Ian Brown - The Greatest

Tue 25th Oct, 2005 in Music Reviews

The Greatest is somewhat misleading as the title of Ian Brown ’s new retrospective disc, considering the man’s solo work will always live in the shadow of his previous band. Fact: if Brown had never been in The Stone Roses, we probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to his solo work. Nevertheless, the man known as King Monkey’s solo career has covered more ground than the Roses ever did and The Greatest stands up as an excellent release in its own right.

It doesn’t help that the liner notes to The Greatest read like a Stone Roses biography. Bassist Mani shows up on Can’t See Me, while Aziz Ibrahim – who joined the band after John Squire’s departure in 1996 —- co-writes My Star and Corpses in Their Mouths. Even original Roses drummer Si Wolstencroft plays on Golden Gaze. It’s no surprise Squire’s name does not feature.

Despite the appearance of so many Manchester notables, the material on The Greatest is a far cry from She Bangs the Drums and all the rest. The dance beats and grooves of Can’t See Me and Love Like a Fountain expose a side of Brown only hinted at occasionally in the Roses’ material while Keep What Ya Got and Forever and a Day prove Brown’s songwriting isn’t still living in 1989.

The centrepiece of The Greatest, though, is F.E.A.R.. In perhaps the most ingenious display of lyrical mastery this millennium, Brown crafts a slick pop number within the bounds of those four letters. With a rhythm section that could match the Reni-Mani team and strings that provide a constant stream of hooks, Brown has his hands on a real gem.

F.E.A.R. aside, The Greatest provides plenty of both style and substance but the tracks generally offer only one of the two. Despite Brown’s songwriting having improved steadily since he went solo in 1997, his best lyrical work is reserved for the downbeat and less musically adventurous tracks. Enter UNKLE. Where Brown’s material lacks polish and drive, UNKLE show up to fill in the gaps and provide the hooks where Brown cannot. Their work on Be There and REIGN bridges the style-substance gap and gives the downbeat material a new coat of paint. Along with F.E.A.R. and Bacon & Quarmby’s remix of Can’t See Me, UNKLE manage to pull the two halves of the record together and make it work.

Opening with early solo efforts My Star and Corpses in Their Mouths and ending with new song All Ablaze, The Greatest’s chronological tracklisting could have destroyed any kind of flow and progression, but somehow King Monkey keeps it together. Though the opening brace of tracks stand out as very Second Coming, the remixes and edits on The Greatest keep the collection tight and ensure it fits together as an album in its own right.