Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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Collection includes 6 solo studio albums and 1 compilation by British singer-songwriter Ian Brown, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses.

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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The frontman for one of the most revered British bands of the 1980s and '90s, Ian Brown symbolized the arrogant cocksureness of his mouthpiece, the Stone Roses. Although the group released one of the three or four most influential records of the decade in 1989 (their debut, at that), they slowly imploded during the early '90s and released only one more album before splitting up. Guitarist/songwriter John Squire formed a new band, Seahorses, while bassist Mani (Gary Mounfield) joined Primal Scream. Brown inaugurated his post-Stone Roses career with a 1998 solo LP, Unfinished Monkey Business. The album was recorded with the help of ex-Roses replacement guitarist Aziz Ibrahim, but spotlighted a more emotionally diverse approach to music-making than expected. The excellent follow-up, Golden Greats, arrived in the States in early 2000, and Music of the Spheres followed one year later. In 2003, Brown contributed a volume in the Under the Influence series and had a cameo in the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The next year Brown released Solarized, his most varied and politically charged record to date. He worked with hip-hop producer Emile and an alternative supergroup (featuring Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and Paul Ryder) for 2007's The World Is Yours. My Way, released two years later, featured a song originally intended for Rihanna ("Stellify"), as well as an unexpected cover of Zager & Evans' 1969 hit "In the Year 2525."

Biography by John Bush, Allmusic.com

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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Several years on, and still everyone is playing that first Stone Roses LP, one of the great achievements in British rock and pop. But the magnificence of that well-loved album has also been the problem since. The Roses spent the early '90s suing the label that released it, then signed a new, bigger deal, released a total dud of a turd of a turkey of a second LP, lost its members one by one, then mercifully quit with a whimper. Fantastic guitarist John Squire ruined Second Coming with his sudden obsession with Jimmy Page-style wank-soloing, and his subsequent LP with the Seahorses is an equally miserable piece of bad bombast for the same reason. So now it's singer Ian Brown's turn, his first post-Roses try at convincing the world that The Stone Roses was not a momentary fluke, an accidental, monumental treasure. But he, too, falls a little short. Without Squire (at least the 1989 version!), Brown is lacking in guitar talent. The work here, though competent, is pedestrian. The bass and drums are also well below the level of Mani and Reni. And also, without Squire's help, Brown's songwriting is vaguely hooky but average. Perhaps Unfinished Monkey Business is too well titled. But unlike Second Coming and the Seahorses, at least this feels good to listen to, as compelling background sound. What Brown lacks in backing and material, he does his best to make up for with singing attitude, groove, and, most of all, production vibe and atmosphere. Several nice songs, such as "Can't See Me," shake with quiet cool, approaching the Roses' singles "One Love" and "Fools Gold," and a few more-pop tracks, such as "Nah Nah" and the U.K. hit "My Star," are genuine pleasures that bring back the hints of magic for a while. Rarely has such a poorly constructed LP felt so soothing and cool, if vaguely unsatisfying.

Review by Jack Rabid, Allmusic.com

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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Whatever its flaws, Ian Brown's debut album, Unfinished Monkey Business, suggested that he was the true visionary behind the Stone Roses, providing the wild mercurial ideas that were grounded by John Squire's classicist song structures. Its sequel, Golden Greats, confirms that notion. Less song-oriented than its predecessor and overflowing with neo-psychedelic sonic textures and dance beats, Golden Greats floats between dazzling peaks and unformed, unrealized ideas that are nonetheless quite intriguing. Some may miss the clear hooks that characterized the Stone Roses (and even parts of Unfinished Monkey Business), but Brown sounds revitalized here and the result is a fresh, frequently exciting record. True, it can get a little indulgent and it's not quite cutting edge (no matter how much he wishes it were), but that doesn't distract from its very real virtues. At its best, the album boasts wonderfully, subtly crafted productions brimming with neat textures (the organ riff, Mellotron, and sampled strings on "Set My Baby Free" are a perfect example) that are intriguing on first listen and grow richer with repeated listens. Like its predecessor, Golden Greats meanders a bit too much and it places a little too much emphasis on surface, but when the surface sparkles like this, it's hard to complain too loudly.

