotted easily onto the debut LP. The track after this Daybreak changes the feel of the CD yet again fronm almost poppy to almost funky-love the slow down speed up tempo change and simplistic name checking of destinations 'from new york city to addis ababaaaa'. Nice tune which takes us onto the slower more thoughtful Your Star will Shine which is nice without blowing you away. Straight to the man is a bit more up tempo and is again nice without pulling up any trees, what it does do is keep the flow of the LP going.

Now the Roses being the Roses they don't settle for letting the whole package peter out they come back with a real blaster the high tempo technoesque Beggin You another track heard a lot outside the confines of the Cd. The next track Tightrope is a lovely acoustic number which you find yourself singing a lot after a few plays. After this we get back to the Guitar Rock with john squire proving why he was held in such high esteem as a guitarist. Firstly Good Times picks up the tempo again followed by my personal favourite the awesome 'Tears' which starts slowly with a nice bit of acoustic guitar in the background and then goes all electric on us. "Ive seen the future in the tracks of your tears' sings a wise sounding Ian forseeing the end of many a relationship!

'I've seen your severed head at a banquet for the dead all wrapped up for dinner looked so fine' How Do You Sleep is classic Stone roses with a fantastically acidic lyric that grabs you by the nads right from the start. Great song and fairly close to the style of the first album but yet a bit darker and less optimistic.

That's brings me onto the last track the majestic Love Spreads which was released as a single prior to the album release. The first time I heard this on Radio 1 (i think) I had tears in my eyes because i had waited so long for new material from these guys and they came back with something so different yet still so 'them' and yet so amazingly good.

In short (if you can't be arsed to go through my rambling review) if you liked the first CD or if you half like the idea of the Roses, their mystique and great guitar music buy this CD and treat it as a complete work not as individual tracks. You will not be dissapointed.

Oh lord, This happened to me in the 90s - over expectation leading to disappointment. The Roses are coming back in 2012 and I am giddy with excitement. So much so I dusted this down and gave it a spin today. And I find myself asking "why was I disappointed?".

This is a cracking rock album, starting with three of their very finest songs. Breaking Into Heaven is a huge uplifting opener, Driving South goes for the blues, and then 10 Storey Love Song starts chiming and we could be back in the grooves of the (utter classic) debut. There is a dip next, Daybreak is a formless shuffle that goes nowhere, and Straight To The Man sounds unfinished, like scraps of several Happy Mondays songs bolted together. They are separated by the very pretty, very Beatlesy Your Star Will Shine. The home straight is fantastic. Starting with the thumping Begging You (I seem to have a dozen remixes of this lying around) and the (Rolling) Stones sound-alike Tightrope...I'm starting to think this may be a lost classic. Good Times comes next, a great track but not sure if the key suits Ian's vocal. I think I remember this sounded like a dogs dinner live though. Followed by my favourite at the time: Tears. Its the most subtle of the tunes on here, maybe the song is a little cluttered but the tune and the guitar solos are beautiful. How Do You Sleep is good-not-great song, and sets the album up nicely for the rock monster of a closer that is Love Spreads.

Its more varied than the debut for sure and much more uneven. It's not the classic that the first album was but it has some seriously good high points. Now, excuse me while I count down the days to Heaton Park. And maybe a third album.

What do you want from this band, blood? The greatest band of my generation and it's still not enough for you.
This album has some real magic to it at times, admitedly it's not quite as good as their first album but the Stone Roses on a bad day are pretty much better than anyone else on a good day!