Amazon.co.uk Review
The fourth solo album from the man they call King Monkey,
Solarized finds
Ian Brown drifting further and further into the role of Madchester mystic, ancient wisdom and Gnostic philosophies tripping from his lips between unbroken rings of exhaled spliff smoke.
One track in particular will get the lads excited "Keep What Ya Got", a somewhat unremarkable collaboration with Oasis' Noel Gallagher. Luckily, there's much more adventurous fare to be found elsewhere: "Time Is My Everything", for instance an Ennio Morricone-style piece of atmospheric Wild West pop, featuring brass courtesy of Tim Hutton of Groove Armada or "Upside", a moody number about poverty and inequality that finds Brown barking "7% own 84% of everything on earth/ Oil is the spice to make man forget man's worth" over eerie backwards drum whooshes.
Exotic flavours are something of an album theme several tracks feature melodic allusions to Middle Eastern or South American music. Mind you, when you can decipher Brown's sometimes abstract lyrics, it's clear his concerns are rooted in the here and now--see "Kiss Ya Lips (No I.D)" and its defiant anti-Blunkett refrain: "I ain't no number/ Don't need no I.D card around my neck." --Louis Pattison
Album Description
Ian Brown's 4th solo album, Solarized, might be his strongest album to date and includes a number of varied tracks with numerous influences. From the opening track "Longsight M13" (a song about the part of Manchester that still shows the legendary "Free Ian Brown" graffiti) to the Mexican vibes of "Time Is My Everything", Ian has used a plethora of styles and influences to create a solid album. The first single "Keep What Ya Got" features another Manchester legend, Noel Gallagher, who co-wrote the track with Ian and plays guitar and backing vocals.
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