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic.com

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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Before Music of the Spheres was released, Ian Brown touted it as a return for him to the peak form of his former band, the Stone Roses. As things go in the U.K., many members of the British music press jumped on the comments and appropriated Brown's views as their own. Realistically, Music of the Spheres is a strong, mature album, befitted with lush, exhilarating production that easily fits alongside Unfinished Monkey Business and Golden Greats, but it doesn't introduce anything revolutionary or match the excellence of The Stone Roses. The only thing that seems new for Brown on Music of the Spheres is that a number of the songs sound like minimalist tone poem explorations and that he sings in Spanish on "El Mundo Pequeño." One example of the minimalism is "Hear No See No," where Brown accompanies spare electronic notes with whispers of the title lyrics. But the album is at its strongest when he reaches for the inspired hooks and choruses that are his bread and butter. "F.E.A.R." is particularly compelling, with its lush string sounds and Brown's insanely catchy repetition of the letters that make up the song's title. "Stardust" and "Shadow of a Saint" are the album's other standouts, where Brown concocts frazzled poetry like, "I'm made from stardust/The same DNA as stardust," and intones about the "wings of an angel." Less bombastic than Golden Greats and more focused than Unfinished Monkey Business, Music of the Spheres is brimming with charm and accomplished, polished songcraft. There's no reason for Brown to abandon this style of music, and there's also no reason that he should feel the need to match the glories of The Stone Roses. Ian Brown's solo discography includes nothing but vibrant, organic albums. Each is worth exploring nearly as much as those of his former band. Considering the undeniable genius of the Stone Roses, that's extremely high praise. [The 2005 Deluxe Edition includes an additional disc of remixes and bonus material on CD-R.]

Review by Tim DiGravina, Allmusic.com

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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On his fourth solo album, Ian Brown marches on as confidently as ever, mixing mystical aural textures with massively addictive melodies. Album opener "Longsight M13" is as catchy as any song in Brown's back catalog and continues the spacy vibes of his previous full-length effort, Music of the Spheres. "Time Is My Everything" blends Stone Roses ephemera with dusty Spanish horns straight out of an Ennio Morricone spaghetti Western film score, while a goth guitar backdrop on "Destiny or Circumstance" warps the mind like nothing since the Sisters of Mercy. There is sometimes a sense, as on the title track, that Brown has gone a little too far into the stratosphere, if not wacky Kula Shaker territory, but the album's strident catchiness and Brown's wispy, wired voice are grounding forces strong enough to drown out any sense of tackiness. For every step into Middle Eastern exoticism, there's also a step to the dancefloor or a turn to early-'80s electro, such as "Kiss Ya Lips (No I.D.)" or the sprightly, wired background keyboards on "Longsight M13." Stone Roses fans who haven't tracked Brown's musical progress after that band's breakup will find much to love on Solarized, another mini-masterpiece that perfectly balances mood and melody. [The U.S. edition of the album includes one song that was included as a bonus track on the Japanese edtion of Solarized ("Happy Ever After") and one unique bonus track: "Lovebug" .]

Review by Tim DiGravina, Allmusic.com

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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As Ian Brown is not exactly renowned for his lack of self-belief, The Greatest is an appropriately egotistical title for the first compilation from the Madchester scene's golden boy. Brown is always more consistent as a singles artist, and so this 2005 collection, which gathers 15 tracks from his patchy first four albums, is perhaps the ideal showcase for the former Stone Roses frontman's talents. Kicking off with three tracks from 1998's Unfinished Monkey Business, debut single "My Star" set the blueprint for his solo career, combining cod-mysticism, Middle Eastern instrumentation, and psychedelic indie rock with his trademark languid vocal delivery, a formula Brown clearly adheres to on the likes of the space rock of "Longsight M13" and the sole new composition, "All Ablaze." However, the Morricone-inspired Spaghetti western vibes of "Time Is My Everything," the authentic brass-fused reggae of "Lovebug" (previously only available on the U.S./Japan edition of 2004's Solarized), and the jangly Americana of "Corpses in Their Mouths," a bitter diatribe against former bandmate John Squire, proved that the self-described "monkey man" was no one-trick pony. All the singles are here (bar his lowest-charting release, "Whispers"), including the two Noel Gallagher collaborations ("Can't See Me," "Keep What Ya Got"), unexpected Top Five hit "Dolphins Were Monkeys," and his two guest spots with UNKLE ("Be There," "Reign"), but it's 2001's "F.E.A.R.," a haunting string-soaked slice of baggy hip-hop cleverly creating a series of acronyms from the title, that remains his defining moment. Brown very rarely lives up to his self-aggrandizing claims on his studio albums, but with only the lazy Hendrix pastiche "Forever and a Day" missing the target, this comprehensive retrospective finally puts his money where his mouth is.

