Bleep

Few debut albums could top Manchester band The Stone Roses' debut self-titled release. Put out in 1989 and featuring such rave-tinted psychedelic masterpieces as 'She Bangs The Drums', 'I Wanna Be Adored' and the monumental 'I Am The Resurrection', it defined a time and place in British music perfectly and remains a classic. Turns To Stone - initially released in 1992 while the band were in an extensive between-albums period - tells The Stone Roses story from the beginning, collecting together early singles and b-sides. 'Elephant Stone' - the group's third single from 1988 - opens the compilation, those familiar spidery guitar lines entwining and glistening like nothing else. 'Going Down' is a simple and relatively effects-free pop song, touching in its straight-forwardness, and 'Where Angels Play' is a chugging piece of pastoral '60s nostalgia. At the album's centre though is 'Fools Gold'. Held together by the group's exemplary rhythm section, its an extended chugging piece of driving dance floor prowess, wriggling bass and contorted guitars creating a strangely kaleidoscopic feel. Miles away from the glittering sheen of their debut album, it shows the kinds of dizzy heights a second album from the group (without as lengthy a hiatus as eventually ensued due to legal issues) might have ascended to. If one were being picky one could point out that not including 'Sally Cinnamon' (from the 1987 EP of the same name) was a mistake, but there's nevertheless an abundance of chiming instrumental prowess and Madchester swagger collected here.