The Stone Roses – Second Coming (1994)

Five years on from the debut album which painted the Stone Roses as the saviours of rock'n'roll, with the weight of expectation on their shoulders, the band released this album.

It was bought by the bucketload, and 30 years later is available for very little at your local charity shop, which is where I picked it up.

So, did the Roses save rock'n'roll? Well, I think we all know the answer to that. Was this album the disappointment many feel the band served up? I think that depends on how entranced you were by the Byrdsian influenced debut? My view was that it was a decent debut, but I didn't quite get the hype.

This album feels more rock and guitar based, and I find that more satisfying. The first album compositions were all credited to Brown/Squire, most of this albums only to John Squire, explaining the more musical feel, even if the lyrical content feels weak at times.

The eleven minute epic which kicks off the album, Breaking Into Heaven seems to fly by, then Driving South is a fine rock song with Squire showing his guitar skills off. The single Ten Storey Love Song feels limp, and band composition Daybreak little more than an extended funky jam.

Your Start Will Shine is an acoustic, Eastern hippie type number, while Straight To the Man is instantly forgettable, while Begging You is more upbeat. Tightrope is a minimal nothing, but there's far more life and enjoyment in the bluesy Good Times.

Tears starts unremarkably, but develops into a decent guitar noodle, followed by the easily ignored How Do You Sleep, before the album closes with the funky single Love Spreads.

Well, not quite finishes. After 76 (yes, 76) silent five second tracks there's the 'hidden track' The Foz. I've made my feelings on the pointlessness of this stunt before, and this instrumental definitely isn't worth the zeroes and ones on the CD. It's just taking the piss.

Until that hidden track nonsense, I was feeling more disposed to the album than I was to the debut, now I'm not so sure. But apart from that aberration I think the greater emphasis on guitar rock is more to my taste.

Link to album tracks

3* - a bit patchy, but some solid guitar rock here