Review by Jon O'Brien, Allmusic.com

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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The brash young face of the Stone Roses in 1987 would hardly seem to have mellowed into the workmanlike star vocalist of 2007, but Ian Brown (rather) quietly matured into a dependable record-maker, with occasional spots of brilliance in his discography. His second and third records are post-Brit-pop masterpieces, and he's never made a disappointing record. The World Is Yours actually does have its disappointing moments, but it also has some high points, too. Case in point: it features the best band Brown has ever accumulated – ex-Pistols Steve Jones on guitar and Paul Cook on drums, plus Happy Mondays' Paul Ryder on bass – but they appear on only two tracks. Those two, "Sister Rose" and "Me and You Forever," are incredible. Only an all-star team like this could have produced a sound that's as loose as a great rock & roll band (we're talking Faces or Rolling Stones here) but also as tight as an in-the-pocket backing band has to be. The rest of the album has strings featured prominently on every track, plus heavy reverb on the guitars and echo on the drums, creating a rigidly technical sound that's half dub-reggae and half hip-hop circa 2006 channeling soul circa 1972. This proves to be the work of Buffalo hip-hop producer Emile (aka Emile Haynie), who has worked on single tracks by C-Rayz Walz, Ghostface Killah, Cormega, Big Noyd, and others. Aside from the intrigue of Brown's choice of producer, the results leave much to be desired. Emile isn't satisfied to craft simple, hard-hitting rap productions, he seems to want to exercise a classical itch and make sweeping Gorecki-type orchestrations that miss their mark. (One great exception is "Eternal Flame.") Brown's lyrics aren't stellar either – the opener trots out a series of clichés ("You can only find the gold by digging in the dirt/ If you're gonna play with fire, then you're gonna get burnt/You can never reach the heights and avoid the hurt yeah/The world is yours"). The second track adds some crude philosophy, with "Just as life is for living, so love is for giving/Life's no simple situation/There's the added complication, that the reason we're here nobody knows/In all creation." Brown can be brilliant or blindingly obvious, all depending on the quality of his productions, since his vocals and delivery rarely waver. He can tell us that dolphins were monkeys and sound great, or he can decry war, the plight of street children in Rio de Janeiro (as he does here) and sound pedestrian. He sounds most engaged, and writes his best lyrics, on the anti-war "Illegal Attacks" (with Sinéad O'Connor).

Review by John Bush, Allmusic.com

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Ian Brown (Ex-The Stone Roses) – Studio Albums 1998-2009 [8CD]

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After the Stone Roses' shambolic demise, few would have predicted that frontman Ian Brown would go on to achieve both a prolific solo career that would far outlast the band's, and sustain a loyal following that worships him as though he was the personification of the Roses' difficult sophomore album, Second Coming. But 12 years after his debut, the man who's influenced pretty much every lad-rock band of the '90s and 2000sis back with his sixth studio album, My Way. Produced by longtime collaborator Dave McCracken, it may be named after Sid Vicious' anarchic cover of the Sinatra standard, but it's the only trace of Brown's early punk leanings on an album which is perhaps his most punchy, hook-laden, and immediate to date. Indeed, eschewing the politically charged dub-reggae/hip-hop of its predecessor, The World Is Yours, Brown has gone straight for the jugular on 12 tracks which are said to have been inspired by Michael Jackson's seminal opus Thriller. A rather tenuous link with monkeys aside (Brown's first album was titled Unfinished Monkey Business, a play on his "King Monkey" nickname), at first glance, there appears to be very little in common between the King of Pop and the King of Madchester. And while it's ludicrous to suggest that there's anything on My Way that sounds even remotely similar to Jackson's groundbreaking epic, it does appear to have at least attempted to adhere to its "all killer, no filler" policy. Opening track "Stellify" doesn't quite stand up to his claim that it was originally intended for Rihanna, but its jaunty piano stabs, pounding military beats, and triumphant horn section provide his most infectious single since 2001's "F.E.A.R." His newfound chart-bound stance continues by teaming up with esteemed songwriter-for-hire Amanda Ghost (James Blunt, Beyoncé) on "For the Glory," a vitriolic attack on former Roses' guitarist John Squire and the doom-laden electronica of "Vanity Kills." But My Way is much more interesting when Brown is left to his own devices. "Crowning of the Poor" is a working-class call to arms set against a backdrop of menacing synth stabs and the kind of underground grime beats you'd find on the first Dizzee Rascal album; "Always Remember Me" is a blissed-out shoegazing ballad full of rousing strings and My Bloody Valentine-esque distorted guitars; while the anagram-titled "Own Brain," is a groove-laden blend of Timbaland-style R&B and '80s synth pop which sees Brown "get down with the kids" without any "embarrassing dad" connotations. My Way's adventurous nature is sometimes hampered by the limitations of Brown's monotonous and so-laid-back-he's-horizontal vocal tones, particularly on the Southern soul pastiche "So High" and his spaced-out interpretation of Zager & Evans' 1969 chart-topper "In the Year 2525," while his talents as a lyricist are always going to be called into question with couplets like "Your actions more than sisterly/The future is a mystery," and the rather misplaced, self-aggrandizing themes of "Laugh Now." But while his baggy contemporaries continue to sully their own legacies with half-hearted cash-in reunions, Brown should be applauded for continuing to look to the future rather than resting on his laurels. My Way may not live up to Brown's rather bombastic praise, but it's an inventive and consistently strong collection of songs which sounds more like a debut from someone in the prime of their youth than a middle-aged Mancunian 20 years into his career.

Review by Jon O'Brien, Allmusic.com