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Ian Brown - The Greatest
Very few people in music have managed to remain such an icon, for so long with a generation as Ian Brown has with my peers. Few would have thought that the strained live vocal performance we saw from him time and time again with the Stone Roses would be the platform for a successful solo career that has seen him release four albums, one remix album and played gigs that are now taking on legendary status for the mix of solo material and Roses songs that fall roughly half and half.
But stay a legend he has, the blokes admire his dress sense and choice in tracksuit tops, while the women just admire him. Even in his advancing years he’s still got the same tousled Manc hairstyle and cheekbones that make him so unmistakable. King monkey is very much still alive and sitting on the throne of UK music, just to prove it he’s released this modestly titled collection of tracks that ties up his solo career to date.
Far from this being the end of his career and a cash in, it’s being looked upon as chapter one complete and time to move onto the second one. As such you get two options with this release. The standard 17 track album or the limited edition deluxe album that features extended sleeve notes, a bonus disc of remixes and some odds and sods all wrapped up in a box.
A lot of the album will no doubt be familiar to you. It opens with what is one of his finest solo moments to date with the spiralling My Star, his debut solo single that fired us our first warning shot that John Squire’s talent and vision may not have been the magical ingredient of their former band after all. Corpses In Their Mouths is still one of the darkest offerings he’s given us yet, while the Bacon & Quarmby Remix of Can’t See Me is a bass heavy moment of shuffling pyschedelica that wouldn’t have seemed out of place on the Second Coming.
A bonus inclusion on the album is the two tracks he’s recorded with UNKLE. While Reign may not have the brooding subtle atmosphere of Be There, they are both still fantastic tracks that compliment Brown’s vocal style perfectly. I’ve never been a big fan of Love Like A Fountain myself but it makes it onto here, it’s overshadowed as it was at the time though by the far superior Dolphins Were Monkeys and Golden Gaze.
- Ian Brown
- The Greatest (2005)
- Category: Album
- Label: Fiction Records
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 08 Sep 2005
- Photography by: Luke Seagrave
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesF.E.A.R. creatively is without doubt his most inspired and the most loved song he’s recorded on his own, while Keep What Ya Got (with Noel Gallagher) is probably one of those tracks of his like Whispers that has slipped under a lot of radars, yet are very typical Ian Brown singles.
If this is all just sounding like a rehash of all his old stuff then fear not because enclosed on The Greatest are two new versions of Forever And A Day and the live favourite Lovebug. The single that preceded this release, All Ablaze is also included here and the quartet of new material is completed by Return Of The Fisherman a mystical sounding, eastern influenced rummbler of a track.
An album of undoubted value that serves to remind you that Ian Brown really is a legend. The Greatest? That’s questionable but either way you can’t help but love and respect the bloke for all he’s done so far and hopefully all he’s still to do.
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